The Menninger Clinic Names Dr. C. Edward Coffey as President and CEO
HOUSTON—The Menninger Clinic, one of the nation’s leading psychiatric hospitals, today announced that Dr. C. Edward Coffey, a neuropsychiatrist and award-winning healthcare executive, has been named president and CEO of the hospital effective September 29, 2014. Coffey will have a faculty appointment at Baylor College of Medicine in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Department of Neurology. The announcement comes after Menninger’s current president and CEO, Ian Aitken, announced in December 2013 his plans to retire in 2014.
A proven leader and collaborator with a strong record of research, training and patient care, Coffey was most recently vice president of the private seven-hospital, not-for-profit Henry Ford Health System in Detroit and concurrently served as CEO of Henry Ford Behavioral Health Services and Chair of Psychiatry for the Henry Ford Medical Group. Among his accomplishments, Coffey’s leadership contributed to his organization earning the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation’s highest presidential honor for performance excellence through innovation, improvement and visionary leadership.
“The Menninger Clinic Board of Directors as well as our Foundation Board of Directors are confident that Dr. Coffey is a visionary leader who will continue Menninger’s strong legacy of providing hope and healing for patients and their families,” said Robert C. Wilson III, chair of The Menninger Clinic’s Board of Directors. “Menninger is in the midst of a dynamic new era of leadership in mental health treatment, research and education, and Dr. Coffey has both the expertise and the passion to lead us through this evolution.”
Coffey brings 30 years of administrative, clinical and research expertise to his new CEO role, a background that is well suited to Menninger’s mission of providing quality treatment while accelerating advancements in prevention, cutting-edge research collaboration, training clinicians prepared for difficult cases and the diminishment of stigma.
"Throughout my career I’ve come to recognize that the Menninger name is synonymous with premier mental health treatment, so I’m honored by the opportunity to serve this great hospital and its patients, faculty and staff,” said Coffey. “Menninger has a rich 88-year legacy to build upon, and I believe the boards of directors and the hospital’s highly accomplished team, in partnership with Baylor College of Medicine, are positioned to grow and make significant contributions to mental health treatment and research.”
Coffey maintained clinical patient care and academic teaching responsibilities during his administrative tenure at Henry Ford. Among his professional accomplishments, Coffey led the development and implementation of Henry Ford Hospital System’s “Perfect Depression Care” program which lowered the hospital’s suicide rate to unprecedented levels. Along with earning the Malcolm Baldrige Award, the program's success led to Coffey's appointment to the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention, a national public-private partnership formed by the U.S. Departments of Defense and Health and Human Services. Additionally, the program was recognized by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the American College of Mental Health Administrators, The Joint Commission and the American Psychiatric Association.
Having developed highly successful programs in electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for the treatment of severe and persistent depression, Coffey served as director of the Center for Brain Stimulation Therapies at Henry Ford and serves on the board of directors of the International Society for ECT and Neurostimulation.
Coffey is a Rhodes Scholar who attended St. John’s College, University of Oxford, England, to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree focused on psychology, philosophy and physiology after earning a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology from Wofford College in South Carolina. Coffey obtained his medical degree from Duke University, where he also completed residencies in neurology and psychiatry.
Jannah Hodges of the executive search firm Hodges Partners, Dallas, assisted in the nationwide search conducted by a committee of Board Directors as well as senior faculty and staff members from Baylor College of Medicine and The Menninger Clinic.
Coffey’s administrative, clinical and research expertise is ideally suited for Menninger, which in 2012 built and relocated to its new Mental Health Epicenter, a 50-acre campus located just 10 minutes from the Texas Medical Center. The new hospital campus furthered Menninger’s pursuit of improving treatment and personalized care through expansion of collaborative research. Subsequently, Menninger became a Texas Medical Center member institution, capitalizing on translational research by launching the five-year McNair Initiative for Neuroscience Discovery at Menninger and Baylor College of Medicine.
Ranked fifth nationally on U.S. News & World Report’s 2014 list of the best hospitals for psychiatry, Menninger operates five inpatient units and offers psychiatric assessment and stabilization as well as services for addictions, eating disorders and adults preparing to reintegrate into the community. Specialty treatment programs are available for adolescents, young adults and professionals in crisis. The average patient stay is 45 days – longer than the five-to-seven-day average patient stays at acute psychiatric facilities. Menninger has found that this approach gives patients, many who have had three or more prior hospitalizations, a chance to recover, address core issues that have impeded success and initiate lasting change, reducing the cost of recurring hospitalizations.
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About The Menninger Clinic
The Menninger Clinic is a national psychiatric hospital offering specialty diagnostic and treatment programs, educational programs for mental health professionals and research. Menninger has been named among the nation’s best hospitals in psychiatry for 25 consecutive years by psychiatrists nationwide in U.S. News & World Report’s annual survey. Menninger is the private teaching hospital of Baylor College of Medicine’s Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Visit www.menningerclinic.com for more information.