Dr. James Madara, CEO of the University of Chicago Medical Center, is stepping down Oct. 1, he said in a letter to colleagues today. He is also relinquishing his position as dean of the biological sciences division and Pritzker School of Medicine.

As Madara returns to the university's faculty, Dr. Everett Vokes, chair of the department of medicine, will take the helm as interim CEO. A nationwide search for a new dean and CEO is already underway.

Madara, 58, joined the U of C in 2002 as dean of the biological sciences division and the Pritzker School of Medicine, as well as vice president for medical affairs. In 2006, he was named CEO of the medical center.

Madara’s tenure has been recently marred by pushback from university colleagues and community members regarding a cost-cutting hospital reorganization and the implementation of the Urban Health Initiative, a program that seeks to match community members with neighborhood clinics.

In March, after residents and doctors wrote Madara a letter stating their opposition to the way a reorganization of the university’s emergency department was being handled, UC President Robert Zimmer said the university would reevaluate it efforts. In April, colleagues said he was putting profits ahead of the medical center’s mission and demanded he step down.

And in June, Rep. Bobby Rush asked a Congressional committee to investigate allegations of patient dumping at the medical center.

Zimmer praised Madara in a memo for boosting fundraising, overseeing the beginning phases of construction on the medical center’s state-of-the-art medical pavilion, the opening of Comer Children’s Hospital, expansion of research and more.

Madara’s work, Zimmer said, is  “marked a number of extraordinary achievements, and the Medical Center has defined and pursued a strategy that positions it for success far into the future.”   

The university gave no reason for Madara’s departure, beyond a statement in Madara’s letter to colleagues that it was turn things over to a new leader with new ideas. The news was first reported by Crain’s Chicago Business.