Harvey A. Holzberg, President and CEO, Announces Hospital Retirement

Thursday, November 04, 2004

NEW BRUNSWICK - Harvey A. Holzberg, for 15 years the president and CEO of Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH), today announced his intention to retire from the hospital after an orderly transition to new leadership.

While leaving his day-to-day management responsibilities at the hospital, Holzberg will continue to serve as president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Health System. The Robert Wood Johnson Health System is the parent organization of RWJUH, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Rahway and Children’s Specialized Hospital in Mountainside.

Holzberg will also remain chairman of the Board of Directors of the Robert Wood Johnson Health Network, a clinically-affiliated network of medical institutions that includes eight hospitals, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, four Federally Qualified Health Centers and a network of long-term care facilities.

In November, Holzberg will also begin serving as national chairman of the Council of Teaching Hospitals within the Association of American Medical Colleges.

“It has been my privilege to lead this great hospital during an exciting era, and to work beside many talented and dedicated people,” said Holzberg. “I am confident that Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital will continue to emerge as a nationally prominent academic medical center, offering an ever higher level of patient care, while training tomorrow’s health professionals and conducting research that pushes the frontiers of medicine. I look forward to this next phase in my life and the new challenges ahead at the Robert Wood Johnson Health System and Network,” he added.

James Knickman, Ph.D., chairman of the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Board of Directors, said a nationwide search for a successor will be conducted by the hospital’s board.

“As a Board, we have discussed succession planning with Harvey and planned for his eventual retirement,” Knickman said. “Harvey will be sorely missed. Through his efforts, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital has grown from a struggling community hospital into a major academic medical center. He leaves this hospital stronger than when he arrived and well situated for an orderly succession. We are also pleased to have his ongoing leadership at the Robert Wood Johnson Health System and Network.”

Knickman credited Holzberg as the architect of the Robert Wood Johnson Health System and Network, a unique hospital affiliation system based on partnerships rather than ownership. He also said Holzberg helped change the delivery of healthcare in New Jersey by adding tertiary and quaternary care services at RWJUH – such as heart transplantation – that were previously regarded as the domain of out-of-state institutions.

“Thanks to Mr. Holzberg’s leadership, New Jerseyans no longer have to leave the state to receive world class medical care,” Knickman said.

Holzberg became president and CEO of RWJUH in 1989 at a time when the hospital was struggling financially and most Central New Jersey residents went to New York and Philadelphia to receive specialized care.

He began the transformation of the hospital by initiating a strategic plan based on a fourfold mission: patient care, research, medical education and community outreach. The strategic plan included creating Centers of Excellence in trauma, heart disease, cancer and pediatrics. He also strengthened relationships with UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and private attending physicians throughout the region.

Today, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, the principal teaching hospital of UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, is the hub of a clinically-integrated medical campus that includes The Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, The Cancer Institute of New Jersey, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and the New Brunswick Health Sciences Technology High School.

Other institutions coming soon to the hospital’s campus and to downtown New Brunswick will be the Child Health Institute of New Jersey, the Rutgers University Health Sciences Center, Children’s Specialized Hospital, a Cardiovascular Institute, a New Jersey Stem Cell Research Institute and the Institute for the Development of Healthcare Technology.

About Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital

Selected as one of four hospitals nationwide to offer the world's first self-contained implantable artificial heart, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (www.rwjuh.edu) is a 600-bed academic medical center and the principal hospital of UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, NJ. Robert Wood Johnson is an innovative leader in advancing state-of-the-art care in medicine. Its Centers of Excellence include cardiovascular care from minimally invasive heart surgery to transplantation, cancer care, and women's and children's care including The Bristol-Myers Squibb Children's Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (www.bmsch.org). The hospital is also a Level 1 Trauma Center and serves as a national resource in its ground-breaking approaches to emergency preparedness.

The hospital has earned significant national recognition for clinical quality and patient safety. Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital is ranked among the top 50 hospitals in the nation for both heart and heart surgery and respiratory disorders, according to U.S.News & World Report's 2008 ranking of "America's Best Hospitals." The American College of Surgeons' Commission on Cancer has rated Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital among the nation's best comprehensive cancer centers. The Leapfrog Group rated Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital as one of the 50 exceptional U.S. hospitals, as published in Consumers Digest magazine. Harvard University researchers, in a study commissioned by The Commonwealth Fund, identified Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital as one of the top 10 hospitals in the nation for clinical quality. Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital is also a recipient of the prestigious Magnet Award for Nursing Excellence for more than 10 consecutive years.

Attention members of the media: For more information on this release, please contact the Department of Public Relations (732) 937-8521.


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