The head of Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children has resigned to pursue "other business interests," the hospital announced yesterday.
The move shocked some members of the city's medical establishment, who had hoped that Alan Gayer would bring stable leadership to the institution.
Mr. Gayer, 62, was brought in from the United States as president and CEO more than two years ago.
He made a name for himself as a deficit-fighter who wanted to use computers to link children's medical services across Ontario.
Some staff members described him as an aloof outsider who failed to get along with some of the institution's top talent.
Mary Jo Haddad, a former Sick Kids nurse who worked her way up to become a popular senior executive, was named as a temporary replacement. But she may have the job permanently.
"She's certainly invited to apply, and encouraged to do so by the board," said Helen Simeon, the hospital's director of public affairs.
While acknowledging that turnover at the top is not desirable, Ms. Simeon said the hospital has no choice but to move on after Mr. Gayer's departure.
"We wish him all the best and the board has thanked him for his contributions. It was his decision to resign. He is pursuing other business interests."
One of Mr. Gayer's key hires was a British cardiologist, Andrew Redington, who remains one of Mr. Gayer's staunchest supporters.
"We don't appoint bums, that's for sure. It's a prestigious place," Dr. Redington said. "I don't know whether he's leaving us or we're leaving him or whether it's a mutual thing, but for me, it's disappointing."
Other sources, who asked not to be named, were less than disappointed.
"He was quite invisible. People wouldn't even know what he looked like. He was very remote from the functioning of the hospital," a doctor said.
She added that she holds Ms. Haddad, appointed the hospital's first chief operating officer in June of 2003, in higher regard. "I think it was seen that she would be doing all the things the CEO should be doing but he didn't feel like doing.
"He could be working on a grander scale and she would run the place."
A person involved with raising funds for the hospital said that tension between Mr. Gayer and the hospital's medical leadership clearly had emerged. She added that the resignation is a bad omen.
"In a world-class institution like Sick Kids, [a consistent]leadership team is key. Obviously, it's going to cause some disruption. To have a CEO there for two years and to have to search again. . . ."
Before Mr. Gayer's appointment, the hospital was reeling over controversy that followed its decision to remove Nancy Olivieri as a director of one of its programs, after she defied a drug company and spoke out about possible dangers of one of its products.
Last year, Mr. Gayer told a Toronto newspaper he would see to it that every child in the province would receive the world's best health care. "Alan J. Gayer, CEO and president has made a commitment to the three million children in Ontario," the article says. "And it's one he intends to honour."
The article goes on to describe efforts he was making to link hospitals across the province through the Internet -- for example, showing the news media how a cardiac surgeon in Toronto could help do an examination of a child living near Thunder Bay. The hospital said yesterday that it plans to continue such initiatives.
In the 2003 newspaper article, Mr. Gayer spoke glowingly about how proud he was to have joined the hospital. "Sick Kids is one of the three or four best children's hospitals in the world. Over the next five years, we plan to make it the best in the world."
In 2001, Mr. Gayer's impending appointment was announced with much fanfare. A Rhodes scholar and music enthusiast, he was described as the chief executive officer of an Atlanta children's hospital, from 1990 to 1998, before becoming the Atlanta-based director of the "national strategy consulting group" at the accounting and consulting company Arthur Andersen LLP.
But auditing the scandal-plagued Enron Corp. in Texas led to Arthur Andersen going out of business in 2002.
According to a 1992 Atlanta Journal article, a group of 30 operating-room employees at Egleston Children's Hospital in Georgia petitioned for Mr. Gayer to resign.
He led the hospital for six more years.