Dr. David Bailey,
CEO of the Nemours Foundation, says he will retire later this year.
Dr. David Bailey, president and CEO of Nemours Foundation, is retiring this year, the children’s health system announced on Tuesday.
Bailey said the decision might come as a surprise to some, but for him, it’s the culmination of many things, big and small.
“Last May, I realized that I’ve been a doctor for 40 years and that began to sink into my consciousness,” said Bailey, 63.
He realized he was missing some of his two granddaughters’ major milestones, like when the youngest one learned how to swim.
“And I’ve always enjoyed the challenge of this job, but just recently I began to wonder what it would be like not to be bound to my watch.”
He also decided that Nemours Children’s Health System, with freestanding hospitals in Orlando and Delaware, and more than 50 primary, specialty and urgent care clinics in five states, was stable and in a good shape, and that the transition to a new leader would be more “like a wave, not a tsunami,” Bailey said.
Bailey was named Nemours Foundation’s president and CEO in 2006, nearly a decade after joining the organization as the chair of the Department of Pediatrics for Nemours Specialty Care in Orlando.
Under his leadership, Nemours increased revenues from $533 million to $1.4 billion, built the Orlando campus and increased its care locations from 15 to more than 80 throughout six states. It also established a robust digital health and telemedicine platform.
“Dr. Bailey’s vision to build a stand-alone pediatric hospital in Orlando, and to rapidly grow a network of primary, specialty and urgent care centers to help families access care closer to home, will benefit Florida families for decades,” said Dana Bledsoe, president of Nemours Children’s Hospital in Orlando, in a statement. “Nemours is extremely fortunate to have been guided by his vision and passion for the care of children.”
He’s also faced his share of criticism, including how the foundation was spending its money — specifically, if it was spending too much money outside of Delaware, in Orlando, going against the dying wish of Alfred I. duPont, who left behind the trust that funds Nemours Foundation.
Bailey has disagreed with the reports and said that the steady growth of Nemours in Orlando is one of the reasons that he felt comfortable with his decision to retire.
“In many ways this is my baby and it no longer needs its dad,” he said.
He does have his regrets, chief among them the hospital’s tumultuous beginning in Orlando, which caused tension with local health systems.
“I would have like to have found a more collaborative way to build the hospital in Orlando,” he said. “But we’re looking for ways to work better together.”
Bailey will remain at his current role until the board finds a suitable candidate for the job in the next six to 12 months.
He’s planning to retire with his wife of 43 years in Vero Beach, which is close to his daughters and grandchildren.