Something strange happened at El Camino Hospital last week. The publicly elected board that oversees the hospital appointed 36-year-old Lanhee Chen to the corporate board of directors for the hospital. The appointment raised some eyebrows because, unlike other applicants for the job, Mr. Chen has almost no experience in healthcare and hospitals. Two unsuccessful candidates for the board position had spent their entire 30+ year careers as consultants to hospitals.
Here’s what Chen does have going for him. He is a smart guy with lots of credentials, undergraduate and graduate degrees from Harvard, including a BA, MA, JD, and Ph.D. Perhaps more important though are his Republican connections. He was senior adviser on policy to the National Republican Senatorial Committee during the 2014 election. In 2012, he served as Mitt Romney’s Chief Policy Advisor responsible for domestic and foreign policy. Prior to that political appointment, Chen served as Romney’s domestic policy advisor for Romney’s 2008 presidential run. And, in 2004, he served as a domestic policy advisor to the Bush-Cheney campaign. Currently, he works at Stanford’s conservative Hoover Institute.
It’s clear that Chen’s political credentials are stronger than his healthcare credentials. He was named one of Politicos “50 Politicos To Watch” in July 2012, and he provides policy and political commentary on Bloomberg, CNBC, CNN, FOX News, and MSNBC. Somewhat ironically, in 2013 he argued against Obamacare in an article for Bloomberg.
Why such a politico would want a job on the hospital board perplexes medical professionals at the hospital, but the answer seems clear enough. Chen was appointed on a 3-2 vote, with the three conservative members of the board supporting him. It appears that Chen, who is a Mountain View resident, is trying to establish some local credentials to go with his political ones. Don’t be surprised to see him on a ballot sometime soon.
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