Dartmouth-Hitchcock President and CEO Dr. James Weinstein is retiring at the end of June 2017.
The board of the not-for-profit health system based in Lebanon, N.H., will form a search committee to find Weinstein's replacement.
Weinstein, a spine surgeon, founded the Department of Orthopaedics at Dartmouth-Hitchcock and served as its chair from 2003 to 2010. In 2007, he was named director of The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. Its Dartmouth Atlas of Health has repeatedly found that variation in provider practice patterns is driving those spending differences, not the level of illness among patients.
He took over Dartmouth-Hitchcock's top office in 2011. He joined the system in 1996 after leaving a position as a professor with the University of Iowa health system.
Weinstein was deeply involved in the deliberations leading up to the Affordable Care Act. Throughout his career, he's pushed to increase cost transparency and delivery-system change. He recently co-authored a book called Unraveled: Prescriptions to Repair a Broken Healthcare System.
Dartmouth-Hitchcock said Monday that Weinstein informed the board in 2015 of his decision to retire at the end of his contract. Weinstein will continue his work with the High Value Healthcare Collaborative, the National Academy of Medicine Board for Population Health, and the VA Special Medical Advisory Group, according to the announcement.
He will also remain as Peggy Y. Thomson Chair in the Evaluative Clinical Sciences at the Geisel School of Medicine and will retain his academic and clinical positions in the D-H and Geisel Departments of Orthopaedics.
Dartmouth-Hitchcock recently laid off 84 employees due to budget deficits.
Total staff is about 10,000 workers. The layoffs were announced just days after the medical center was awarded a $36.5 million contract by the DHHS to staff New Hampshire Hospital, the state's psychiatric facility.
Correction, Dec. 5, 2016:
84 Dartmouth-Hitchcock employees were laid off. An earlier version of this story had an incorrect number.
