Medical Center ends CEO contract
By Guy Ashley, CONTRA COSTA TIMES
Posted on Fri, Sep. 19, 2003

OAKLAND - Kenneth Cohen, CEO of the Alameda County Medical Center, was fired Wednesday night in the latest turn in the center's fiscal crisis.

The center's board of directors terminated Cohen's contract, effective in mid-November. Directors then issued a statement blaming top county officials for the move, claiming "unfounded" criticism of medical center management made it impossible for Cohen to carry out his job.

"The actions of Alameda County in the past several weeks have made it clear to us that Ken can no longer effectively carry out the job he was hired to do," said the statement, which was signed by board President Maria Gallo and Secretary-Treasurer Robert Phillips.

The firing comes after several tense weeks in which Alameda County supervisors have demanded the medical center make cuts to close its ballooning financial shortfall, estimated to be $57 million for the current fiscal year.

But the demands have been accompanied by county subsidies of $13 million every two weeks just to keep the medical center running, said Gail Steele, president of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors.

"If that's not support, then I don't know what it is," Steele said.

The medical center includes three public hospitals -- Highland Hospital in Oakland, and Fairmont Hospital and John George Psychiatric Pavilion in San Leandro -- as well as three outpatient clinics.

In June, the center closed clinics in Oakland and San Leandro to cut costs. But the county, already reeling from having to make $112 million in cuts of their own last year, have been demanding more cutbacks.

"Every other agency in this county has had to make deep cuts," Steele said. "We're not a bottomless pit."

The statement issued by Gallo and Phillips lauded Cohen for helping improve medical care, rooting out "mismanagement and corruption" and adopting budget initiatives that have helped save vast sums of money.

The county embarked last month on its own audit of the medical center's finances, a process that county Auditor-Controller Patrick O'Connell complained was being met with incomplete information from Cohen's administration.

O'Connell's report drew angry remarks from county supervisors, who responded earlier this month by removing Cohen from the center's board, adding three new directors and changing the board bylaws to give supervisors control over the panel.

Steele and Supervisor Nate Miley have been outspoken in demanding Cohen and others at the center make tough financial choices.

But medical center officials say that without a substantial new source of funding, the foundations of the county's public health care system will have to be dismantled. Services threatened by further cuts would include the trauma center at Highland Hospital, the only trauma center serving northern Alameda County.

Reach Guy Ashley at 510-763-8045 or gashley@cctimes.com.