Paul Pawlak, who has led Silver Cross Hospital for nearly 30 years, is retiring next year. Pawlak has fiercely guarded the independence of the hospital, which is located about 40 miles from downtown Chicago in New Lenox, Ill. Silver Cross is one of the few stand-alone medical centers left in the Chicago area, a region with nearly 100 hospitals that is quickly consolidating under the financial pressures of Obamacare.
Under Pawlak's watch, Silver Cross hatched deals with prominent health systems including University of Chicago Medicine, Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. That helped bring top-notch specialists to patients closer to home while helping the community hospital remain on its own. Silver Cross also has an affiliation with Advocate Health Care, the largest healthcare system in the state.
