Health Chief Fired As Mayor Seeks More Forceful Tack

D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty yesterday fired Gregg A. Pane, director of the Health Department, three years after Pane was selected by Anthony A. Williams, Fenty's predecessor, to run the long-troubled agency.

Pane, 52, is one of a handful of Williams's aides who continued to serve in a high-level post under Fenty (D). The mayor decided he wanted a "more aggressive public health strategy," according to a news release from Fenty's office.

Fenty appointed Carlos Cano as interim director during the search for a replacement. Cano has served since October 2005 as senior deputy director of the Health Department's Community Health Administration, which has more than 200 employees. The Health Department has about 1,400 employees and a $1.5 billion budget.

"The administration believes it is time to go in a different direction," Fenty said during a news conference to discuss the city's response to concerns about staph infections across the region. "Dr. Cano is the beginning of not only taking the agency in a different direction, but continuing to improve it. When you have a change in leadership, oftentimes you recognize it is time for somebody new to come in with a fresh set of eyes, fresh vision and a new way of looking at some of the big problems we have here."

Pane was selected from among a half-dozen finalists after Williams (D) had conducted a national search. He was the city's third health director in five years, taking over from James A. Buford, who was removed after city officials and public health experts said he had failed to adequately respond to reports of lead in the drinking water.

Although he had never overseen a city health agency, Pane had seen urban health-care problems up close as assistant director of emergency services at the biggest hospital in Orange County, Calif. He also had grappled with health-care bureaucracies as medical director for the Louisiana Medicaid system for two years and as chief policy and planning officer for the Veterans Health Administration from 1996 to 2003. For the two years before he joined the D.C. government, he had been a senior official at Detroit's Henry Ford Health System, a network of five major hospitals, numerous clinics and a health maintenance organization.

In addition to Pane, two of his deputies -- Leila Abrar and David Anthony -- also were fired yesterday, government sources said. Attempts to reach Pane yesterday evening were unsuccessful.

D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D) and member David A. Catania (I-At Large), chairman of the health committee, said they expect Fenty to work with the council as he searches for a replacement. Catania added that he would like the city to actively identify top candidates and not wait for people to apply.

Staff writer Susan Levine contributed to this report.