By David Nakamura
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 1, 2008

D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty yesterday appointed Baltimore County's top-ranking public health official as director of the District's troubled Department of Health.

Pierre Vigilance, 38, a London native who came to the United States for college and medical school, has headed Baltimore County's health agency since 2005, overseeing a staff of 533 and an annual budget of $52 million. The new job will be considerably bigger.

The D.C. Health Department has about 1,200 employees and an almost $2 billion budget, and it has been criticized for its performance in several areas, including failing to help poor, uninsured residents obtain care, neglecting to recoup federal dollars from Medicaid and Medicare, and not doing enough to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS and combat childhood obesity.

Vigilance, who will make $179,000 a year, is scheduled to start in April.

"This is a great day for the wellbeing of all District residents," Fenty (D) said in a news release. "Dr. Vigilance brings us an energy that's unparalleled in his field, and a wealth of experience in dealing with urban health issues."

The move comes four months after Fenty fired Gregg A. Pane, citing the need for a "more aggressive health strategy." Carlos Cano served as interim director. He had been the senior deputy director of the Health Department's Community Health Administration.

Asked in an interview what his top priority will be, Vigilance said he will examine how the department communicates within the agency and to hospitals, providers and public.

"We want to see where we do it well and where we don't, and create a strong strategic mission and vision," he said.

Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr. (D) praised Vigilance's work with the uninsured and called him an "excellent communicator."

"He delivers information, and he really is good at communicating with people," Smith said.

The appointment came the same day Fenty laid out a strategy to target some of the worst health problems affecting District youth, including obesity, asthma, infant mortality and teen pregnancy, through a public-private partnership.

While in Baltimore County, Vigilance established a quantitative management reporting system, improved access to care for the medically uninsured and lobbied for legislation that aimed to reduce youth access to tobacco, according to the release.

Vigilance acknowledged that the District, with a significant concentration of urban poor, will present significant challenges he did not face as much in Baltimore County. However, he noted that he had served as assistant commissioner in Baltimore city for health promotion and disease prevention, dealing in outreach programs for HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases.

Vigilance is a graduate of George Washington University and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and he has a master's in public health policy and management from Johns Hopkins.

Vigilance's appointment would be subject to confirmation by the D.C. Council. David A. Catania (I-At Large), chairman of the Committee on Health, met with Vigilance on Thursday and hailed his arrival.

"The Mayor and his team deserve a lot of credit for the manner in which they conducted this search," Catania said in a statement. "The process was deliberate but quick, which was necessary given the importance of the position to the city's healthcare system."

Yesterday, Vigilance told an anecdote about his days as a resident at Howard University Hospital, when he was chastised by a patient for being overweight. At 5 feet 9, Vigilance weighed 248 pounds and had not thought much about own physical condition.

He threw out the high calorie soda and snack foods. He began walking more, then took up running. Last year, he completed the Baltimore Marathon, and he has slimmed down to 190 pounds, he said.

"It just didn't look right," he said. "I couldn't be a public health spokesperson without making sure I took care of myself."