The Cook County Board of Commissioners tapped a new interim chief for the health and hospital system after the unexpected resignation of two-year chief financial officer William Foley last week.
As interim chief executive officer, Terry Mason will oversee the county’s public health system, which is the third-largest in the country and accounts for about a third of Cook’s total $3 billion annual budget.
Mason previously served as the system’s chief medical officer.
Foley left the county system last week and will take over as president of Vanguard Health System’s Chicago market. He will oversee four Chicago-area hospitals owned by Vanguard, a for-profit Tennessee based health care company.
Foley left the county after a state board rejected a plan to close a suburban Cook hospital — one of the county’s three public hospitals — and replace it with an outpatient clinic. He and other proponents argued the plan would save money and provide more preventative care.
Foley was the first CEO of Cook County’s new quasi-independent health and hospital system.
The county board allowed the system to operate independently of the full county, though the Cook County board still signs off on its annual budget of about $1 billion.
