Dive Brief:
- Cleveland Clinic CEO Dr. Toby Cosgrove won't take over the troubled Dept. of Veterans Affairs and will stay in his current job.
- Cosgrove, 73, a Vietnam War veteran and heart surgeon, said in a June 7 statement that he withdrew from consideration because of his commitment to the Cleveland Clinic's ongoing work. That includes breaking ground this fall on an $80 million medical education building in partnership with Case Western Reserve University, and a new hospital set to open in Dubai in 2015.
- President Obama asked Cosgrove to consider taking over the huge struggling health system, which is in the midst of a scandal over lengthy reported delays in patient appointments and care to the point where some veterans have died without getting treatment. The former VA chief was forced to resign.
Dive Insight:
In addition to his medical expertise, Cosgrove was seen as showing strong management skills in his work at The Cleveland Clinic, a decided asset in trying to effect needed change at the VA. Over his tenure, the clinic's revenues have nearly doubled to more than $6 billion, and it is a more transparent organization. The Cleveland Clinic is massive, handling 5.5 million outpatient visits and 157,000 inpatient admissions annually, with 43,000 employees in Ohio and Florida. But it is dwarfed by the VA's 84 million outpatient visits and 703,500 inpatient admissions annually, with 330,000 employees across 17 organizations.
Yet the Cleveland Plain Dealer noted that the VA and Cleveland Clinic, while both massive systems, are "worlds apart" culturally, comparing the former to a Rambler and the latter to a Ferrari. Modern Healthcare asserts that Cosgrove withdrew himself from contention for the VA's top post hours after it published a three-month investigation "showing stonewalling of patient complaints" at the Cleveland Clinic, raising larger questions about U.S. patient-safety regulation. His salary is around $2.5 million, according to Becker's Hospital Review, which could be another factor in his decision to stay put.
