When he took over as interim dean in 1996, the system was recovering from a leadership crisis as the former dean and former hospital president openly feuded. In his role as interim dean, Dr. Miller worked to repair the damage. He “[took] everybody away” and spent a weekend discussing the system’s core values, according to the report. He then restructured the system, merging the school and the health system and taking on the dual leadership role.
Asked about the most challenging times of his tenure, Dr. Miller said the deaths of Ellen Roche and Josie King almost “brought this institution to its knees,” according to the report. Ms. Roche died in 2001 from lung damage and multiple organ failure after participating in a Johns Hopkins research experiment, and 18-month-old Josie King died the same year from severe dehydration and incorrect medication at Johns Hopkins’ children’s hospital.
“Once we knew what the story was, we could go a couple of ways,” Dr. Miller said in the report. “You can say you have a stupid investigator who did a stupid thing and hang that person out to dry and wipe your hands of it. Or you can look at yourself and say, ‘What went wrong? What was our role, and what are we going to do to fix it so it never happens again?'”
He said his largest accomplishments are the recruitment of department chairs and picking the right people to work at Johns Hopkins. He came to think of fundraising as “fun” since he never had to ask for money due to his “great product.” Dr. Miller also mentioned the new facilities on the campus as an achievement, calling their construction “symbolic.”
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