WASHINGTON - Dick Davidson, president of the American Hospital Association (AHA) since 1991, will retire from the post, effective January 1, 2007. Davidson, 69, is the second longest-serving president in the association's 108-year history.

The AHA also announced today that the association's Board of Trustees has chosen Richard J. Umbdenstock, a top executive with Providence Health & Services in Seattle as Davidson's successor. Umbdenstock will be the tenth person to hold the chief executive position.

To ensure a smooth transition, Umbdenstock will join the AHA as chief operating officer and president-elect in June before assuming the presidency next year. Umbdenstock recently served as the AHA's Board chairman, a volunteer post from which he has resigned. The Board has asked AHA's immediate past chair, George Lynn, president and chief executive officer of AtlantiCare in Atlantic City, N.J., to fill the remaining months of Umbdenstock's term.
Davidson led the 4,800-member association through one of the most tumultuous periods of change in hospitals and health care in America. It was early in his tenure that the nation debated comprehensive health reform under President Clinton. At the same time, many hospitals underwent a fundamental change in their structures, evolving into health systems with multiple sites and services, rather than the traditional hospital model. When the concept of "managed care" swept the health care field, causing major changes in health care delivery and payment, the AHA under Davidson's leadership undertook a wide range of policy and legislative initiatives to help its members cope with the rapidly changing environment.

While at the AHA, Davidson helped establish the Institute for Diversity in Health Management and spearheaded the Hospital Quality Alliance - a public/private partnership that created publicly available information on hospital quality measurement nationally for the use of both consumers and internal hospital quality improvement. In 2004 and 2006, the association established two centers devoted to improving hospital and health system governance and quality and patient safety.

Davidson was the first president of the Maryland Hospital Association from 1969 to 1991. Under his leadership, the organization was recognized nationally for its work on trustee involvement in state association affairs, payment reform, the development of clinical quality indicators and medical and corporate values and ethics in the hospital setting.

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