Leadership shakeup continues at OSU Wexner as COO departs

Alyssa Rege -

Jeff Walker, COO of Columbus-based James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, is the latest of at least 10 individuals to leave OSU Wexner since January 2017, according to Columbus Business First.

Here are five things to know about the situation.

1. Mr. Walker's impending departure from the James Cancer Hospital will go into effect later this month.

2. His departure follows that of Michael Caligiuri, MD, who resigned from the James Cancer Hospital last November. The reason for his resignation was unclear. Dr. Caligiuri will begin in his new role as physician-in-chief and president of City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, Calif., later this month as well.

3. Mr. Walker and Dr. Caligiuri are two of at least 10 high-ranking individuals who have left OSU Wexner since January 2017. Roughly half of the individuals who have left the institution were part of a coalition of at least 25 medical school faculty members that penned a letter of "no confidence" to OSU Wexner's former CEO in May 2017.

4. The seven-page letter criticized the leadership of former OSU Wexner Medical Center CEO Sheldon Retchin, MD, stating he retained "unrealistic clinical effort and research funding expectations … incompatible with academic medicine," The Columbus Dispatch reported at the time.

5. John Campo, MD, the Sinsabaugh Professor and chair of the department of psychiatry and behavioral health at OSU Wexner, told The Lantern last week he and his wife, who is also a high-ranking employee at the university, plan to leave the institution in March for Morgantown, W.Va.-based WVU Medicine. Dr. Campo was also one of the signers of the letter of no confidence last year.

"I think that the university missed an opportunity to hear what I think were very sincere concerns by the folks who wrote those letters," Dr. Campo told The Lantern. "We were reaching out to ... the leadership to say we're concerned that we’re losing our way."

To access the full Columbus Business First report, click here.

Editor's note: Becker's Hospital Review reached out to The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center for comment and will update the article as more information becomes available.

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