Longtime Parkland Health leader Dr. Ron Anderson dead at 68

Dr. Ron Anderson, the longtime leader of Parkland Health & Hospital System who was remembered for his efforts to expand healthcare access to underserved communities, died Thursday from cancer. He was 68, the Dallas-based system said on its website.

Anderson was named Parkland's president and CEO in 1982 and served in that role for 29 years. He previously was medical director of Parkland's emergency room and outpatient clinic and led the internal medicine division at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Anderson's first foray into the public health spotlight came in the mid-1980s, when he spoke out against the practice of “patient dumping”—or transferring medically unstable, uninsured patients from private to public hospitals. Those efforts led to Texas banning the practice in 1986.

Driven by a vision that everyone should have access to healthcare regardless of ability to pay, Anderson helped develop a network of health centers, primarily in low-income communities, which formed the basis of Parkland's Community Oriented Primary Care program. The safety net hospital won a number of awards for its community-based programs and in 2004, the American Hospital Association bestowed Anderson with its Award of Honor for his efforts.

The system said healthcare administrators and leaders came from as far away as Thailand to learn about its health centers.

"Dr. Anderson epitomized the ideal of the servant leader,” Debbie Branson, chair of Parkland's board of managers, said in a news release. “His passionate dedication to improve healthcare for the poor and underserved inspired a generation of caregivers.”

Anderson made five appearances on Modern Healthcare's 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare ranking. In 2005, he also topped Modern Healthcare's 50 Most Powerful Physician Executives ranking after he “beat back a politically motivated attempt by several of his board members to oust him as president and CEO.”

The board had challenged his efforts to build a new $1.2 billion hospital and for speaking out against property tax cuts that would have slashed the budget at the public system. But they encountered what was described as a groundswell of popular support to retain the CEO.

"When you are a leader, you have to speak out for things you believe in. One board member said I was arrogant; I felt I was principled," Anderson said in an interview at the time.

Yet Parkland—widely known for treating President John F. Kennedy after he was fatally shot—came under state and federal investigation in 2008 for clinical and financial allegations including quality-of-care deficiencies, lack of oversight of residents and medical students and billing fraud. The allegations even prompted the CMS to threaten to exclude the hospital from the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

Parkland declined to renew Anderson's contract in 2011, and ultimately appointed Dr. Fred Cerise, former secretary of the Louisiana health department, to the top post. The hospital was removed from probation last year.

When Anderson was approached in 1982 to lead the hospital, he initially declined the offer. But then-Chairman Ralph Rogers persuaded him to take the job after he said that serving as CEO meant he could care for not just one patient at a time—but hundreds of thousands.

His reluctant five-year commitment turned into nearly three decades.

Parkland will rename the clinic on its new hospital campus, which will open next year, the Ron J. Anderson, MD Clinic. It also established a fund in his honor.

Follow Beth Kutscher on Twitter: @MHbkutscher