Health Care system Director Takes Heat

Betsey Bayless, the chief executive officer of the state's largest public-hospital system, is political royalty.

A prominent Republican, she has had a long career in public service and has earned a reputation as an efficient administrator and elected official. She ran the Department of Administration, served as secretary of state and earlier as a Maricopa County supervisor.

Her resume is impressive. But it was missing a key ingredient - experience with health-care management when Maricopa Integrated Health System's governing board hired her three years ago as its CEO, a position that now pays $368,000 yearly. Bayless' credentials have come under scrutiny since a national-accreditation organization found significant flaws with MIHS last year. Bayless said the rating, which has since been upgraded one step, does not reflect her performance, and most flaws involved documentation that did not affect patient care.

Bayless, 64, said one key goal has been to build a senior-management team with backgrounds in traditional hospital-management operations, from staffing to quality care and financing.

"I told the board, I am a government manager, I am not a health-care manager. I am who I am,' " she said in an interview late last week. "I said, 'I will have to have a health-care backup, people with health-care experience.' "