Remembering Ed Clark (1944-2022)

When my eldest daughter was seven or eight, she said to me one night as I was putting her to bed, "Mom, I just want to be remembered." Along this adventure we call life, we are fortunate to work alongside some very special people. One of them I will always remember is Ed Clark.

ED CLARK, MD, Snowbird Health Summit 2017

One of the first people I met when I was first looking at moving to Utah was Ed Clark. As would be true during my six-year tenure as CEO, senior vice-president, and medical school dean at the University of Utah Health, Ed was a respected leader among his peers. The chair of pediatrics for over 20 years, Ed was also pediatrician-in-chief at Primary Children's Hospital, the children's hospital of Utah, owned and operated by Intermountain Healthcare and staffed by University of Utah physicians. When I met him, he tried to persuade me that the spirit of innovation, deep collaboration with Intermountain, natural beauty, and good people were unrivaled.

He was right.

Not long after we arrived in Salt Lake City, Ed invited me to Primary Children's to attend his annual state of the union address to the department and staff. Ushered to a reserved front row seat, I was completely mesmerized by the event. The room was packed, and over the next 50 min, Ed masterfully held the spotlight. Reminding everyone of the mission: The Child First and Always, he shared gripping stories of the teams who had cared for some of the sickest and neediest children. His praised the research his faculty had done in determining how best to care for babies with common conditions--like unexplained fevers in newborns. These standardized approaches were spreading nationally and making care better and safer everywhere. As the department chair, Ed also highlighted new loan forgiveness programs to support faculty who came to their first university jobs with $100,000's in loans. He spotlighted research and the millions of new grant dollars received. The consummate CEO, Ed also covered the key financial and operating metrics. Under his leadership, the business was doing magnificently. Throughout the talk,Ed gave credit and recognized the individuals and teams who were making it happen. With this presentation, Ed set a high bar. Over all the subsequent years, he never let us down.

I must say I had confidence in Ed even before I knew him. That's because I have a real soft spot for pediatricians. By definition they are caring, empathetic, kind, fun-loving, and patient people. They manage to care for kids and their families without seeming paternalistic. They are committed to prevention. They ask about friends, school, sleeping habits. They emphasize a healthy diet and keep vaccinations up to date. A while back when one of our daughters greeted our pediatrician at her well baby visit by peeing all over his tie, he shrugged and smiled. Luckily, expensive ties weren't part of his wardrobe.

And that's the kind of pediatrician I imagine that Ed Clark once was, before he was tasked with ever-increasing leadership responsibilities. Frequently when the medical school or adult hospitals tackled a new challenge, we would turn to Ed, and often lean on his mentees to support our health system-wide efforts.

Ed himself was also increasingly pulled into health system level leadership roles. In 2015, he was selected by his peers to lead the University of Utah Medical Group and serve as associate vice president for clinical affairs. His contributions are truly too numerous to mention, but one story that I frequently tell happened at a dinner with the medical school chairs in 2012. I had been reflecting on the remarkable advances we had made improving the quality of care and the patient experience at the University of Utah. However, we still had work to do on reducing the costs of care. Ed was sitting across from me, thinking intently. After a brief pause, with that twinkle in his eye, he looked at me matter of factly and said, "You know Vivian. I'm sure we could lower the costs of care if only we knew the costs of care."

What he meant was that when we had provided data to our clinicians on patient satisfaction and quality outcomes for their patients, they had learned from it, and in a short time, significantly improved. But none had never seen their costs of care, so no wonder there wasn't much progress. Spurred by those words, the next morning I called a meeting of leaders and asked them Ed's question, "Why can't each clinician understand how much it costs us to deliver care to their patients? Can we know how much it costs to perform a hernia operation or a hip replacement or an MRI or deliver a baby?" It was just as you'd expect a car manufacturer to know how much it cost to make a jeep or a sedan.

Ed's question launched Utah's Value Driven Outcomes initiative, which over the next few months delivered just that kind of information to our clinicians. It helped improve our quality and reduce our costs of care, which meant we saved more money to support our education and research missions. It was transformative.

Like many at the University of Utah, Ed was a transplant. Born in New York City, Ed could still conjure up his old “New Yawwk” accent, just for fun. That said, there was no doubt that Ed had become a passionate Utahn. He loved the outdoors, I'll never forget his rapturous recollections of sailing on the Great Salt Lake (and my disbelief!). I know he was very proud of his children and devoted to his wife, Carleen. Ed treated everyone at work as a member of his extended family, and we all felt blessed to know him. We will miss you Ed.

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