Up next in the leadership saga at West Penn Allegheny Health System: finding the right people to replace two ousted top executives and infuse a dose of stability into the region's second-largest hospital network.
The region's medical circles are abuzz with speculation over who will succeed the two leaders -- CEO Jerry Fedele and West Penn Hospital President Mark Palmer -- both of whom abruptly resigned in the last two weeks.
The most buzzed about names include John Paul, the one-time second-in-command at rival University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and Ron Violi, once president of Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.
"Everything is pure speculation at this point," said Violi, who left Children's in January 2005 and now is president and CEO of Wheeling Hospital in West Virginia.
Paul, who spent three decades at UPMC and retired in September 2003, said last week that he has not been approached by anyone at West Penn Allegheny. Though he's happy in retirement and doing several consulting jobs, Paul said he would be willing to listen.
West Penn Allegheny isn't saying much about the search. Some doctors with knowledge of the situation say those buzzing about Paul aren't quite on target.
"These are big shoes to fill," said Joe Macerelli, an attorney who sits on the West Penn Allegheny board, and one of Fedele's most ardent supporters. "It's going to be somebody that embodies all the positives that were Jerry's and some perspective that we as a board haven't even considered."
Macerelli and other board members declined to talk about the status of the search and whether they will consider an insider, a national name or even a physician leader.
Industry experts say the new top leader will need not only nerves of steel, but also the command and respect of West Penn Allegheny's physicians -- some of whom were displeased with Fedele's leadership.
Physicians at West Penn Allegheny's flagship hospitals -- West Penn in Bloomfield and Allegheny General in the North Side -- have worried about the long-delayed consolidation of clinical programs. Many fear their hospitals will lose power and prestige if programs aren't combined in the right way, with the right leaders.
"They're going to need someone who has an understanding of both the financial imperatives to succeed and also has a real touch for working with the clinical side of the hospitals," said Jan Jennings, managing director of consulting firm American Healthcare Solutions.
The right leader, others say, must be able to influence not just doctors but also other key stakeholders, such as insurance companies.
"The person also needs to be a really charismatic person," said Beaufort Longest, director of the health policy institute at the University of Pittsburgh. "They need to have the ability to have a lot of people like them, to think of them as fair-minded, and think of them as someone they could follow."
Finding the right person may be tougher in the Pittsburgh market, where UPMC's dominance is virtually untouchable.
"It does complicate things to have a powerful, dominant system," Longest said. "The job may not appeal to people who have the capability of transforming enterprises."
Jennings, a former CEO of Jefferson Medical Center in the South Hills, said West Penn Allegheny is lagging tremendously in computerizing hospital and patient records -- something that has allowed rival UPMC to share key patient information among its hospitals regionwide.
"UPMC is driving next year's Lexus, and West Penn Allegheny is driving a Buick LeSabre," Jennings said.
