Penn Health System Chief Executive Officer Robert Martin will resign at the end of the fiscal year, he announced yesterday.
Martin is the third Health System CEO since 2000.
In a memo to his colleagues, Martin said that he completed the goals he set when he entered the job and "the time has come... to seek a new challenge."
"Martin and I had been talking about this for a couple of months," Health System Executive Vice President Arthur Rubenstein said. "He feels he has accomplished a great deal."
Martin said that during his tenure he recruited a group that was instrumental in restoring stability to the once-beleaguered Health System.
In the 1998 and 1999 Fiscal Years, the Health System posted a $300 million loss, but has begun a recovery in recent years under Martin's watch.
"We have a very good team in place," Rubenstein, also the dean of the Medical School, agreed. "We feel very confident that this is not one person but a whole team, and the team is very focused."
Vice President for Finance and Treasurer Craig Carnaroli applauded Martin's work and commented on the future of the Health System.
"The future is positive, in large part due to the measures [Martin] implemented during his tenure," Carnaroli said, "And he leads a very strong management team."
Other experts in health care also agreed that Martin had accomplished much during his tenure.
"I think he did a great job in steadying the ship at a perilous time," said Robert Field, director of the Health Policy Program at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia.
According to Carnaroli, Martin and Rubenstein worked together closely to create a strategic plan for Penn Medicine -- the separate not-for-profit institution, wholly owned by Penn, being created to manage the University's health system.
"He is working with Rubenstein -- they are in the middle of the strategic planning process [for Penn Medicine]. That is going very well," he said.
When Martin leaves in June, his replacement will have to continue the planning and quickly learn the intricacies of a complex Health System.
The Health System, though, has become accustomed to rapid transition periods, as evidenced by its recent history -- three CEOs have served in three years.
University President Judith Rodin dismissed longtime CEO William Kelley in February 2000, in the midst of unprecedented financial losses.
It was during Kelley's tenure that the Health System accrued its $300 million loss at the end of the 1990s, and in 1999, Kelley cut the Health System work force by 20 percent.
While the Health System was battling with such major losses, the University was deliberating on whether to sell it.
Officials did not sell the Health System -- rather, they turned it into a separate not-for-profit corporation.
After Kelley was forced out of his position at the helm, Peter Traber was appointed interim CEO. His position was made permanent in March 2000.
However, not five months later, Traber announced that he would resign, a move which shocked his colleagues.
Martin was immediately appointed on an interim basis following Traber's sudden resignation and was then offered the position permanently in May 2001.
Now, almost a year and a half after his position was made permanent, Martin has decided to leave the Health System, effective June 30, 2003.
Rodin had no comment on Martin's decision yesterday.
This time, though, the Health System has nine months to find a replacement, about which Rubenstein is pleased. Martin will also participate in the search for his successor.
"Whereas we will miss [Martin], I am confident we are ready to go forward," Rubinstein said, "We will recruit an excellent replacement."
"The Health System is doing well financially and the whole place is very forward looking," Rubenstein added.
Martin said he will most likely take a few months off when he leaves Penn in June, but beyond that has no plans.
He added that he would remain involved in the Health System if asked, but thinks it's important to make "a clean break."
In his memo, Martin offered words of advice to his team. "If you stay the course and remain focused, [the Health System] will continue to prosper," he wrote.
