A noted physician and hospital administrator who currently serves as the CEO of the University of Alabama Hospital at Birmingham, Dr. Michael R. Waldrum will take over as president and chief executive officer of The University of Arizona Health Network, effective Jan. 27.
As the CEO of UAHN, Waldrum will lead the Health Network’s two hospitals, clinics, health plans and physician practice plan.
Waldrum currently serves as the CEO of the University of Alabama Hospital at Birmingham and as vice president of the UAB Health System. Prior to his current role, he served as chief operating officer and chief information officer of UAB. He has been a member of the medical staff of the UAB School of Medicine since 1995 in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine.
“Dr. Waldrum brings vision and experience at a critical time in UAHN’s history as we prepare to meet the challenges of health-care reform,” said Steven W. Lynn, chairman of the UAHN Board of Directors.
“As a physician executive, Dr. Waldrum has a unique perspective and proven record of leading a highly complex academic medical system. His experience will be critical to the success of the Health Network’s mission of providing excellent medical education, patient care and cutting-edge research,” said Dr. Steve Goldschmid, dean of the UA College of Medicine-Tucson.
Waldrum graduated from the University of Alabama School of Medicine, completed his internal medicine residency at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, received a master’s degree in epidemiology from Harvard School of Public Health and earned his MBA from the University of Michigan.
“I am honored by the trust the UAHN board and the University of Arizona have placed in me to lead this great institution and to be connected to one of the nation’s leading research universities. I’m impressed with the caliber of physicians and staff that I’ve met, and I am looking forward to joining them in the New Year,” Waldrum said.
Waldrum is a board-certified specialist in internal medicine, critical care medicine and pulmonology. He maintained an active teaching and clinical practice at UAB and hopes to do the same in Tucson, he said. His professional expertise is in applying aggregate data to make operational clinical decisions, in intensive-care outcomes management and in health-information management, to measure performance effectiveness.
Karen Mlawsky, CEO of the Health Network’s Hospital Division, and Goldschmid have served as interim co-chief executives of the Health Network during the search. They will return to their original roles when Waldrum arrives in January.
The University of Arizona Health Network was formed in 2010 with the integration of University Medical Center and University Physicians Healthcare. The Health Network includes The University of Arizona Medical Center-University Campus (formerly University Medical Center), The University of Arizona Medical Center-South Campus (formerly University Physicians Hospital), dozens of clinics, several health plans and The University of Arizona Physicians, which is the practice plan of the faculty physicians of the UA College of Medicine-Tucson.
With approximately 6,000 employees, The University of Arizona Health Network is one of Southern Arizona’s largest employers and the premier academic medical system in the state.