Modern Healthcare inducts three into Health Care Hall of Fame

Modern Healthcare inducted three industry veterans into the Health Care Hall of Fame before a crowd of nearly 400 Sunday in Chicago.

Fred Brown, who helped engineer the creation of St. Louis-based BJC HealthCare; John Griffith, an author and professor emeritus of healthcare management; and Yoshi Honkawa, a longtime government relations executive with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, joined the Hall of Fame.

Charles Lauer, Modern Healthcare's former publisher, also received the magazine's Hall of Fame founder's award for his role creating the annual citation in 1988.

The recipients credited their success to colleagues, mentors, family and professionals across the industry who work to improve healthcare.

"I was blessed," Brown said of those he worked with. Brown served as the first president and CEO of BJC HealthCare when the system was created in 1993 until 2000. "That's the reason I'm here, because of all those wonderful people."

He praised caregivers and support staff as "the real hall-of-famers."

John Griffith, professor emeritus at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and the author of the influential textbook "The Well-Managed Health Care Organization," said his career chronicling successful healthcare management strategies was possible because of the industry executives who developed and tested new approaches. "I have been the reporter, not the doer," Griffith said.

Honkawa, who recently celebrated his 90th birthday, said people, relationships, trust and loyalty "brought me here tonight" and "brought me everything in life."

"Learning about people, connecting people with each other, helping them reach their goals, is not only worthwhile, it's fun when you look at who you're dealing with," Honkawa told the audience. "I hope you will keep believing in yourselves. I hope you will always be building relationships. Don't stop. I hope you will nurture trust by doing what you say you will do."

Follow Melanie Evans on Twitter: @MHmevans

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