Search for new UMC chief narrowed to two

Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2003 | 9:46 a.m.

The announcement of a new chief executive officer for the biggest hospital in Nevada could come as soon as Wednesday.

Clark County Manager Thom Reilly said the search, which once included a dozen names, has been narrowed to two.

Those two are Lacy Thomas, the director of the John H. Stroger Hospital of Cook County -- better known as Chicago's Cook County Hospital -- and Terence Cunningham, president of Ben Taub General Hospital in Houston.

The search began for a replacement in May, five months after the resignation of University Medical Center Chief Executive Officer Bill Hale. UMC Chief Financial Office Mike Walsh took over as interim CEO at that time.

Hale, Walsh, Reilly and the Clark County Commission, among many others, have struggled with a financial crisis at the public hospital system that required a $38 million cash infusion in December. The hospital had been losing as much as $3 million a month by February.

The county has instituted more aggressive patient-billing procedures, shuttered several of the outlying Quick Care urgent care centers and taken other steps to control costs and raise revenues. In June losses at the hospital were trimmed to below $1 million.

Reilly said the two selected as finalists for the job, which would pay about $240,000 annually, represent the best of a very good lot that included Walsh, who had competed for the job.

Walsh, who could not be reached for comment Monday, was a semifinalist in the job search, Reilly said.

"Mike definitely rose to the occasion and has done an extraordinary job," he said. "Mike is comfortable in his job as CFO, and he will definitely remain a critical part of the management team."

Cunningham and Thomas both have experience in orchestrating financial turnarounds at other hospitals, and both are the top men at their institutions, Reilly said.

"These two are pretty comparable," he said. "I don't think we would go wrong either way. We're just kind of looking for the right fit."

A screening committee that includes representatives from the county employees' union, the county manager's office, local health care executives and medical professionals, and officers from the UMC system vetted the finalists for the job last week. The finalists also presented information on themselves and their ideas for the job to two employee groups.

Cunningham, a former vice president at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland, has also served as chief executive officer at Wilford Hall Medical Center in San Antonio and Wright Patterson Medical Center in Dayton, Ohio, both Air Force facilities. The Ben Taub Hospital in Houston is the primary teaching hospital for the Baylor College of Medicine, and with 600 beds, is about the same size as UMC.

Thomas is a former chief financial officer for the City Colleges of Chicago and former chief financial officer for the Cook County Bureau of Health Services. Thomas has had numerous other positions in the Chicago area.

Both men said they are aware of the financial challenges of the job. Thomas declined to comment in detail. Cunningham said the position would entail capturing more revenue and finding the lowest costs for hospital system purchases.