Schoenhard Tapped as Health Ops Deputy

Late last month I reported that St. Louis hospital executive William Schoenhard appeared to have the inside track for appointment as the new undersecretary for health at the Veterans Affairs Department.

Well, I missed slightly. VA will name Schoenhard as deputy undersecretary for health for operations and management, effective Oct. 8.

This make sense because Schoenhard has experience as a hospital administrator and I hear the department wants a doc to run the Veterans Health Administration. With two MDs on the short list for the top VHA job, Dr. John Feussner, chairman of the Medicine Department at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, and Dr. Robert (Randy) Petzel, VA's director of Northwest Health Services Research and Development Field Program at in the Puget Sound Health Care System.

I hear Petzel is the favored candidate, since he has extensive inside experience with VHA.