Neuropsychiatric hospital director to step down
Don Rockwell to resign by July, no replacement yet
By Donna Wong
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
After 10 years as the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Hospital Director,
Don Rockwell will step down this July and leave a troubled hospital
and a health care field that has changed drastically since he
entered.
Rockwell said he made his decision known to the psychiatric
hospital faculty and administration in late September, attributing
much of it to the new business-concentrated field that health care
has become.
"The environment in which we work has become very different from
when I first took the job … We have to be competitive in the
marketplace, and I think that running a hospital in that
environment requires a different set of skills than I have,"
Rockwell said.
Rockwell’s resignation comes after a June 1994 special survey
which found the psychiatric hospital performing below the standards
of a national accreditation commission.
However, the negative November publicity surrounding the
hospital’s current conditional accreditation status had no bearing
on his decision to step down as director, Rockwell said.
"The decision was made before all that hassle," he said. "I
think it’s a reasonable decision on a personal level and on an
institutional level."
But even though Rockwell will be leaving his current position,
he will remain at UCLA as a resource instructor in the psychiatric
field and an administrative planner for UCLA’s newly acquired
hospital in Santa Monica.
In addition, Rockwell plans to conduct research on professional
socialization in the medical field, and investigate ways to attract
more doctors into general health care, instead of specialized
healthcare.
Although he will depart in less than six months, Rockwell said
there is no committee, to his knowledge, conducting a search for a
new director.
The UCLA Medical School’s Provost/Dean, Gerald Levey, who would
ultimately organize the search effort, could not be reached for
comment. However, Levey prepared a brief statement commenting on
Rockwell’s decision, and expressing his gratitude for Rockwell’s
role in "assessing and enhancing the curriculum of the School of
Medicine."
With last year’s arrival of the new medical school provost,
Levey, Rockwell said that it made sense to make his change at this
time.
It was after a three week vacation last summer that Rockwell
said he recognized his new career path.
"On a two week vacation you’re spending a week getting away from
the job, and you’re spending one week getting ready to go back. The
difference with a third week is that you have a week in between to
see what it feels like to be a real vacation," Rockwell said. "I
think that it was during that week that it became clear to me that
it was time to do something different," Rockwell said.
Previously, Rockwell was medical director at UC Davis for four
years. After arriving at UCLA, he led UCLA’s hospital into becoming
a "first rate" public/private psychiatric institution, Rockwell
described.
Rockwell’s parting thoughts to the new director is one of
realizing the great demands that he or she will face.
"The new director will have to learn things that I’m sure they
never dreamed they would have to learn," Rockwell said.