Don Snell, the president and chief executive officer of MCG Health Inc., announced his resignation Wednesday, effective Oct. 31.
"I've always felt a CEO should only stay six or seven years," he said during an at-times-tearful goodbye to board members. "I've been here almost 11, so it's clearly time to step down."
Mr. Snell, who joined the organization March 1, 1999, said he has no new job in mind. "I just want to take some time off," he said.
Factors that influenced the timing of the decision, he said, include the pending departure of a longtime colleague -- Medical College of Georgia President Daniel Rahn, who is leaving to become chancellor of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Dr. James N. Thompson, a dean emeritus of Wake Forest University School of Medicine, will serve as interim president.
The board also has a new chairman this fall -- Mansfield Jennings -- who is replacing veteran chairman Donald M. Leeburn, who has resigned. Also leaving the organization's board is Larry Benson.
So many personnel changes made it an opportune time to step down, Mr. Snell said. "It is with mixed emotions that I announce this resignation," he said, noting that it has been the most rewarding position of his career.
He said he is pleased to have helped lead the organization to many key accomplishments, including the complex restructuring of MCG Hospital & Clinics, the creation of a strong management team and the financial stabilization of an organization that was -- at one time -- losing money and patients.
"We started out with a very weak team," he said. "Now there is not a single area of weakness. This is very much a different organization than the one I walked into on March 1, 1999."
He was given a standing ovation by board members during Wednesday's meeting at MCGHealth's Children's Medical Center. In other board business, trustees agreed to an 8 percent across-the-board rate increase that will take effect Jan. 1, 2010.
Mr. Snell said the action marks the fourth consecutive year such an increase was needed, but added that the percentage is smaller than last year's. In 2008, an 11 percent increase was approved, which was an aggregate figure compared to this year's across-the-board amount.
"The 8 percent increase, if approved, would put us right about at the average for our peers," he said.
The peer institutions evaluated for comparison included Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, University Hospital in Augusta and Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon.
The increase was adopted unanimously.
MCG Health, Inc. is a not-for-profit corporation operating the MCGHealth Medical Center, MCGHealth Children's Medical Center, the Georgia Radiation Therapy Center, and related outpatient facilities and services throughout the state.
Reach Rob Pavey at (706) 868-1222, ext. 119 or rob.pavey@augustachronicle.com.
The Augusta Chronicle ©2010 Morris Communications, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Singing to the tune of the munchkins with GLEE: "Ding dong the witch is dead, fa, la, la, la, la,lalala, ding dong the wicked witch is dead.
Snell did a good job of bringing the MCG provider side back from the brink. Probably needed a man with no soul to do that. He straightened the place out in many positive ways by imposing discipline and metrics that could prove that the place was doing well, at least financially. I hope it doesn't revert back to the bad old days in those aspects.
But it's difficult to say if his methods ever included a true appreciation for clinical quality.
In so many other ways he was atrocious. He was very petty, overly sensitive, and had a huge ego which is the sign of an insecure man. He also had no people skills. He enjoyed the status of "inspiring" fear. MCGHI is going to need a lot of healing after Snell's departure. Snell never had an appreciation for what it took to lead a place where employees felt appreciated and respected. The little HRVP in charge has a soul as cold as Snell, so he will be of very little help. Snell hired him personally because he had worked with him two times before MCG. A good assassin he. A loyal soldier to Snell.
When you run a place like that you have to be hard, if you let your employees slack off and take advantage they will. I work with some sorry trouble making people everyday because management lets them get away with their attitudes. As a person who has been to MCG several times over the years I have seen a big improvement.
he kinds looks like the emperor from star wars.
yeah -- good ridance!!!!!!
Snell with tears? Too bad, so sad. He obviously got a taste of his own medicine. Resignation? Don't believe it. He was ousted. A CEO doesn't leave an organization this quickly unless forced out. Snell's secretary made a quick decision to retire (finally!) yesterday too! They were made for each other.
Snell ascribed to the position that "leaders" could never have friends at work. A slide that he would show new managers called "Don Snell's Leadership Maxims":
"If you want a friend, get a dog. If you want two friends get another dog."
