James Varnum '62, president of Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital, has been elected to the board of trustees of the American Hospital Association.
The board's 25 members govern the AHA, a non-profit organization which serves as a national advocate for more than 5,000 hospitals.
Varnum will remain chief administrator of the Hitchcock Hospital. The hospital, the Hitchcock clinic for outpatient care and the Dartmouth Medical School are components of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
Varnum joined the Hitchcock Hospital as president in 1978. He oversaw planning for the hospital's 1991 move from Hanover to a new $218 million facility in Lebanon.
Seven new members were elected two weeks ago to four-year terms as trustees of the AHA, the largest association of American hospitals.
Varnum is currently on vacation and could not be reached for comment.
Varnum has served in various capacities of national leadership within the hospital association since 1973, according to Bill Erwin, spokesman for the AHA national office.
He graduated from Dartmouth in 1962 with a degree in economics. He received a masters degree in hospital administration two years later from the University of Michigan.
Only one of the 25 AHA board members has a medical degree, according to Erwin. "The board tends to be made up of [corporate executive officers] of hospitals active in AHA affairs, or CEOs of hospital systems," Erwin said.
Hospital presidents, as chief administrators and fund raisers, work closely with physicians, Erwin said.
The AHA keeps its members up to date on government policy and works to inform the public about health care issues.
The Association has worked with President Bill Clinton's Task Force on Health Care Reform. The task force, chaired by Hillary Rodham Clinton, has worked on new national health care legislation for the past six months.
In January 1992, the AHA Board of Trustees endorsed its own proposal for health care reform. It calls for universal access to health benefit coverage, provided by the government to those not covered through employers.
"Changes in the health care industry present many challenges to hospitals today," Varnum said in a news release from Hitchcock Hospital.
"My election to the AHA will allow me to work with some of the best hospital administrators in the country to help resolve some of the issues facing all of us, from the small, rural hospital to the large academic medical center," he said.
The AHA reform plan is similar to the plan that will be proposed by Clinton, Erwin said.
"We are generally in agreement with what the administration is going to propose," he said. "But we reserve the right to disagree with the specifics, when they are known."
The President will address a joint session of Congress on his plan for health care on September 22, according to Erwin.
"Hopefully, hospitals will be winners. If hospitals come out winners, their communities are winners as well," Erwin said.
Varnum spent ten years in the administration of the University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison, the last three as superintendent. In 1973 he was appointed administrator of the University of Washington Hospital in Seattle.
His leadership in business extends beyond the medical profession.
Currently a trustee of the New Hampshire Hospital Association, Varnum is also the director of First NH Bank. He was named 1992 Business Leader of the Year by Business New Hampshire Magazine and the New Hampshire Association of Area Chamber of Commerce Executives.
