Russell Coile, Jr.

Russell Cleven Coile, Jr., one of the nation s top healthcare management consultants, died Nov. 10, 2003, of complications from brain cancer. He was 60. Coile was a pioneering health futurist, spotting trends and advising hospitals, physicians groups and health plans across the country for more than two decades. In 2002, he was named one of the top 100 health leaders in America by Modern Healthcare magazine. Coile has written 10 books, including The New Hospital 1986 in which he urged doctors and healthcare executives to prepare for developments from the rise of managed care to the aging of the population to the consolidation of the hospital industry. In The Paperless Hospital, 2002 he encouraged hospitals to use Internet-based technologies to reduce costs and reinvent healthcare delivery. Coile was also the author of Futurescan, the award-winning annual report on industry trends sponsored by the American Hospital Association and the American College of Healthcare Executives. For the last 15 years, he published a monthly newsletter, Russ Coile s Health Trends. Coile gave more than 50 seminars and speeches annually to national healthcare organizations and clients including Fortune 500 firms. He was the past president of the Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development of the American Hospital Association and received their annual award for professional excellence in 2003. He served on the boards of the Center for Health Design and the Public Health Institute, as well as on the editorial advisory boards of several publications, including Managed Care Outlook, Nurse Week and Healthcare Market Strategist. Before forming his own consulting firm, The Health Forecasting Group, Coile established the industry s first corporate futures program as director of the Center for Health Management Research at the Lutheran Hospital Society of Southern California. A serious distance runner, he finished 43 marathons and 17 ultra-marathons, including the Western States 100-mile Endurance Run. He was an avid golfer and fan of hot-rod cars and trucks. Coile earned a B.A. from the Johns Hopkins University and an M.B.A. in Health Services Administration from the George Washington University, where he was selected as Alumni of the Year in 2002. Born and raised near Annapolis, Maryland, he worked as a regional health planner and healthcare consultant in Minneapolis, the San Francisco Bay area, Los Angeles and Dallas. In 2001, he and his wife, Nancy, moved to the town of Washington in the rolling hills of central Texas. Coile had been battling brain cancer for seven months, but continued giving speeches and writing until just two weeks before his death. He died Monday afternoon at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center in Bryan, Texas, surrounded by his family. He is survived by his wife; his mother, Peg Wallace of Annapolis; father, Russell Coile Sr., of Pacific Grove, CA; daughter, Courtney Coile of Sudbury, MA; son, Zachary Coile of Washington, D.C.; step daughters, Amanda and Ariel Angelotti of Austin, TX; brothers, Chris Coile of Stevensville, MD, Jon Coile of Severna Park, MD, and Andrew Coile of Pacific Grove; sister, Jennifer Coile of Hollister, CA; and a grandson, Nathaniel Roman of Sudbury. A celebration of his life is planned for 3:00 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 15 at the Brenham Country Club in Brenham, TX. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be sent to The Russ Coile Future of Healthcare Lecture Fund, c/o St. Joseph Regional Health Center, 2801 Franciscan Drive, Bryan, TX 77802.