Former Colorado General Hospital leader Dickler dies

Robert Dickler, a seasoned healthcare executive who previously led Colorado General Hospital, now the University of Colorado Hospital, died this week. He was 72.

Dickler was a leader in the healthcare industry for more than 30 years. He started his career in the 1970s at the University of Minnesota Hospital and Clinic, now University of Minnesota Health. In 1981, Dickler was appointed executive director of Colorado General Hospital, a state-operated facility that eventually became University of Colorado Hospital.

After six years at Colorado General, he returned to the University of Minnesota Hospital and Clinic as general director and assistant vice president of its health sciences center. He also held a variety of faculty positions at the university.

Dickler then joined the Association of American Medical Colleges in 1992 as chief healthcare officer. In that role, Dickler "focused on the relationship between the healthcare delivery system and academic medicine," according to the AAMC. He retired from the association in 2008.

Throughout his career, Dickler served on a number of boards including the Hospital Quality Alliance, the NIH Advisory Board for Clinical Research, the Lehigh Valley Health Network Board of Trustees and the Metropolitan Hospital Section of the American Hospital Association.

"We were very saddened to learn of the passing of Bob Dickler ... (he) was greatly respected for his sharp mind and ability to ask probing questions," said Dr. Darrell Kirch, president and CEO of AAMC, in a statement. "Bob provided exemplary leadership to our Council of Teaching Hospitals and Health Systems and to our healthcare affairs team, and will be deeply missed."