New Director for UCI Medical Center Chosen

Mark R. Laret, the widely respected deputy director at UCLA Medical Center, has been selected to take over the troubled UCI Medical Center, replacing the chief administrator who was fired last week amid a nationally publicized scandal, sources said Thursday.

Laret, 41, the highest ranking non-physician at UCLA Medical Center, still needs final approval by the University of California Board of Regents at its July meeting, according to sources at UCLA and UC Irvine.

UCI Executive Vice Chancellor Sidney H. Golub would not confirm the selection of Laret but said the university is “preparing a nominee to present at the UC regents’ meeting.”

Golub, however, praised Laret, a former co-worker.

“He has this very comprehensive and expert understanding of the managed-care environment that characterizes Southern California medicine,” said Golub, who worked with Laret at UCLA when Golub was interim dean of the School of Medicine. “He’s a very nice person, very well liked by the people who work for him. He’s a consensus-builder and a very thoughtful person.”

Golub said the new executive director’s starting date would be determined by the regents, but that UCI is hoping to bring him on board before the fall, when Orange County’s new Medi-Cal system, Cal-Optima, starts.

Laret, who lives in the San Fernando Valley, could not be reached for comment.

Physicians at UCLA reacted with dismay at the prospect of losing Laret, who they said was a friend to the medical staff.

“I’m really crushed that we’re letting him go,” said Dr. Stanley Korenman, who was part of three-member team that investigated allegations of improper human egg transplantation at UCI’s Center for Reproductive Health. “He’s done wonderful things here. I have the greatest respect for him.”

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Korenman, an associate dean at UCLA, and several of his colleagues wondered why Laret would tackle the troubles left behind by Mary Piccione, the departing executive director of UCI Medical Center.

Piccione, 60, and her deputy, Herb Spiwak, 49, were fired last week following allegations that they had retaliated against whistle-blowers and tried to cover up serious wrongdoing at UCI’s internationally famed fertility clinic. Their last day on the job is today.

UCI Chancellor Laurel L. Wilkening accused the pair in their termination letters of lax oversight of the clinic and “an unacceptable management style.”

Spiwak said Thursday that he was not surprised UCI had moved so quickly to fill Piccione’s office, despite the pair’s stated intention to fight the firings. Spiwak said he had heard that Laret would be starting in September.

“I guess they needed someone to put in place until something is settled there,” Spiwak said. “I’m not sure I want my old job back. We just want to make sure our side of the story is told.”

Piccione could not be reached for comment.

Wendell Brase, 48, UCI’s vice chancellor for business and administrative services, will take over as acting executive director Saturday.

Several UCLA physicians said Laret, who currently earns $170,000 a year, would be stepping into a tough job at UCI, where Piccione made $176,500.

“I don’t know why [Laret] would go there,” said Korenman, who has known the administrator for about six years. “It’s a much weaker institution . . . and a big mess, and it’s in a county that’s really self-destructed.”

Colleagues who have worked with Laret at UCLA said UCI’s staff would be in for a different type of administrator. A recent management audit described Piccione’s style as “management by fear.”

Laret is “a fabulous administrator,” said Dr. Alan Fogelman, chairman of UCLA’s School of Medicine. “He cares a lot about patients and, as a result, he cares a lot about doctors.”

Laret, who quickly rose through the ranks at UCLA, described his “particular strengths” in his resume as: “1) medical staff and Board relationships; 2) hospital and physician managed-care strategy and tactics in a highly advanced market; and 3) communication and leadership skills.”

His resume also states that he is a “strategic, results-oriented senior health-care executive with proven management experience in a top-tier academic medical center. Uniquely functioning as the senior non-medical staff executive of both the UCLA Medical Center/Hospital and UCLA Medical Group.”

As chief executive officer, Laret “oversees the administrative and business development affairs of the 900-member UCLA Medical Group,” according to his resume. He is credited with installing a single-contact managed-care operation that blended “previously separate Medical Group and Medical Center operations.”

Laret also created UCLA’s community primary care network, a key element of which was acquiring Santa Monica Hospital. He also launched a new system of physician credential standards, centralized appointment scheduling and group membership requirements.

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Korenman said Laret proved his mettle when he managed the merger of the two hospitals.

“He’s a terrific negotiator,” Korenman said. “We thought it was lost. Mark bulldogged his way back there.”

That same style, colleagues said, could be seen in Laret’s rapid ascension at UCLA, where he was hired as director of marketing in 1983.

Two years later he became associate director of the medical center, and by 1991 he was in his current position as deputy director of external affairs. His job includes managing the financial and operational side of the 722-bed hospital. In contrast, UCI has 462 beds.

Reporting to the faculty-physician chief executive officer, Laret also led negotiations for UCLA’s $20-million-a-year “relationship” with Kaiser Permanente and its $50-million annual contract with Medi-Cal.

Laret attended UCLA starting in 1972 and graduated with a B.A. in political science in 1976. He was a University of California Regents Scholar and a UCLA Alumni Dykstra Scholar, the highest award for an incoming high school valedictorian. He graduated magna cum laude.

He went on to earn a master’s degree in political science from USC in 1980, as well as the Dora Haynes Foundation Fellowship.

During the three years he was earning his master’s, Laret was project director and research analyst for Facts Consolidated Research and Counsel in Marketing of Los Angeles. There, his resume said, Laret was in charge of project management and profits and losses for marketing and research consulting projects for many Fortune 500 firms.

Laret also is vice chairman of the board of the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank.