By now many readers are aware that Alan Channing, a giant of the safety-net hospital world as CEO of Sinai Health System in Chicago and resolute guardian of service to the poor, is retiring this year. I learned it from the horse's mouth one night last winter in downtown Chicago, when Alan invited me to join him and his wife for dinner to let me know the news.
Alan Channing is one of those rare individuals who exude graciousness. He is what used to be referred to as a gentleman's gentleman, a healthcare professional filled with optimism and an overwhelming gift of gentleness with patients. When he joined Mt. Sinai Hospital as the CEO 10 years ago he was asked to lead a hospital that had numerous financial and quality challenges and yet under his leadership turned into one of the finest safety net hospitals in the country.
He has always been a quiet leader with a determination that is fascinating to behold. A few years ago when I first met him he took me around the hospital for a visit to various departments, and I saw him in action with his staff. It was very apparent that he was loved and respected by his people. The physicians that we met as we made the rounds treated him with the utmost respect and he returned that favor to them as well.
Chicago is a great healthcare town and is graced with some of the finest hospitals and systems in the nation. The list includes Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Rush Health Systems, University of Chicago Medicine and North Shore University Health System, among others. All of them are run by very capable CEOs, seasoned and tough and even visionary. Alan stood out by quietly turning Mt. Sinai into a formidable force on the Chicago scene. The fund-raising parties weren't necessarily as fancy or big as they were with some of the better-funded organizations, and there wasn't necessarily the toniest crowd, but Alan made sure that things got done and that the hospital had funds to continue its charitable mission, his highest priority.
At its inception a century ago Mt. Sinai was to take care of the large influx of Eastern European immigrant Jews. Over the years the patient population shifted, but it remained poor and in need of affordable, high-quality care.
Alan's biggest achievement came in early 2013, when he engineered the unexpected merger of Mt. Sinai with its Catholic neighbor Holy Cross Hospital. That combination created a private safety-net system with more than $525 million in annual revenue and provided financial strength in numbers that neither hospital had alone.
Wayne Lerner, the former CEO of Holy Cross Hospital and now a member of the board of Cook County Health and Hospitals system, said that Channing took the lead in making the merger happen so as to serve more efficiently the poor and disenfranchised who would soon become eligible for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, underscoring Channing's visionary talents.
Channing has always been at the forefront of taking safety net hospitals and increasing their financial health and efficiency. Prior to coming to Mt. Sinai he served as CEO of St. Vincent Charity Medical Center and St. Luke's Medical Center in Cleveland. At Mt. Sinai the hospital received the Joint Commission's Gold Seal of Approval and new status as an accredited chest pain center in 2011. The Sinai Urban Health Institute received the American Hospital Association's prestigious NOVA award for collaborative efforts toward improving community health. There have been other honors.
I congratulate him on his long career. He deserves to smell the roses, and yet I worry that with the retirements of people like Alan Channing, who personify the very best of what American healthcare is all about, we may have a leadership vacuum in our industry. They don't make nearly enough people such as this man. When we see them, we must cherish them. They understand the real goal of healthcare, to provide the best care and treat patients with dignity and respect. That's what Alan Channing has been about since his days in school at University of Cincinnati and Ohio State University.
He is a very special person and I wish him the very best in whatever he does next. I will miss his leadership, but thank God, I will still have his friendship.