Kaiser President Thode To Retire
Mary Ann Thode will retire as president of Kaiser Permanente's Northern California division by the end of 2007 or early 2008, the San Jose Mercury News reports. Kaiser on Friday publicly announced the retirement, a day after Thode informed Kaiser officials of her decision (Feder Ostrov, San Jose Mercury News, 1/27).
Thode said her decision was not motivated by the alleged mismanagement of the kidney transplant program at Kaiser (San Francisco Chronicle, 1/27).
Thode directed four Kaiser hospitals in the Bay Area from 1998 until she became president of the Northern California division in 2002. She also has worked as a hospital administrator for Catholic Healthcare West and began her career as a nurse at Kaiser Permanente.
Kaiser's Northern California division has 64,000 employees and about 3.2 million members (San Jose Mercury News, 1/27).