The CEO of Loretto Hospital will be suspended for two weeks without pay, but the disciplinary action is on hold until officials can find a replacement for the West Side hospital’s second in command, who resigned last week, a hospital spokeswoman said late Monday.
The decision to suspend CEO George Miller was made weeks ago, the spokeswoman said, but the delay in his two-week pause is necessary to ensure the hospital has leadership while officials launch a search to fill the vacancy left by Dr. Anosh Ahmed, Loretto’s chief operating officer and chief financial officer, who resigned last week.
Earlier this month, Loretto acknowledged improperly vaccinating workers at Trump Tower downtown while also saying it improperly gave shots to Cook County judges. The stories, first reported by Block Club Chicago and WBEZ, have drawn negative attention to the hospital, which has said it was mistaken about the rules.
In addition, the Loretto spokeswoman on Monday confirmed “a request by a hospital partner to vaccinate a terminally ill woman and nine other individuals, including (the ill woman’s) family members, was made in late January and was approved by a former executive who is no longer employed at Loretto.”
He requested to provide the vaccination off-site in the privacy of a home, the spokeswoman said. On Jan. 29, the 10 vaccinations were provided to Dr. Ali Ahmed and then administered to these individuals.
“While information provided at the time deemed that these individuals were eligible per city vaccination guidelines, Loretto is no longer approving off-site visits that aren’t either hosted by the hospital or community partners and organizations,” the spokeswoman said.
“Dr. Ali Ahmed, the President and CEO of Affinity Health, which oversees COVID clinical trials at the hospital, requested 10 vaccinations for 10 individuals he identified as eligible under city guidelines, one of whom was terminally ill,” the spokeswoman said, adding that Ahmed is not an employee of the hospital. “On January 29th, the 10 vaccinations were provided to Dr. Ali Ahmed and then administered to these individuals.”
