Dr. Anthony Barbato, longtime president and chief executive officer at Loyola University Health System, became the latest of the Chicago area’s teaching hospital executives to step down.
In a surprise announcement Wednesday, the non-profit operator of Maywood-based Loyola University Medical Center said the 62-year-old Barbato will retire after 17 years as the hospital’s top administrator. In a brief statement, Barbato said he would “continue to serve until a successor is named.” A hospital spokeswoman said he was unavailable Wednesday for an interview.
“My Loyola years have been the most rewarding experiences of my professional life,” Barbato said in the statement. “But the time is right for transitioning the leadership of the medical center and the health system.”
Barbato’s departure is the latest change involving high-profile Chicago teaching hospital executives in the last year.
Michael Riordan is leaving as president of University of Chicago Hospitals effective next month, and Northwestern Memorial HealthCare Chief Executive Gary Mecklenburg will retire effective Sept. 1. Mecklenburg, who had been working with the board on a succession plan, will be replaced by Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s president and chief executive, Dean Harrison.
On Tuesday the University of Chicago announced a change in the governance structure of its affiliated hospitals, tilting the balance of power away from the hospital management and toward university leadership.
The restructuring puts Dr. James Madara in the newly created position of chief executive of the University of Chicago Medical Center, overseeing the university’s three affiliated hospitals, the medical school and the university’s division of biological sciences. That means Riordan’s successor will report to Madara.
Loyola University Medical Center has had a physician leading its hospital operations for some time. Barbato was named president and CEO of the medical center and health system in 1995 as it was reorganized as a separate subsidiary of Loyola University Chicago.
Prior to that restructuring he was the university’s chief administrative officer for the medical center from 1989 to 1995. And prior to that he was dean of Loyola’s Stritch School of Medicine.
Barbato has guided the hospital through challenging times, including the late 1990s, when teaching hospitals were hit hard by dramatic spending reductions implemented as part of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, which squeezed payments to hospitals over a five-year period.
University and hospital board members viewed Barbato’s leadership as “nothing short of extraordinary,” Loyola University Chicago’s president, Rev. Michael Garanzini, said.
The medical center’s profit rose 11 percent, to $12.7 million in 2005 from $11.4 million in 2004. Revenue increased nearly 6 percent, to $694.4 million from $656.7 million, according to information provided by the hospital.
A search committee, headed by health system board director Dan Walsh, has been formed “to begin the process of identifying Dr. Barbato’s successor.”
Barbato was paid $1.04 million in salary and benefits in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2004, the medical center’s most recently available federal tax records show. The hospital would not comment on his current salary or what the next executive may be paid.
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