1: one whose ideas or projects are impractical : dreamer
3: one having unusual foresight and imagination
The Visionary, or Messianic Health Care Executive
In 1997, Sherif Abdelhak, the CEO of the then unusually large vertically integrated health care system based in Pennsylvania, the Allegheny Health Education and Research Foundation (AHERF) was described in an American College of Physicians publication as a "visionary." (See the summary beginning on p 5 here.) Abdelhak had previously been called a "visionary" or a "genius" in the media. [Gaul GM. Creator of a cross-state health system despite personal and financial questions, Sherif Abdelhak has boldly expanded from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia. Philadelphia Inquirer, March 4, 1991. P. D1. Gaul GM. The new prescription for health care: Hahnemann’s merger dwarfs - and frightens - many local rivals. Philadelphia Inquirer, November 21, 1993. P. E1.] In 1998, AHERF was bankrupt, and Abdelhak eventually pleaded guilty to misusing charitable funds and went to jail.
Mr Abdelak was one of the earlier examples I found of the hospital leader regarded as fearless leader, visionary, even messianic, and the possible bad effects of putting so much money, power, and faith in one person. For more recent examples of how health care leaders may be described in messianic terms, look here, here, and here. For related, and also religiously allusional theories of the "divine rights of CEOs," look here and here.
Modern health care, the US economy, and many developed countries have seen increasing domination by administrators, managers and executives. In particular, US hospitals were once small non-profit institutions based in communities or universities, often threadbare, and run by dedicated if harried health care professionals. They now have morphed into huge organizations run by professional managers who may become multimillionaires in the process. Meanwhile, US health care has become increasingly expensive, but without any obvious advantages to patients' or the public's health.
As we have noted, justification for the domination by professional managers and their lavish remuneration often includes paeans to their brilliance. Most recently we discussed how the rise of the professional manager has been explained by a not very clear analogy between such managers and the "great men" of history.
Can They All be Visionaries?
The notion of every hospital CEO as a Napoleonic figure seems ridiculous, but there seems to be little public skepticism of the notion of executives, including hospital leaders as fearless leaders.
One reason may be that the exposure most people have to these notions is limited. One may see the local hospital CEO extravagantly praised, but it is always possible the local CEO is brilliant. Most people probably do not see the praises sung for the CEO of the hospital 100 miles away.
So inspired by our most recent discussion of the public relations talking points used to justify health care CEOs often million dollar plus compensation, I set out to see if brilliant hospital leaders are really a dime a dozen. My methods were simple. I used Google News to search back about one month, and looked simply for hospital CEOs or other top leaders described as "visionaries."
Here are the results, in chronological order.
CEOs of Frederick Regional Health System, Meritus Health, and Western Maryland Health System
[Maryland, June 9, 2014]
The context was,
Frederick Regional Health System, Meritus Health and Western Maryland Health System announced Trivergent Health Alliance as the name of their regional health care alliance.
After a national executive search, Raymond Grahe, senior vice president and chief financial officer of Meritus Health based in Hagerstown, has been named chief executive officer of Trivergent Health Alliance MSO, the management services organization that is a subsidiary of the alliance.
This is what Grahe said about the CEOs of the three hospitals,
It is thanks to the dedication of these three visionary CEOs that Trivergent Health Alliance exists today.
Baystate Health CEO
[Massachusetts, June 18, 2014]
In the course of a tribute to retiring CEO Mark R Tolosky, an attorney by training, Mary Jo Stafford, a nurse, said,
He has been incredibly accessible and is a visionary
Anna Jacques Hospital CEO
[Massachusetts, June 18, 2014]
On the announcement of the retirement of Delia O'Connor, David LaFlamme, chairman of the hospital board, said,
Her legacy is that of a visionary, decisive leader whose extraordinary contributions to the hospital and local area have earned her the trust and respect of the entire community.
CoxHealth Vice President for Marketing and Public Affairs
[Missouri, June 23, 2014]
On the announcement of the appointment of Jim Anderson as the new Vice President for Marketing and Public Affairs, CoxHealth CEO Steve Edwards said,
We welcome Jim Anderson, a great visionary with a passion for our community
Good Shepherd Medical Center Chief Medical Officer
[Texas, June 25, 2014]
Per a news report on the announcement of the appointment of Dr Lawrence T Verfurth as new Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Verfurth, who joined the Good Shepherd staff earlier this month, is a visionary physician executive with a broad base of operation and clinical leadership spanning the spectrum of healthcare
Bassett Healthcare Newtork President and CEO
[New York, June 25, 2014]
On the occasion of awarding the Distinguished Service Award by the Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS) to Dr William F Struck as Bassett Healthcare Network President and CEO, HANYS President Dennis Whalen said,
Under Dr. Streck’s visionary leadership, a single hospital in Cooperstown, with 70 physicians, has grown into a network of six affiliated hospitals, with 45 community- and school-based health centers, and more than 400 providers serving eight counties
Milford Hospital CEO
[Connecticut, June 26, 2014]
On the occasion of an article published by Milford Hospital researchers, Dr Sin Hang Lee, one of the authors and director of Milford Medical Laboratory, a Milford Hospital affiliated laboratory said,
the four employees of Milford Hospital's Department of Pathology are carrying out the commitment of the hospital's visionary president and CEO Joseph Palaccia
St Jude Children's Research Hospital
[Tennessee, June 26, 2014]
On the announcement of the appointment of Dr James R Downing as the new CEO of St Judge Children's Research Hospital, Terry Burman, chairman of the St Jude Board of Governors, said,
Dr Downing is an exceptional scientist whose visionary approach to the next era of growth and discovery at St. Jude will mirror the legacy established by Danny Thomas more than 50 years ago.
Summary
So with a very cursory search covering less than one month I was able to find eight CEOs, one vice president for marketing, and one CMO, from 10 hospitals in seven states who were called visionary or visionaries. It is hard to believe that all these people were truly visionaries using the definition above.
None of the news articles or press releases that used the v word provided any detailed justification. In most cases, the visionary designation was made either by someone who worked directly for the leader in question, or was a member of the organization's board of trustees and hence responsible for that individual holding a leadership position. This is more evidence that there are cults of leadership surrounding most health care leaders these days.
Actually, labeling a health care manager a visionary should evoke more suspicion than admiration. As in the unfortunate case of Mr Abdelhak and AHERF, we have seen many health care leaders praised for their brilliance and paid royally despite leadership resulting in financial distress, threats to the organizations' health care missions, poor patient care, unethical behavior, or even crime.
Yet health care CEOs are just people, sometimes smart, but almost never brilliant. Promoting them as messianic or "great men" (or more rarely women) to bewitch key constituencies, justify the remuneration of other top managers, and the hiring of more public relations flacks is likely to lead to the sort of organizational disasters and system-wide dysfunction we discuss on Health Care Renewal. The rise of the falsely messianic leader may allow the entry of the most dangerous false messiahs, the psychopathic ones. (We discussed the likelihood that some health care leaders are actually psychopaths here.)
In the secular occupation of health care, we ought not to yearn for messiahs, or even "great men" or women, but instead hope for reasonable leadership that draws on the collective knowledge and values of health care professionals rather than dubious "visions." True health care reform would promote leaders who show accountability, integrity, transparency, honesty, and ethics.
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