Hospital Leader to Know: Dean Harrison of Northwestern Memorial Healthcare

As president and CEO of Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Northwestern Memorial Healthcare, Dean M. Harrison is part of a strategic initiative to create one of the nation's top 10 academic medical centers by 2020. The health system plans to align with Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine to "create one of the nation's safest hospitals [and] advance new knowledge that accelerates novel discoveries that bring treatments and cures to patients faster."

Mr. Harrison has been with Northwestern Memorial since July 1998, when he joined the health system as senior vice president of corporate operations. He previously served as president and COO of the University of Chicago Health System.

Mr. Harrison is immediate past chair of the Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council board of directors. He served as chairman-elect for two years before being named director and has been a member of MCHC since 2000. MCHC's board of directors acts as the organization's policy-making body and assesses MCHC's progress in addressing healthcare-related issues.

On Mr. Harrison's appointment as MCHC chairman, former MCHC president and CEO Earl Bird called the Northwestern Memorial president "uniquely qualified to serve as MCHC's chairman. He brings a wealth of experience to this appointment, including his association with two major academic medical centers," he said.

As president of Northwestern Memorial Healthcare, Mr. Harrison is responsible for Northwestern Memorial Hospital, its four subsidiaries, Northwestern Memorial Home Health Care, Northwestern Healthcare Corporation and Northwestern Memorial Insurance Company. He has also seen the development of the new Prentice Women's Hospital.

During his tenure with the Chicago health system, Mr. Harrison has endeavored to improve patient care and financial performance, as well as celebrate the accomplishments of the system's many employees. At the system's annual employee meeting in 2009, he told staff members that the health system is "serving record numbers of patients, our financial performance is excellent and we're still growing and in a position of strength, not just in Chicago but among hospitals nationwide. It speaks very well of the quality and commitment of our staff."



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