Hospital Community Loses a Friend

COLUMBUS — Ohio hospitals lost a valued friend this week with the passing of Thomas J. Trudell, president and CEO of Marymount Hospital in Garfield Heights. Trudell was a former Ohio Hospital Association (OHA) Board member, founder and chairman of the Ohio Quality Cardiac Care Foundation, board member of OHA’s Research and Educational Foundation and served on the OHA EMS/Trauma Committee.

“Tom lived his life with a great intensity. He will be missed,” said James R. Castle, OHA president and CEO.

“Tom was a tireless worker. His passion and enthusiasm were as contagious as his laugh,” remembered OHA Vice President David Engler. “Tom was a deeply compassionate man driven by devotion to his God, his family and the health and welfare of the patients he spent his life serving,” Engler added.

“Tom believed strongly in the power of associations as agents of change. He was a leader who challenged all of us to do better by doing the right thing.” Engler said. In addition to his work with OHA, Trudell served on the board of the Center for Health Affairs in Cleveland.

Trudell had enjoyed a remarkable career at the helm of Marymount for 21 years and was respected by his colleagues throughout the state. Trudell was on the OHA Board of Trustees in 1987 and ’88 and served the Board from 1989 through 1993 as an OHA delegate to the American Hospital Association House of Delegates. From 1993 through 1997, Trudell was on the OHA Emergency Medical Services/Trauma Committee. He helped found the Ohio Quality Cardiac Care Foundation in 1995 as a joint effort of OHA and the Ohio State Medical Association. He was also instrumental in establishing a northeast Ohio trauma registry and served as the registry’s chairman.

OHA extends condolences to his wife, Sandy; son, Christopher; daughter, Nicole; and grandson, Cameron, and to his entire Marymount family.

The Ohio Hospital Association was established in 1915 and currently represents approximately 170 hospitals and 40 health systems throughout Ohio. OHA's mission is to provide leadership by working with member hospitals to meet the health care needs and improve the health status of the communities they serve. Visit OHA’s Web site at www.ohanet.org.

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