To the editor:

In light of Irene Cumming’s resignation, the Kansas University Hospital Authority Board has a very important decision to make.

Ms. Cumming has done a remarkable job in facilitating KU Hospital’s financial success, and the hospital is now poised, together with the KU Medical Center, to lead the state and the region in patient care, educating physicians and growing the life sciences. Kansans deserve the best possible leader to take the hospital to the next level. That leader may currently be at the hospital, elsewhere in the state of Kansas or at another growing university hospital. The board must find out.

It is important that we as physicians understand who will be leading the hospital in the short term – we need an interim CEO. But considering that the KU Hospital is at least a billion-dollar asset to Kansas and the region, the board would absolutely be remiss if it did not conduct a thorough, nationwide search for a new leader. I feel strongly about this, as do my colleagues, Dr. Roy Jensen, Dr. Joshua Freeman, Dr. Rajib Bhattacharya, Dr. Andrea C. Ely, Dr. Michael Kennedy and Dr. Carl P. Weiner, all of whom have read and agree with this letter.

We have great people at the hospital, and the next leader of the hospital may very well be someone who already is working here. But this is no time to be humble. We don’t want to sell the hospital short by not exploring all of the potential options.

Dr. K. Allen Greiner, Department of Family Medicine, KU Medical Center