Hospital CEO out in sudden move
Circumstances unclear as Chu leaves Memorial Hermann after only a year
In a surprising turn of events in the Texas Medical Center, Dr. Benjamin Chu is out as president and CEO of the Memorial Hermann Health System, just a year after he assumed the top job.
It was unclear Monday if Chu resigned or was forced out. In a news release, Memorial Hermann announced a “leadership change,” effective immediately, and gave no new destination for Chu, one of the nation’s leading architects of integrated healthcare reform. His hiring in June 2016 was considered a coup for the health care system, the largest in the Houston area.
“After much discussion with the system board, I have made the difficult decision to leave the organization to pursue my passion for health and public policy,” Chu emailed employees and doctors Monday morning. “As a physician and longtime public policy advocate, I look forward to continuing my mission to enhance access to highquality care and improve the overall health of our population.”
Chu said in the news release that it had been “a privilege” to lead Memorial Hermann, but declined interview requests. Deborah Cannon, chair of the Memorial Hermann board, said in the release
that “we thank Chu for his service and wish him the very best in his future endeavors,” but also would not comment.
Chuck Stokes, the system’s chief operating officer, has been promoted to interim president.
Two knowledgeable sources suggested the pairing of Chu and Memorial Hermann was a mismatch from the beginning — an executive at a long-established managed-care consortium in California who never had been a CEO and a sprawling Texas Medical Center health system relatively new to such reform. They said Chu struggled to adjust to the new role and culture change.
Memorial Hermann is composed of 13 hospitals and more than 200 care sites around the region. The region was described by one outsider as “the Wild, Wild West of health care, compared to California.”
Nevertheless, the abrupt departure came as a surprise to most everyone in the medical center, where Chu was wellliked and highly regarded.
“This is a loss to the community,” said Dr. Kenneth Mattox, chief of staff at Ben Taub General Hospital. “Dr. Chu was a great example of what we like in the med center — professionals who are highly competitive but get along with each other with respect.”
Chu ranked No. 8 on Modern Healthcare magazine’s list of the nation’s 50 Most Influential Physician Executives and Leaders. He was the first physician CEO at Memorial Hermann.
Mattox asked, “where’s a better position to pursue one’s passion in health and public policy than Houston?”
Reputation as change agent
Chu, who replaced Dan Wolterman at Memorial Hermann, spent 11 years at Kaiser Permanente, a non-profit insurance plan that manages the health of its patients with its own networks and clinics. The organization is 71 years old.
Chu came to Memorial Hermann with a solid national reputation as a change agent, promising to help put in place new models of integrated and standardized care that would benefit both patients and the health system’s bottom line. Wolterman had begun that process.
The appointment came amid a rapidly shifting landscape in the nation’s health-care business model, the replacement of the traditional fee-for service system with value-based care. The evolution is seen as needed not only to streamline efficiency but also to curb over-treatment of patients and skyrocketing health care costs.
“We have a lot of work to do,” Chu told the Houston Chronicle’s editorial board Sept. 21, 2016.
“We’ve gotten doctors together to argue out the data and the evidence to come up with these protocols that drive, not just care, but also drive the tools that we can begin to move towards standardization of care,” he said as he laid out his vision just 100 days into the job.
“At Kaiser, we were able to do it end to end because we control every aspect of that care,” Chu said. “Here, it’s still about endto-end care experience, it’s just going to be harder to control all of the pieces.”
Vivian Ho, a health economist at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, said she was surprised Chu left after just one year. She shared many of his visions for the future of health care in Houston.
“When he addressed an audience at the Baker Institute last month, he emphasized the importance of population health and coordinated care, two concepts he gained great experience with at Kaiser in California. I was looking forward to him bringing novel ideas on patient care to Houston,” she said Monday.
Stokes takes reins
Memorial Hermann spokeswoman Alex Rodriguez said Memorial Hermann’s vision will remain unchanged.
Memorial Hermann said Chu will continue to pursue healthcare policy as part of numerous national boards, including chair of the Commonwealth Fund in New York, a member of the advisory committee to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and past chair of the American Hospital Association board of trustees. Cannon said she could “think of no better time for a champion like Chu to help lead public policy efforts.”
Stokes, a registered nurse, joined Memorial Hermann as chief operating officer in 2008. He recently was named among the Top 25 COOs in medicine by Modern Healthcare.
“I am appreciative of the board’s confidence in my ability to lead our organization through this change,” Stokes said in the news release. “During this transition period, I am committed to reinforcing and advancing Memorial Hermann’s unwavering commitment to patient safety, quality and high reliability.”
Chu is the third major leader to step down in the Texas Medical Center this year. Dr. Ron DePinho resigned MD Anderson Cancer Center’s presidency under pressure in March, and Dr. Robert Robbins in April left the Texas Medical Center top job to become president of the University of Arizona.