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Thomas Bannen

New Position: Chief administrative officer, University of South Florida Heart Health, Tampa. Previous Position: Executive director, Pediatric Physician Services, All Children's Hospital, St. Petersburg

By Times Staff Writer
Published January 16, 2006

Thomas Bannen is back where he belongs, "back in the real world and (doing) what I've done well for so many years."

As the newly appointed chief administrative officer for the University of South Florida's Heart Health division, Bannen again is overseeing physicians, in an academic setting, after nearly three years of what he called "semiretirement."

Since 2002, Bannen had taken time off from the high-pressure world of medical management for personal reasons and served as administrator of his church, First Christian Church in Clearwater. In December, he joined the cardiovascular services division of the USF Medical College.

On the academic side, Bannen oversees areas including the residence program, a fellowship program "and group practice administrative issues," he said. On the clinical side, he oversees the large clinic at Tampa General Hospital and a smaller one on the USF campus on Bruce B. Downs Boulevard.

The cardiovascular division has 11 physicians, he said, and generates gross revenue of $17-million through professional fees by individual physicians. "We are in a recruiting mode," he said, "and will grow to 20 physicians over the next three years."

A native of Milwaukee, Bannen earned a bachelor's degree in 1970 at Marquette University, majoring in English literature. After working "a couple of years" as a claims adjustor for a Milwaukee insurance agency, Bannen took his first position in medical management with a group practice in Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Medical Center. His medical management career took him to Madison, Wis., Peoria, Ill., Jacksonville and finally to the Tampa Bay area, where in 1998 he became executive director of Pediatric Physician Services at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg.

In some 30 years in medical management, Bannen said he has worked with groups assmall as 10 to 12 physicians and as large as 400 physicians. "I've always been on the physician side of health," he said. "I've always believed physicians should drive the health care system.

"Academic health centers have to become more self-supportive," he said. "They have to become more efficient and more productive."

Bannen said he enjoys the challenge of acting as a liaison between management and physicians. "One of the things I pride myself in is I can take financial matters and management matters and translate them to physicians who are not management people," he said.

Bannen, 60, lives in Clearwater. He has two adult children and several grandchildren. Bannen said he is "an avid golfer" and tries to play two to three times a week, when his schedule permits. He said he also enjoys playing the piano and the guitar, "just for my own personal enjoyment."

[Last modified January 12, 2006, 19:06:02]