Daniel D. Sedmak, the former executive vice president of Georgetown Medical Center who abruptly resigned in August, has been rehired as a top administrator of Ohio State University’s medical center.
Sedmak will fill his former position as executive vice dean and associate vice president for health sciences of the center, OSU officials announced. Sedmak headed Ohio’s Medical Center for approximately two years before assuming his position at Georgetown in July 2003.
Sedmak said his decision to return to Ohio was motivated primarily by concerns about his family.
“Well, first, I made the decision that Columbus was the best place to be,” he said. “I want to spend more time with my family.”
Sedmak also said he looked forward to resuming his duties as second-in-command of OSU’s medical center.
“I’ll be working very closely with the executive dean to align the research and education mission [of the university] with [the] strategy of health service,” he said.
Sedmak left Georgetown amid a series of financial difficulties within the Medical Center. He developed a plan to reduce the GUMC’s budget by $2 million, and led an effort projected to save $7.9 million annually.
His efforts to reduce operating expenses also included the layoffs of 65 faculty and staff.
Sedmak, the third executive vice president at the Medical Center in the past two years, said he regretted the need to terminate university employees.
“It was an exceptionally difficult thing to do,” he said. “I think that we all work together to try to understand what we could do. [We] wanted it to be [a] fair, open-minded process.”
Georgetown’s administration has been criticized by some edical Center faculty and staff for frequently hiring, then firing top officials who receive large salaries and severance packages. Despite a series of executive vice presidents over the last few years, the Medical Center remains mired in debt and financial difficulty.
“In terms of management, last year Dan faced head on GUMC’s financial challenges,” University President John J. DeGioia said in a statement announcing Sedmak’s departure in August. “I appreciate his work to build consensus within the Medical Center community that we must take strong steps to bring the budget into balance by FY ’07, as expected by our Board of Directors.”
Sedmak declined to comment on the Medical Center’s financial difficulties and referred inquiries to DeGioia’s statement.
Sedmak organized a conference at Georgetown to consider the use of faith-based organizations in combating the HIV/AIDS epidemic. He also helped establish the Medical Center’s Integrated Learning Center, which provides clinical experience and seminar-style learning environments for Georgetown medical students.
He began his work at OSU in 1985, serving as a professor and physician, interim dean of the College of Medicine and Public Health and senior interim vice president of the Medical Center.
Sedmak said he admired his fellow staff and faculty during his tenure at Georgetown, and expressed optimism that the Medical Center’s financial problems would soon be resolved.
“The thing that impresses me about the Georgetown faculty is that they’re among the finest in the country,” he said. “Those individuals are very committed to Georgetown. They will be able to stabilize what is happening.”