VCU Health System chief announces retirement, successor named

By Pamela DiSalvo Lepley

RICHMOND, Va. – The Virginia Commonwealth University Health System Authority Board of Directors and the VCU Board of Visitors today approved the appointment of Dr. Sheldon M. Retchin as chief executive officer of the health system and VCU vice president for health sciences, effective July 1, 2003.  Dr. Retchin will succeed Dr. Hermes A. Kontos, who formally announced at the joint session his intention to retire from the position.

Dr. Retchin, 52, is a national expert in health policy and health care delivery.  He has served as VCUHS senior executive vice president and chief operating officer since 2000, playing a key role in bridging the hospital and physician practice operations.  For the past nine years, Dr. Retchin also has served as president of MCV Physicians, the faculty practice plan of the VCU School of Medicine.  Under his leadership, MCV Physicians went from a loose organization of nearly two dozen independent physician practice plans into a single practice group with central billing, collections, insurance contracting and other unified business functions.

“Over the past decade, Dr. Retchin has contributed immensely to the growth and success of the health system,” said Dr. Eugene P. Trani, VCU president and president and chair of the VCU Health System board of directors.  “We are very fortunate to have someone of his ability and experience to step into this critical role for our academic medical center.”

In his 20-year career at VCU, Dr. Retchin also has been a professor in the departments of internal medicine, gerontology and health administration, and he has served as chief of geriatric medicine and chief resident of internal medicine at MCV Hospitals.  Dr. Retchin has been appointed to numerous national panels related to managed care and was a technical advisor for Medicare’s Consumer Assessment of Health Plans’ study, directed by Harvard University.

“I’m delighted with the opportunity to lead the VCU Health System and the medical campus of Virginia Commonwealth University,” Dr. Retchin said.  “I look forward to many years of continued growth in research, educational innovations, and clinical excellence, building off the traditions of both the health system and university.”

A native of Wilmington, N.C., Dr. Retchin was a Robert Wood Johnson clinical scholar at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, where he also received his B.A., M.D. and M.S.P.H. degrees.

Dr. Retchin will succeed Hermes A. Kontos, M.D., Ph.D., current CEO of the health system and VCU vice president for health sciences. 

Dr. Kontos joined VCU 40 years ago and rose through the ranks, being promoted to professor of internal medicine, chairman of the cardiology division and acting chair of the departments of pathology and internal medicine.  He served as dean of the VCU School of Medicine and vice president for health sciences.  With his appointment as CEO of the VCU Health System Authority in 2000, Dr. Kontos relinquished his duties as dean.

Dr. Kontos led the strategic planning and legislative efforts that created the VCU Health System and then followed through on implementation of the new, unified governance and management structure, which is unique among most academic medical centers.

“In these recent years of increasing complexity and turmoil in health care, particularly academic medicine, Dr. Kontos has provided wise and steady leadership,” Dr. Trani said.  “He has demonstrated unquestionably the highest level of performance and achievement.”

Dr. Kontos is nationally recognized for his research in cerebrovascular physiology and is a member of several prestigious medical societies.  He received his M.D. degree from the University of Athens and his Ph.D. in physiology from VCU.

Dr. Kontos will retire July 1, 2003.