In Memoriam: URMC Remembers Paul Griner, MD

Paul Griner, MD, Professor of Medicine emeritus at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry and former chief executive officer for Strong Memorial Hospital, died on June 24 in Weston, Mass. He was 91.

Griner was a renowned expert on health care policy who consulted with the Clinton administration on national health insurance legislation, and served as a consultant to the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Cambridge, Mass. During his 60+-year career, he was president of three national medical organizations and was elected to the prestigious Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. His research was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, among others; in total he published more than 130 articles, book chapters and books.

Griner graduated from Harvard College in 1954 and received his MD degree with honors at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in 1959. He completed three years of training in Internal Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital, then returned to SMD as Chief Resident and a Hematology Fellow. From 1961 to 1963, Griner served in the Air Force at Andrews Air Force Hospital in Washington D.C., receiving the Air Force Commendation Medal upon discharge.

In 1964, Griner returned to Rochester as chief resident in medicine and a fellow in hematology at Strong Memorial Hospital. He served as assistant professor and then associate professor of Medicine; in 1973, he was appointed the Samuel E. Durand Professor of Medicine.

Griner was appointed CEO at Strong Memorial Hospital in 1984 and served in the position for 11 years; in this role he directed the activities and programs of the hospital and its ambulatory services. He also served as chair of the Department of Health Services and director of Clinical Services at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Griner was a University of Rochester Trustee from 2011 – 2015. He became a Trustee Emeritus (previously known as Life Trustee) in 2015 until his death. 

Strong Memorial made several clinical and operational advances under Griner's leadership. In 1985, it opened a 24-bed ambulatory surgery unit and two years later, earned designation as a state bone marrow transplant center. In 1989 Griner formed a task force to study the possibility of a liver transplant center in Rochester and appointed Seymour Schwartz, MD, Strong’s chief of surgery, as its chairman.

URMC colleagues remember Griner for his principled leadership, his visionary approach to health care modernization during the turbulent 1970s and 1980s, and most of all, for the compassion and careful attention he paid to each patient in his care.

“He was always deeply concerned about the well-being of his patients and despite his many accomplishments as a hospital administrator and health policy expert, he probably always viewed himself as a physician first and foremost,” said Mark Taubman, MD, senior advisor to the CEO at URMC and Emeritus CEO and Dean of SMD.

As a health care executive and consultant, “Paul was always looking forward, working to envision how we could create an environment that would enable us to best serve our patients. It was a great motivation for him,” Taubman added.

“Paul epitomized the I CARE values before we called them the I CARE values,” Taubman added. “The concept of 'caring' has two meanings for a physician – there’s the clinical care you deliver, but also the act of caring, emotionally, about the welfare of the human being that is your patient. For Paul as a physician, those two meanings were one and the same. He understood that in order to care for people, you have to care for people.”

Leo Brideau, senior advisor to URMC Leadership, was chief operating officer throughout Griner’s tenure as CEO and succeeded him in the role.

"Paul was a superb physician and teacher who cared deeply for every patient he served. He imbued his senior leadership team with the same profound respect for all the patients we served. Whenever we were faced with a difficult management decision, his first question to us was always: 'What's best for our patients?'" 

“I had the privilege of spending an afternoon with Paul a few days before his death. I asked him what he was proudest of over the course of his life. He recounted many stories, but the central theme was always doing what you believe is right in the face of opposition or adversity. Paul was the embodiment of Mark Twain's aphorism: 'Always do right; this will gratify some people and astonish the rest'. Paul is irreplaceable."

Griner’s contributions as CEO took place decades before Medical Center CEO and SMD Dean David Linehan, MD, began his tenure, but Linehan noted their continuing and profound impact.

“Paul Griner was the consummate academic medical center physician and researcher, and a role model to the many trainees and faculty colleagues he met during his decades in Rochester,” Linehan said. “He was a visionary leader who implemented changes that benefit our faculty, staff and especially patients to this day.”

In 1985 Griner was principal investigator on a research project, New Strategies for Cost-Effective Health Care Practices in Teaching Hospitals; his co-PI was Loretta Ford, dean of the School of Nursing. Their findings led them to recommend combined medicine/nursing patient care plans; joint physician/nurse work rounds; greater integration and partnership in care between physicians and nurses; and more discriminating use of tests and procedures.

Griner published and lectured extensively on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of clinical practice, the relationship between managerial and clinical decision-making in the hospital, and future directions in medicine. He was a consultant to the federal government in the 1990s as President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hilary Clinton advocated for universal health insurance, and he testified before Congressional committees on the topic.

From 1993 to 1994, Griner was president of the American College of Physicians, a professional association of approximately 77,000 internists at the time. He was active in the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Academic Medical Center Consortium (and was chairman of the Board of Directors from 1991-92). He was a member of the New York State Governor’s Health Care Advisory Board and the Mayoral Commission on the Health & Hospitals Corporation of the City of New York.

Griner was involved in a number of treatment breakthroughs in medicine. In 1963, he introduced closed chest massage to the medical staff of Massachusetts General Hospital and, in 1974, was the first to cure aplastic anemia in an adult with immunotherapy alone. This cure strengthened the theory that the cause of aplastic anemia is, in many cases, an autoimmune disorder.

Decades after his time in Rochester, Griner kept in touch with SMD alumni and patients alike. In 2012, he published a memoir about some of his cases, “The Power of Patient Stories: Learning Moments in Medicine,” to share lessons from his career with future students and residents.

He remained proud of SMD and its tradition of emphasizing the importance of the physician-patient connection in healing.

“Rochester graduates young physicians who are really good at the bedside – more so than almost any medical school in the country. Teachers take seriously the importance of learning from the patient. If you take a good history and do a good physical exam, over 90 percent of diagnoses can be made before you even leave the bedside or office examining table,” Griner said. “Rochester has been a model for the rest of the country for that philosophy. I am amazed and so happy to find that is still the case now as it was in 1954 when I started medical school.”