Durand Named to Head Health Agency

Ventura County Medical Center administrator Pierre Durand was chosen Tuesday to head the county’s Health Care Agency.

Durand replaces Phillipp K. Wessels, who died in March after leading the county’s health-care system out of financial disaster in the mid-1980s and overseeing the expansion of a network of clinics. Wessels died at age 55 after a bout with lung cancer.

Durand and Wessels were credited with engineering a dramatic improvement in the county’s health-care system through shrewd business decisions while at the same time making health care accessible to the poor.

County medical and government officials praised Durand on Tuesday as a good choice to lead the Ventura County Health Care Agency, which oversees the public health and mental health departments and the county’s public hospital.

“He’s been effective in leading the hospital, and I think he’ll bring those skills to leading the entire agency,” said county Supervisor Susan K. Lacey.

Dr. Samuel Edwards, medical director of Ventura County Medical Center, said Durand has helped build a health-care system for those who can’t afford it.

“He’s an extraordinary man due to his financial abilities and his ability to secure health care for people who do not have access to health care because they don’t have insurance or are poor,” Edwards said.