Alexian Brothers Hospital Names New VP of Medical Affairs.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 9, 1996--Alexian Brothers Hospital is pleased to announce the appointment of B. Ross Landess, M.D., as vice president of medical affairs.

In this newly created position, Dr. Landess completes the senior management team at Alexian Brothers Hospital by offering a medical perspective to the strategic planning and operating decisions of the hospital.

Specifically, Landess' role includes acting as a liaison with the medical staff as an educator and advocate for practitioners as they move toward a system of increased managed care. Additionally, he heads up the hospital's Total Quality Management Initiative related to hospital-wide service improvements.

"Our search for a new vice president of medical affairs was challenging and extensive," said President and Chief Executive Officer Steven Barron. "In Dr. Landess, we found a uniquely qualified candidate possessing a strong clinical reputation, significant administrative experience in a managed care environment with a management style demonstrating a talent for cooperation, communication and education."

With 23 years of experience, Landess comes to Alexian Brothers Hospital most recently from the U.S. Health Care Financing Administration in Washington, D.C. where he served as a managed care technical assistance consultant. Prior to that, and perhaps most significant in relation to his new position, Landess was senior vice president for care management at Sharp HealthCare in San Diego, Calif. As a leader in its local market, with about 30 percent of San Diego County's healthcare business, six hospitals and 2,700 physicians in four affiliated medical groups, Sharp ranks high among national models for managed care integration.

At Sharp, Landess was responsible for clinical guidelines, strategic planning, system integration, and outcomes development and measurement for all hospitals and medical groups within the system. His accomplishments included: developing a strategy to consolidate resources of two of the four medical groups to further improve services to physicians and patients; working with physicians to identify disproportionate expenditures; negotiating terms and implementing a new compensation method that converted the specialties of obstetrics, orthopedics, and general surgery from fee-for-service to a capitated compensation method; and developing a process which decreased approval time from 21 days to 3 days for routine requests and immediate approval for urgent requests.

Stanley Aronovitch, senior vice president, group operations at Sharp HealthCare said of Landess, "There is no question that Ross can do the job at Alexian Brothers. Ross knows managed care, knows quality and relates well with physicians -- he's a physician's executive."

Landess' experience also includes positions as executive vice president, strategic planning at Nation's Health Care and medical director of AVMed Health Plan. Prior to these roles, for eight years he held various management positions with CIGNA Health Plans of California including executive vice president and medical director and vice president and staff medical director for quality. Board certified in family practice, Landess was a family practitioner for fourteen years. Prior to that, he served in the U.S. Army Corps in Vietnam, and was chief of emergency services at St. Joseph's Hospital in Arizona.

Landess is certified by Northwestern University's Institute for Managed Care, holds his M.D. from the University of Texas, and a B.A. from Baylor University.

Alexian Brothers Hospital was founded in 1965 by the Alexian Brothers congregation of the Roman Catholic Church. The 204-bed facility has a staff of over 700 full-time employees and 405 professional medical staff specializing in 21 fields of medicine, dentistry and podiatry. The hospital is owned and operated by Alexian Brothers Health System, Inc.

CONTACT: Alexian Brothers Hospital

Nancy Smith, 408/729-2897

or

Pacifico, Inc.

Matthew Bell, 408/293-8600