THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 21, 1994 TAG: 9412210235
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARIE JOYCE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
Sentara Health System head Glenn R. Mitchell, a pioneer who turned a single hospital into an integrated health care company, will be replaced by an insider when he retires next spring, the company said Tuesday.
The company board of directors chose David L. Bernd, 45, a career Sentara administrator who until Tuesday was executive vice president and chief operating officer.
Continuity is especially important right now, board chairman E. George Middleton Jr. said, because Sentara is in the midst of a major restructuring.
``We are not going to change horses in the middle of this stream,'' he said.
Bernd takes over as president immediately; Mitchell will stay on as chief executive officer until his retirement in April.
Today, Sentara's large and diverse system covers every aspect of health care, including four hospitals, two health maintenance organizations, six nursing homes, three assisted-living centers and a mental health management organization. Sentara boasts a major trauma center and the region's only air ambulance service.
The company has been recognized by analysts as a model of what the health care industry is evolving into - a highly integrated concern that involves insurance and delivery of health care services.
``Glenn Mitchell is a visionary,'' Middleton said. ``He kept us out in front.''
Mitchell will be replaced by a man who has been with the company almost as long. Bernd, 45, joined Sentara in the early '70s, fresh out of a master's program in hospital administration at the Medical College of Virginia at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.
At 32, he was named administrator of Norfolk General. The appointment of someone so young may have raised eyebrows in the business, said Middleton, but ``he had shown tremendous promise.'' Bernd became the company's executive vice president and chief operating officer in 1985.
Sentara has always emphasized promoting from within, said Middleton; most of the company's senior staff came up by the same route as Bernd. So when Mitchell first discussed his retirement plans last year, the board decided to look inside for a replacement.
Laurens Sartoris, president of the Virginia Hospital Association, says Sentara has a reputation for leadership stability in a field with a high turnover rate. ``They've developed a wonderful corporate culture there,'' he said. Bernd ``is part of that culture.''
``What that would say to me is: They feel they're on the right course, and they're going to stay that course.''
Bernd is chairman of the hospital association.
Mitchell, known as a quiet and self-effacing man, came under fire when he first started the changes at Sentara.
``It pained me terribly when he used to get such criticism, and Sentara was so far ahead of the pack,'' Middleton said.
But the changes he instituted have influenced hospitals around Virginia, Sartoris said.
``When somebody goes out on a limb,'' he said, ``everybody has the opportunity to learn from that experience.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Glenn R. Mitchell
KEYWORDS: APPOINTMENT RETIREMENT by CNB