UCI Med Center Chief Taking Job in Bay Area

Mark Laret, who has directed UC Irvine Medical Center for the past five years, announced Tuesday that he is leaving next month to run the UC San Francisco Medical Center.

The 46-year-old hospital director is credited with stabilizing the financial management of the medical center and expanding its patient base. He will be leaving the facility in the city of Orange in mid-April.

Before Laret arrived at the medical center in 1995, the number of patients was as low as 166 a day. Now the average count is about 280 a day. The hospital also has shifted from primarily handling indigent and Medi-Cal patients to a larger mix of contract customers affiliated with health care plans, as well as patients referred for specialized care by physician groups, said Susan Rayburn, the center’s vice president for external affairs.

The medical center, which has a $240-million budget, lost $8 million the year Laret arrived. It has run in the black since then, and posted a $13.2-million profit last year.

“Mark leaves with a strong record of leadership and turning around the financial situation at the hospital through management efficiencies and improvement of the patient-payer mix,” said Jon Gilwee, a vice president with the Healthcare Assn. of Southern California, an industry trade group.

Laret was approached in January by a recruiting firm representing UC San Francisco, which is dissolving an alliance formed two years ago with the Stanford University hospitals. Laret, who will hold the title of chief executive officer of the San Francisco hospital, will have an annual salary of $425,000. He was paid $275,000 at UCI.

The UC San Francisco hospital has a $650-million budget and supports extensive research as the major teaching hospital for UC San Francisco’s School of Medicine. The hospital has 560 licensed beds and is frequently rated among the 10 best in the nation by U.S. News and World Report.