We'll fight suit over Perry's recruitment ...
Having seen Modern Healthcare's recent cover story regarding the issue of leadership in the healthcare industry, which includes references to a lawsuit filed by Mount Sinai Medical Center, Miami Beach, Fla., against Heidrick & Struggles, we felt it was important for us to respond ("Searching for some answers," Jan. 27, p. 6). Although it is a matter of policy that we do not comment on the specifics of pending litigation, we want to make it clear that we fully intend to fight these allegations vigorously because we believe they have no basis.
Heidrick & Struggles has earned a reputation, based on the quality of the service we provide to our clients, as one of the world's finest providers of executive search and leadership consulting. Throughout our 50-year history, our firm has been rooted in the knowledge that our reputation and integrity are integral to our success. We are proud of our record of providing top-quality service to our clients, and we are proud of the consultants who represent us in the marketplace. In fact, in the week since the article appeared, we have been gratified by the expressions of confidence from our clients.
We take our commitment to excellence in client service very seriously. It is a hallmark to which we will continue to adhere as we help clients build their leadership teams.
Mark Yowe
Practice managing partner
Heidrick & Struggles Global Healthcare Practice
Chicago
... at least Perry made the cover
Regarding your cover story on the lawsuit filed against Heidrick & Struggles over its recruitment of Bruce Perry (Jan. 27, p. 6), I was a director working under Perry at Community Hospitals of Central California in Fresno. At that time we knew that Bruce wanted his photo on the cover of Modern Healthcare. I am so pleased to see he got his wish (tongue in cheek) but not for the reasons he would have chosen.
In Fresno each action seemed more and more outlandish, and we all guessed he had a single goal: to be on the cover of your magazine. The chief financial officer and I worked tirelessly to improve the bottom line from $2 million when we started in 1991 to $15 million in 1994. Of course, our work did not get acknowledged and Bruce took all the credit in local news coverage.
And, as no good deed goes unpunished, Bruce took firm control of the spotlight and began rolling out his own series of actions. His radical redesign of the system did get covered by Modern Healthcare on April 24, 1995, but on page 32. We assumed he was disappointed that this project was not enough to place him on the cover.
Your fine article pointed out the results of his work a year later in 1996 (an $18 million loss), and now the goal of being on the cover has been attained after all this time.
Be careful what you wish for.
Lee Johnson
Director
Patient financial services
Central Washington Hospital
Wenatchee, Wash.
Not an Abdelhak fan
I have several reactions to your coverage of Sherif Abdelhak's being freed (Modern Healthcare's Daily Dose, Jan. 28, and in the magazine, "Early release," Feb. 3, p. 18): I was shocked when his original sentence was so light (111/2 months to 23 months), and now I am stunned to find out he was released from his country club federal prison after serving such a short time.
It's amusing to read that he was released because of a heart condition. Everybody who worked at the hospitals he destroyed knows that he did not have a heart unless he bought one with all the money he stole.
I still work at a former AHERF facility but will have to work 10 years longer because of the pension plan being $40 million short and the government having to take it over. I am just one person; he has ruined many lives. He gave no raises for more than six years while he was giving himself and other executives huge bonuses. The result was job losses, pensions vanished and hospitals destroyed.
And finally, after being a victim of Abdelhak's greed, we are being further victimized by our so-called justice system. Our government spent many thousands of our tax dollars prosecuting and convicting him, only to let him out early. This just proves to me that we have two types of justice, one for the rich and one for the poor. Where do hardworking middle-class people like myself fall?
Linda Johnston
Administrative assistant
Hahnemann University Hospital
Philadelphia
