Beth Israel Deaconess CEO search heats up

If the committee ends up agreeing, that would be a problem for interim chief executive Eric Buehrens, who is not a doctor. Buehrens, who has been open about wanting the permanent job, was a protégé of Levy, who left earlier this year under a cloud because of a close relationship he had with a longtime former female subordinate. Buehrens previously worked for Levy at the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority and then, when Levy took a job at Harvard Medical School, he hired Buehrens to work there, before eventually bringing him over to the hospital.

When told the Globe had a copy of his letter, Rabkin said in an interview that he feels the hospital needs a physician leader to be able to "pony up with" the other major Harvard teaching hospitals in Boston, all of whom are headed by doctors.

Margaret McKenna, the Walmart executive who heads the hospital board's search committee, said in an interview today that the group has not yet begun interviewing candidates.

But people who work in health care are talking about several possible contenders, including Dr. Thomas Lee, head of the doctors' network for Beth Isreael Deaconess competitor Partners Healthcare (he said he can't comment); Dr. Benjamin Sachs, former head of obstetrics at BIDMC and dean of the School of Medicine at Tulane University in New Orleans (he said he's happy at Tulane); Dr. David Blumenthal, a Massachusetts General Hospital physician who recently stepped down as coordinator of health information technology for the Obama administration (he said he doesn't know much about the position); and Dr. Michael Jellinek, head of Newton-Wellesley Hospital (he didn't immediately reply to an e-mail seeking comment). Of course, people's level of interest could change.

McKenna said that there has been a lot of discussion about the doctor issue, and that the consensus of the search committee is that an MD degree would be "helpful but is not required."

"We're going to find the best candidate, who may or may not be a doctor," she said.

Here's an excerpt from Rabkin's March 25 letter:

Any chief executive officer has areas of greater interest and strength and others of lesser knowledge or concern. Paul Levy has shown much ability -- returning the Medical Center to financial stability, creating a climate of candor about aspects of clinical performance, involving employees in helping resolve an anticipated deficit and major reduction in their numbers, for examples. In these achievements he has had the benefit of Eric Buehrens, Steven Fischer, Lisa Zankman and others working at his side.

However, Paul and his administrative colleagues, with the exception of CFO Steven Fischer, brought to the Medical Center little or no experience with hospital management and particularly that of managing a research-intensive major teaching hospital closely affiliated with a first-ranked medical school. Despite his achievements, this imbalance has created a sense among the faculty -- physicians from department chair to younger medical staff and researchers -- that Paul has displayed less appreciation for and support of the academic activities of scholarship, whether in clinical care, teaching or research, than is necessary to sustain and further strengthen the essential academic character of the Medical Center.

With that concern comes a dominant feeling by our Medical Staff that the next CEO and President be a physician with both demonstrated success in medical center management and significant involvement in academic medicine, similar to that seen in ranking academic medical centers throughout the USA.