February 17, 2000

BIRMINGHAM, AL — L.R “Rush” Jordan, professor of health services administration at UAB’s School of Health Related Professions (SHRP), has been named to the Health Care Hall of Fame by Modern Healthcare magazine. Jordan has had a distinguished forty year career as a health care executive and educator at some of the nation’s most well-respected health care organizations, including Duke University, Shands Hospital at the University of Florida, Birmingham Baptists Hospitals, Alton Ochsner Medical Foundation in New Orleans, MedAmerica Health Systems and UAB.

“Rush Jordan’s leadership and vision have been a bridge for the nation’s health care delivery system at it moved from free-standing hospitals to diversified, multi-unit health care systems,” said S. Robert Hernandez, Dr.PH, chairman of the department of health services administration at SHRP.

Jordan was a pioneer in introducing business management practices to traditional health care delivery. He also was instrumental in breaking down racial barriers in health care by integrating hospitals and promoting the advancement of African-Americans into leadership positions in health care administration.

“Throughout his career, Rush Jordan sought to break down old walls and he has been a leading force in the modernization of health care management,” said Hernandez. “As a mentor of young executives and an innovator, he has had a profound effect on health care in the United States.”

UAB established the L.R. Jordan Endowed Chair in Health Services Administration upon Jordan’s retirement from active practice in 1987. The Chair was the first at UAB outside the Schools of Medicine and Dentistry and is one of the first in the country named for a practicing health care executive.

As professor of health services administration at UAB, Jordan has played an active role in placing graduate students in residency/fellowship programs throughout the country.

“He has played a significant role in developing many men and women into leaders who have made important contributions to management of the health services delivery system,” said Hernandez. “Because of his many friends in senior management positions across the country, he has opened doors for our students which would otherwise be closed.”

After attending Amherst College, Columbia University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Jordan became assistant director of the Duke University Medical Center in 1955. He was named director of the Teaching Hospitals and Clinics at the University of Florida Shands Teaching Hospital where he initiated one of the first degree programs in the country jointly managed by a health sciences school and a school of business.

Jordan became chief executive officer of the Birmingham Baptist Hospitals during the summer of 1965. He disbanded a hospital unit that was designated exclusively for minority patients and integrated patients onto all nursing floors, regardless of race. A second Birmingham Baptist Hospital admitted African-American patients for the first time during his tenure. Jordan also took one of the first African-American graduate students from the University of Alabama at Birmingham as an administrative resident.

Jordan was president of the Birmingham Regional Hospital Council, president of the Alabama Hospital Association and headed numerous organizations including the Chamber of Commerce, Birmingham Festival of Arts and the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

Jordan was president and chief executive officer of the Alton Ochsner Medical Foundation in New Orleans from 1974-78. He was actively involved in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation effort to encourage hospitals to sponsor and develop primary care groups. During this time, he was one of 30 founding members of the Voluntary Hospitals of America.

While chief executive officer of Miami Valley Hospital and MedAmerica Health systems from 1978-1987, he established an imaginative governance and management system that created one of the first diversified, integrated health care systems in the country. Jordan will be inducted into the Health Care Hall of Fame at the annual meeting of the American College of Health Care Executives in Chicago on March 26. A permanent display honoring Jordan will be housed at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, the first hospital in America founded by Benjamin Franklin and Dr. Thomas Bond in 1751.