Dr. Ron Anderson
Ron Anderson, a health care pioneer who ran Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas for 29 years through good times and bad, died overnight.
Anderson, 68, had advanced liver cancer, a Parkland spokeswoman told the Dallas Business Journal. He had recently entered hospice care. Services are pending.
Anderson left the Parkland CEO job two years ago amid a controversy over patient care that threatened the hospital’s Medicare and Medicaid funding.
Steve Love, president and CEO of theDallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council, calledAnderson “a giant in the health care delivery system.”
“He championed the plight of the most vulnerable in our society and many lives have been saved in North Texas because of his clinical caring compassion for others,” Love said in a statement.
Anderson served as chair of the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council in 1992, received the Boone Powell Senior Award of Excellence in 2002, and had been serving on the hospital council’s Foundation Board of Trustees.
“We are all better people because we knew Ron Anderson,” Love said. “We need to celebrate his life by continuing his mission of social justice, fairness and healthcare excellence.”
Stephen L. Mansfield, president and CEO of Dallas-based Methodist Health System, calledAnderson "a selfless, compassionate, trailblazer."
"Today, the health care industry mourns the loss of one of the most impactful healthcare CEOs that I have worked with in my career," Mansfield said. "Truly a great loss."
A statue of Anderson will be placed in the foyer of the new Parkland Memorial Hospital to recognize his work for the Dallas County public hospital and a new outpatient clinic will be named for him, the hospital’s board voted on Sept. 10, the day before he died.
Anderson was a national spokesperson for public health issues and a champion for the poor and medically underserved.
A native of Chickasha, Oklahoma, Anderson assumed the position of president and CEO of Parkland Health & Hospital System in 1982 at age of 35 after serving for two years as medical director of Parkland’s Emergency Room and Outpatient Clinic and head of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center’s Division of Internal Medicine. He held the position until 2011.
In his final years at Parkland he led the successful bond campaign that secured public financing for the new $1.3 billion Parkland hospital due to open in mid-2015. But he also was at the helm in 2011, when the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services found serious problems throughout the public hospital that threatened patient safety.
Last year, Parkland passed a follow-up federal inspection of mandated patient care and safety improvements. Had Parkland not passed, the hospital would have lost hundreds of millions of dollars annually in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement — funding that hospital officials said was crucial to keep its doors open.
Anderson stepped down after the failed inspections on his watch.
In the 1980s, Anderson suggested setting up health clinics in Dallas’ poorest neighborhoods, convincing skeptical hospital board members and local officials of the need. Parkland now operates 12 Community Oriented Primary Care clinics throughout the county, making primary and preventive health care more accessible.
Debbie D. Branson, chairwoman of Parkland’s Board of Managers, said Anderson“epitomized the ideal of the servant leader.”
“His passionate dedication to improve health care for the poor and underserved inspired a generation of caregivers,” Branson said in a statement released by Parkland. “He successfully advocated on the local, state and national levels to expand services and helped to ensure the viability of Parkland and all public safety-net hospitals in the U.S.”
Dr. Fred Cerise, who succeeded Anderson as CEO of Parkland Health & Hospital System in March of this year, said Anderson left big shoes to fill.
“Dr. Anderson’s focus was always on the patient, and he used his talents tirelessly to advance medical care and expand access for the indigent,” Cerise said. “The people of Dallas County and indeed, the entire nation, benefited from his vision and innovations
In the mid-1980s Anderson gained national attention when he spoke out against “patient dumping” — the practice of transferring medically unstable patients from private to public hospitals because of the patients’ inability to pay. Anderson’s efforts led to the passage of landmark legislation concerning indigent care in Texas, and to passage of federal legislation in 1986 banning the practice.
Throughout his life, Anderson advocated for making health care a right, universally available to every U.S. citizen.
In the mid-1990s he again took on the role of a national spokesperson because of his concern for the confidentiality of the physician-patient relationship when welfare reform measures threatened to require physicians and other health care providers to report undocumented immigrants to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Anderson received his medical degree from the University of Oklahoma and his pharmacology degree from Southwestern Oklahoma State University, where he was named a Distinguished Alumnus in 1987. He said he found his niche at Parkland, where he could teach, do research and take care of patients.
When Anderson was approached by Parkland board chairman Ralph Rogers in 1982 to assume the chief administrator’s position, he initially refused the offer, according to a news release issued by the hospital. He recalled that Rogers persuaded him to accept the job by convincing Anderson that rather than taking care of one person, he could take care of hundreds of people a day and influence the health care of hundreds of thousands of others every year as CEO of Parkland.
Anderson initially promised Rogers five years.
During his years at Parkland, Anderson was courted by other hospitals and institutions across the country, but he never lost his love for the Dallas hospital. Anderson, a devout Baptist, often said that people at Parkland, himself included, had a missionary mentality and a passion for their work that transcended the lure of other institutions.
By Bill Hethcock
By Bill Hethcock
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