In recognition of his overall strategic vision and leadership in the field of health care, Mecklenburg received the 2000 Distinguished Public Service/Public Sector Alumnus Award.

Mecklenburg and his team tested their planning and management skills in the past decade when they planned and executed a building program for a new hospital facility. The huge teaching hospital with an adjoining medicaloffice building for 500 physicians opened in 1999 in Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood. It is considered to be one of the finest and most technologically advanced medical centers in the world and is being hailed as a prototype for health care in the future.

Designed from the standpoint of the organization’s “Patients First” motto, the new building signifies a culture that directs its energies toward providing patient-focused care as efficiently and economically as possible. While building a totally new medical center may not appear economical, Mecklenburg said it was the only way to address the limitations imposed by outdated facilities and a medical campus where care was provided at 22 different sites. The new hospital not only offers the most up-to-date medical technology, but also consolidates points of service. The major portion of the 2-million-square-foot building is dedicated to outpatient and diagnostic services, while only 25 percent is used for all-private patient rooms and ICU beds.

Planning for the new hospital began 10 years ago, at a time when insurance companies and the government were pressuring health care providers to reduce capacity and trim waste. Despite conventional wisdom that allocating significant capital to inpatient beds and “bricks and mortar” was unwise and financially threatening, Mecklenburg and his administrative team believed differently.

To finance one of the largest health care projects in the country, the hospital borrowed only 40 percent of its cost, or $225 million. The balance was financed by growing volume, eliminating $100 million of operating costs, dramatically improving investment income, and raising $126 million from donors.

While Mecklenburg said he is proud of the hospital’s financial performance and the success of the new facility, he prefers to emphasize the high level of patient satisfaction. By building facilities from the patients’ point of view, Mecklenburg said, he and his team created a “healing environment” that has changed the future of hospital design. Patients must agree. In its first year of operation, inpatient admissions at the new Northwestern Memorial Hospital grew more than 15 percent, with other services growing as much as 40 percent.

Mecklenburg majored in anthropology at Northwestern University, and upon graduation in 1968, he enrolled at Chicago GSB to pursue an M.B.A., concentrating in hospital administration. “The University of Chicago was not only the top business school in the nation, it also had the country’s first formal program in hospital administration, ” he said.

While at Chicago GSB, Mecklenburg marveled at his exposure to some of the great minds of business, studying under George Bugbee, one of the pioneers of hospital administration, and Odin Anderson, a renowned medical sociologist. “I was surrounded by extraordinary professors and students, ” he said. “To be around people like that, getting to know them and how they think, was anincredible experience. ”

Mecklenburg said the GSB’s strengths in accounting, finance, organizational theory, and marketing have served him well at each step of his career. When he graduated in 1970 and took his first job as an administrator at the University of Wisconsin Hospitals, the American health care system was going through some revolutionary changes. Medicare was having a dramatic effect on the industry, and the new skills required for hospitalmanagement matched his GSB training.

This was true in the late 1970s and 1980s when Mecklenburg served as administrator of Stanford University Hospital and Clinics and then CEO of St. Joseph’s Hospital in Milwaukee while managed care shook up the health care industry. By the time Mecklenburg became president and CEO of Northwestern Memorial in 1985, he was accustomed to the continuing challenge of providing quality care while holding down costs.

He and the management staff established a set of long-term goals for Northwestern Memorial, including a cost-cutting program that reduced expenses by 30 percent per case. Working with the entire organization, they established clinical and academic centers of excellence, as well as a culture known as “Patients First, ” which dramatically increased patient satisfaction. Mecklenburg and his team realized in the early 1990s that accommodating new patient care programs and developing the “Patients First” concept to its fullest extent required a totally new physical environment– –and they embraced the challenge.

Mecklenburg said he relied on knowledge acquired academically and throughout his career– –and on common sense– –to complete the building project. “I learned strategic planning and how to put together a sophisticated financial plan at the GSB and I was involved in major building projects at the University of Wisconsin and at Stanford, ” he said.

“Gary did an extraordinary job in accepting and managing such a high level of risk to rebuild Northwestern Memorial Hospital, ” said Kenneth Kaufman, ’76, a health care consultant who nominated Mecklenburg for a Distinguished Alumni Award. “Not only is the new facility gaining national and international recognition for Northwestern, but the organization is more financially successful than before the project was undertaken. ”

While Mecklenburg acknowledges his role in the new building, he is quick to share the accolades with others, especially the management team and his 5,000 employees. He also emphasized the hospital’s role in the community. “A hospital is an integral part of a community’s fabric, ” he said, “so being involved in other organizations and activities is a natural and very rewarding extension of my daily work. ”

He is a frequent lecturer and teacher and lends his name and expertise to numerous local charities, including the Boy Scouts of America, the March of Dimes, and the Lawson House YMCA. Also a national leader, Mecklenburg sits on the boards of the National Committee for Quality Health Care and the Institute for Diversity in Health Management and became chairman of the American Hospital Association this year.

Mecklenburg’s professional and community leadership has been recognized throughout his career. At the time of the opening of the new hospital, Chicago Tribune columnist John McCarron, who was Mecklenburg’s college fraternity brother, wrote: “Gary Mecklenburg is a natural leader who takes a sincere interest in others. He has a special gift, this Mr. Mecklenburg, for bringing people together and making good things happen. ”

Mecklenburg said that receiving a Distinguished Alumni Award was one of the high points of his career. “This is a unique honor, ” he said. “I always felt it was a privilege to attend the Graduate School of Business, so to be singled out from among all the students is very gratifying and very humbling. ”