As you may have heard, I am retiring on July 31, 2006, as President and Medical Director of Magee Rehabilitation Hospital. After serving 30 wonderful years at Magee, I felt it was the appropriate time to pass the torch to the Hospital’s next leadership. This fine institution is on solid footing, and I believe it will continue to grow as the new President and the new Medical Director provide and instill their personal direction and guidance.

After a thorough national search, the Hospital’s Board of Trustees selected Jack A Carroll, Ph.D., as Magee’s next Chief Executive Officer and President. Dr. Carroll’s first day at Magee will be August 7. He brings more than 20 years of rehabilitation hospital experience both as a clinician and as an administrator. His most recent position was President and Chief Executive Officer of Sheltering Arms Physical Rehabilitation Hospital and Clinics in Richmond, Virginia.

Magee’s new Medical Director is an individual who many, including myself, have known and respected throughout the years for his clinical expertise as well as his engaging personality. Guy Fried, M.D., has been at Magee for the past 17 years, serving as the Hospital’s Medical Director of Outpatients and Brain Injury. Recently, he was honored among the area’s “Top Doctors” in the field of Rehabilitation in the May 2006 issue of Philadelphia Magazine. He has expressed the desire and passion to be Magee’s Medical Director and help the Hospital evolve and thrive.

I am fully confident that these two fine gentlemen will do an excellent job and take Magee Rehabilitation Hospital to newer and greater heights.

On July 31, Magee will also be saying farewell to Loretta M. McLaughlin, who has served Magee the last 11 years as its Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Loretta helped Magee establish itself as an institution consistently recognized as one of the foremost in the nation for physical medicine and rehabilitation, including a ranking in U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Hospitals” edition in 2004, 2005, and 2006. Loretta has accepted the position of Chief Financial Officer for the newly forming Mid Atlantic Community of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas. The Mid Atlantic Community will be formed by the merger of the Regional Communities of Brooklyn, Dallas, Merion, New Jersey, and New York. Loretta will be working out of Merion, Pennsylvania.

This is an exciting time for the Hospital. In addition to being ranked in U.S. News and World Report, Magee received its finest survey from CARF and JCAHO surveyors. These accomplishments and more are the direct result of the dedicated and hard-working group of doctors, nurses, therapists, and staff that makes Magee special for each patient who passes through our doors.

I hope you join Loretta and me in welcoming Magee’s new leadership team. We are confident that Dr. Jack A. Carroll and Dr. Guy Fried will continue the mission of improving the quality of life of individuals with disabilities through Magee’s high quality services.