Former Rothman CEO remembered for authenticity, being 'loved by everybody'

Orthopedic

Mike West, who led Philadelphia-based Rothman Orthopaedic Institute, for 22 years died Sept. 16 at age 65.

Alex Vaccaro, MD, PhD, president of Rothman, spoke with Mr. West on the morning he died and said the former CEO was laughing and looking forward to spending time with his family and going on a trip to Europe. Dr. Vaccaro spoke with him daily in the early mornings and continued the ritual after Mr. West retired in 2021.

"He was just someone who was loved by everybody," Dr. Vaccaro told Becker's. "All the emails I've gotten from people, had nothing to do with what a businessman he was. It was all about the type of person he was. He was someone who looked out for people. He wanted to make sure that everyone was taken care of. Until the very end, he looked out for everybody."

Under West's leadership Rothman grew to include about 200 physicians and more than 60 locations, including ASCs, two specialty hospitals and medical office buildings across Southeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Florida.

Dr. Vaccaro said Mr. West's background in real estate and accounting helped Rothman leverage value-based healthcare and move things toward the outpatient setting back in the 1990s.

"We developed a whole series of ambulatory surgical centers, we have two physician-owned hospitals, and it was all because of his vision saying that we have to bend the cost curve," Dr. Vaccaro said. "[He] helped what doctors cannot do well, and that's understanding the business of real estate and the business of accounting and finance."

Mr. West also shepherded Rothman through challenging years financially, Dr. Vaccaro said. 

"Over the last five years, most of the private practices have gone away," Dr. Vaccaro said. "Only 25% of graduates now go into private practice because of the cost of capital, inflation, staffing costs, and he allowed us to survive when every group around us was failing."

A key pillar of who Mr. West was in his business and as a person boils down to one word, Dr. Vaccaro said. Honesty. 

"He was authentic," Dr. Vaccaro said. "He was honest. He basically said, 'This is what we got to do. It's going to be difficult to do. We have to work hard.' We went so many years where financially we struggled, and he pulled us out and made us very successful. We've had our good years and bad years, but he kept us together as a family."

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