Park Nicollet CEO to retire

Park Nicollet Health Services, a hospital and clinic system stung by the recession in health care, announced Friday that David Wessner, president and chief executive officer, will retire at the end of the year.

Dr. David Abelson was appointed president by Park Nicollet's board, but will continue his current duties as chief clinical officer. He is a leading candidate for the CEO position.

Seen as an innovative, and occasionally controversial, leader who served at Park Nicollet's helm for 11 years, Wessner will depart at a critical time for the Twin Cities' smallest hospital and clinic group.

As the economy declined into recession, Park Nicollet laid off 7 percent of its workforce, closed a clinic near Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and announced plans to close another clinic in Hopkins.

In addition, hospital officials nationwide are anxiously waiting to see what the Obama administration's health care reform will mean for them. Park Nicollet owns Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park and a network of medical clinics.

Wessner, 57, said his retirement was part of a well-honed succession plan that began in 2006 at his initiation. "At some point, you have to make the hand-off, and we're at that point now," he said.

Abelson, who specializes in internal medicine, joined Park Nicollet in 1983 and left daily medical practice to assume executive duties. He was a key player in Park Nicollet's program to introduce electronic medical records to replace paper files, and his organization became the first in the Twin Cities with fully integrated digital medical records, in July 2004.

During Wessner's tenure, Park Nicollet invested heavily in capital projects, including a new heart and vascular center, a new cancer center, and a joint venture for a new orthopedic specialty center. Last month, it opened an institute for eating disorders.

Wessner, the first non-physician CEO at Park Nicollet, also brought Japanese-style lean manufacturing techniques to health care, adopting productivity principles later adopted by a number of other health care organizations. He declined to quantify how much the strategy saved Park Nicollet, saying only it has reaped more than what was invested into it. "It's not a short-term initiative," he said.

Feeling the recession's sting

Earlier this year, Park Nicollet also became one of the first health care systems in the country to require doctors to publicly disclose their financial relationships with drug and medical device companies.

As the recession deepened late last year, Park Nicollet felt that sting. In February, Wessner told state legislators in a hearing about budget cuts that Park Nicollet lost $148 million in 2008, including investment losses.

Wessner said he will work with Abelson on the succession. When asked what he will do in retirement, Wessner said he has no specific plans. "I've been going pretty straight ahead for 35 years, I think I'll just take some time and figure it out."