Paul F. Levy
Encyclopedia
Paul F. Levy is the former President and CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
(BIDMC) in Boston and a resident of Newton
, Massachusetts
.
Levy assumed the position as President and CEO of BIDMC in 2002. Levy was previously Executive Director of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority
, where he was famous for leading the "Boston Harbor Cleanup". He published a description of conditions that led to sewage treatment facilities failures he dubbed the Nut Island effect
in 2001. Levy also served as Chairman of the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities and Executive Dean for Administration of Harvard Medical School
. He was a member of the MIT Corporation is a member of the Board of ISO New England. He is the co-author of Negotiating Environmental Agreements, 1999.
on end of life matters, and he has taken very public positions on topics such as the transparency of clinical outcomes and the corporate campaign of the SEIU to organize a union.
Levy received national attention in 2009 for leading the workers at BIDMC to avoid hundreds of layoffs by engaging them in crowd sourcing of ideas to save money as the hospital faced deficits due to the national recession. Workers agreed to make extra sacrifices to insulate the lowest paid workers in the hospital from reductions in wages and benefits. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/jan-june09/painsharing_04-03.html
Levy admitted on May 5, 2010 to poor judgment in his role as CEO of BIDMC because he had hired and promoted a female employee with whom he had an allegedly inappropriate relationship. He was fined $50,000 but given a vote of confidence by the Board of BIDMC. Levy also issued an apology on his blog.
Levy's leadership record at BIDMC, including his use of social media as a management tool, was the subject of a case study published in November 2010 by The Health Foundation, an independent charity working to improve the quality of health care in the United Kingdom. http://www.health.org.uk/publications/beth-israel-deaconess-case-study/ David A. Garvin and Michael A. Roberto of Harvard Business School had previously produced a multimedia case study on Levy's turn-around of BIDMC in 2002. http://hbr.org/product/paul-levy-taking-charge-of-the-beth-israel-deacone/an/303058-MMC-ENG
On January 7, 2011 he announced that he would be resigning from BIDMC. In a blog posting, Levy says he recently had time to reflect during a biking trip through Africa and has decided to move on to new challenges after nine years with Beth Israel. "Last night, I informed the Chair of our Board that I will be stepping down as CEO. We will work out an appropriate transition period, and things will continue to run smoothly here. I leave confident that the Board will find many able candidates to succeed me."
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts is a major flagship teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. It was formed out of the 1996 merger of Beth Israel Hospital and New England Deaconess Hospital...
(BIDMC) in Boston and a resident of Newton
Newton, Massachusetts
Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States bordered to the east by Boston. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of Newton was 85,146, making it the eleventh largest city in the state.-Villages:...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
.
Levy assumed the position as President and CEO of BIDMC in 2002. Levy was previously Executive Director of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority
Massachusetts Water Resources Authority
The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority is a public authority in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that provides wholesale drinking water and sewage services to certain municipalities and industrial users in the state, primarily in the Boston area.The authority receives water from the Quabbin...
, where he was famous for leading the "Boston Harbor Cleanup". He published a description of conditions that led to sewage treatment facilities failures he dubbed the Nut Island effect
Nut Island effect
The Nut Island effect describes a human resources condition in which a team of skilled employees becomes isolated from distracted top managers resulting in a catastrophic loss of the ability of the team to perform an important mission. The term was coined by Paul F. Levy, a former Massachusetts...
in 2001. Levy also served as Chairman of the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities and Executive Dean for Administration of Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....
. He was a member of the MIT Corporation is a member of the Board of ISO New England. He is the co-author of Negotiating Environmental Agreements, 1999.
Blogger
As CEO of BIDMC, Levy became one of the earliest hospital CEOs to write his own blog, which started in August 2006. Via this blog he led the first blog rallyBlog rally
A blog rally is the simultaneous presentation of identical or similar material on numerous blogs, for the purpose of engaging large numbers of readers and/or persuading them to adopt a certain position or take a certain action. The simultaneous nature of a blog rally can create the result of...
on end of life matters, and he has taken very public positions on topics such as the transparency of clinical outcomes and the corporate campaign of the SEIU to organize a union.
Levy received national attention in 2009 for leading the workers at BIDMC to avoid hundreds of layoffs by engaging them in crowd sourcing of ideas to save money as the hospital faced deficits due to the national recession. Workers agreed to make extra sacrifices to insulate the lowest paid workers in the hospital from reductions in wages and benefits. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/jan-june09/painsharing_04-03.html
Levy admitted on May 5, 2010 to poor judgment in his role as CEO of BIDMC because he had hired and promoted a female employee with whom he had an allegedly inappropriate relationship. He was fined $50,000 but given a vote of confidence by the Board of BIDMC. Levy also issued an apology on his blog.
Levy's leadership record at BIDMC, including his use of social media as a management tool, was the subject of a case study published in November 2010 by The Health Foundation, an independent charity working to improve the quality of health care in the United Kingdom. http://www.health.org.uk/publications/beth-israel-deaconess-case-study/ David A. Garvin and Michael A. Roberto of Harvard Business School had previously produced a multimedia case study on Levy's turn-around of BIDMC in 2002. http://hbr.org/product/paul-levy-taking-charge-of-the-beth-israel-deacone/an/303058-MMC-ENG
On January 7, 2011 he announced that he would be resigning from BIDMC. In a blog posting, Levy says he recently had time to reflect during a biking trip through Africa and has decided to move on to new challenges after nine years with Beth Israel. "Last night, I informed the Chair of our Board that I will be stepping down as CEO. We will work out an appropriate transition period, and things will continue to run smoothly here. I leave confident that the Board will find many able candidates to succeed me."