Snell will leave his position having lived that maxim to a tea. He surely has no friends. Probably has no dogs either.
He was a dinosaur in the old school way of management that ruled from the top. Top down, command and control. Great style for the 1950's!
How will the "Super Five" make it without him? A gaping void in the star chamber without him? Or maybe hope for better days?
Am I the only one that finds it interesting that the 3 leaders associated with MCG have all stepped down within the last year? First Steinhart with MCGHI, then Rahn with MCG and now Snell with MCGHI. Makes you wonder what they know that we don't....
Kurt Steinhart, however, is a damn good doctor and human being!
Yeah, I kind of wonder about the abruptness of this departure as well: Less than two weeks' notice for Snell when Rahn lingered around for months. There was an incredible amount of ruthlessness at MCGHI after Snell arrived, and the sense of "family" about the place is now long gone. Perhaps that made for more efficiency and a better bottom line, and perhaps it was necessary for survival in today's world. It still has been a huge loss. Snell and all his little snellings have done things to people that I wouldn't want on my soul. As a very good example, the one person probably most instrumental in bringing the CMC into existence had her position deleted within a year of the CMC's opening, and she wasn't given another spot at Health, Inc. Talk about treachery. Now people lose their jobs not just because of incompetence but simply for offending the wrong person. That kind of thing never used to happen at MCG; maybe the next CEO will help things improve with morale while keeping the bottom line stable. Here's hoping.
After all the meddling that the Governor has done with MCG, no one wants to be a puppet on a string. MCG has had some leaders that have been cramped by politics. For example, the Governor forced MCG to negotiate a deal with one of the Managed Medicaid companies, even though it would take a loss. The governor and the UGA Dawg Nation Mafia came up with this idea of putting a medical school in Athens. MCG is taking budget cuts and furlough days, while the Athens boondoggle project, pushed by Emperor Palpitine himself, UGA President Michael Adams, is full steam ahead. The end result is that the best and brightest students from UGA will be siphoned off to Athens and MCG will have to dip lower into the talent pool.
Of course, if Augusta were a more progressive town like Athens, without all the racial politics and back-biting, students would enjoy training here and it would be a moot point. When will Augusta move into the 21st century?
You are right, bigdogsrule. Dr. Steinhart was a great doctor and a good man. Btw, h2otowngirl, Dr. Steinhart was PPG, not MCGHI.
But uncle Screwtape, I thought you said he was our friend! Wormwood
Good Lord the comments are cynical. This man was not the devil people.
Createyourfuture - You hit the nail on the head.
Nice way to save face....it wouldn't be surprising to find that Snell and the new CEO did not agree with the new policies that are sure to come. As being a "not for profit" organization, I don't believe a word of it.
Wait a minute... not for prfit? They are making a profit; they just split hairs w/ that...
You guys obviously don't understand the terminology of "not for profit".
I find it interesting that Snell has resigned and is leaving on such short notice. Normally when a CEO leaves they give a much longer notice than this. Why not make it effective the end of the year? What's the big rush? Makes me wonder if he was asked to leave and to do so quickly. I find it interesting that his secretary is leaving too. We haven't heard the end of this yet. After the way Snell and MCG have snubbed the Chronicle through the years about giving out info, I can only hope that some very sharp reporter with the AC will uncover the real story on this one.
goodbye, mr. snell, can i have your job?
Snell ascribed to the position that "leaders" could never have friends at work. " If one is going to be in a leadership position, one has to have compassion for his associates. No one wants to follow a dictator. One can rule by fear and intimidation only so long before the natives start getting restless. In many ways his tactics are reminiscent of the CEO "Chainsaw" Al Dunlap, whose first mission upon taking over a new organization was to start firing everyone in sight. He finally met his waterloo, and hasn't been a CEO since.
Mr. Snell's comment that "we started out with a very weak team" is both graceless and untrue. I worked for six years with the MCG healthcare administrative group under Snell's predecessors, Ed Howell and Pat Findling-Sodomka. They and their directors were talented, thoughtful and committed. I hope that Mr. Snell's sucessor can re-build institutional morale and community relations, which clearly have suffered during the past 11 years. The University and the Augusta community deserve no less.