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How is the president of the hospital chosen? Does he or she need to be a doctor?
It is the responsibility of Children's Hospital Boston's Board of Trustees to determine the hospital's president/chief executive officer. Our board is a voluntary panel of 11 business and community leaders and six nursing and physician leaders. Together, we're responsible for the highest level of oversight of the hospital.
The Board takes a thoughtful and thorough approach to determining its president. Running an independent, not-for-profit children's hospital is a complex undertaking that requires an experienced and dedicated leader. The president is ultimately accountable for the overall performance of Children's in meeting its missions of delivering safe and quality care, discovering new treatments, training the next generation of leaders and caring for our local communities. The president also needs to show tremendous leadership around fundraising and building political and community relationships. He works hand-in-hand with physician leadership, Chief Operating Officer, Sandra Fenwick, and the leadership of the hospital to ensure all of these missions are met.
When it comes time to determine a new hospital president, the board hires an outside global search firm to develop a short list of candidates. The top candidates then come in for interviews with an internal committee of clinical and administrative leaders. The final candidate is recommended to the board for approval, and we vote to elect him or her. When we were recruiting, we were very interested in hiring a physician because we believed that he or she would have valuable insight into the inner workings of a hospital.
Our current President and Chief Executive Officer, James Mandell, MD, was elected in 2000. He trained here at Children's in urologic surgery, then was recruited away to Albany Medical College, where he became dean, before returning to Children's. In addition to his administrative duties, Dr. Mandell continues to be a practicing physician, which is a tremendous asset to the hospital. So far, he's helped established a groundbreaking quality improvement and safety program, advocated successfully for expanding insurance coverage to the underserved and recruited a talented physician leadership team. He's also built strong relationships with the physician staff and improved overall employee morale. We look forward to many more strong years together.
Thanks for asking!
—Stephen Karp
Chairman of the Board of Trustees
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