ON THE MOVE ...
GOVERNMENT
Roger Baker,
who steered the Veteran Affairs Department’s healthcare information technology development program toward an open-source model, is resigning. Since 2009, Baker has been an assistant secretary in the department with duties comparable to those of a chief information officer for the VA’s 138 hospitals and 990 clinics. Baker announced his plans in a Feb. 15 e-mail to colleagues.
HOSPITALS, SYSTEMS
Dennis Vonderfecht,
president and CEO of Mountain States Health Alliance, announced his plans to retire at year-end. Vonderfecht, 62, led the Johnson City, Tenn.-based healthcare system for 23 years, first as CEO of Johnson City Medical Center in 1990. The board is expected to decide on a successor by July, and the new president and CEO would move into the role by October, as Vonderfecht plans to transition his responsibilities until his retirement Dec. 31. … is the new president and
Rodney Huebbers COO of Detroit Medical Center. Huebbers, whose age was not immediately available, joins Detroit Medical Center from Baptist Health System in San Antonio, where he had served as COO since August 2010. Baptist is a division of Vanguard Health Systems, which acquired Detroit Medical Center at the end of 2010.
IN MEMORIAM
Dr. C. Everett Koop,
who raised the profile of the surgeon general by riveting America’s attention on the thenemerging disease known as AIDS and by railing against smoking, died in New Hampshire at age 96. The cause wasn’t disclosed.
Koop, who was inducted into Modern Healthcare’s Health Care Hall of Fame in 1997, used the previously low-profile post of surgeon general as a bully pulpit for seven years during the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations.
An evangelical Christian, he shocked his conservative supporters when he endorsed condoms and sex education to stop the spread of AIDS.
He carried out a crusade to end smoking in the U.S.—his goal had been to do so by 2000. A former pipe smoker, he said cigarettes were as addictive as heroin and cocaine.
Koop’s impact was great, although the surgeon general has no real authority to set government policy. He described himself as “the health conscience of the country.” —
Associated Press