Hospital Leader Blair Sadler Joins His Twin in Promoting Health Care Causes
magine for a moment a San Diego in which every child would be able to cross the roads safely, have access to vaccines and preventative care, get the best of care and never once have to fear abuse or maltreatment.
Utopia, you say? Sure, but isn’t it worth striving for? For Blair Sadler, president and CEO of Children’s Hospital & Health Center, this lofty ambition to make San Diego the healthiest city for all its children is his life’s mission.
Sadler, who has headed San Diego’s only designated pediatric trauma center and hospital for children for 20 years, is a vocal advocate of children’s rights.
His staid demeanor falters, his cautious speech quickens and face brightens up with excitement every time the word “child” comes into play. It feels as though the serene, yet bold, colorful landscaping outside his office window is transformed into a happy playground for the 20,000 children the hospital cares for every year.
The “Switzerland of Health Care,” as Sadler describes his organization , an analogy in its neutrality to partner with anyone in town , really has two goals: To take care of all children regardless of their payment source and create a better community for children.
As a supporter of the “Safe Kids Coalition,” an initiative championed by Children’s Hospital and other health care advocates, Sadler recently helped identify the 10 most dangerous intersections in town.
Brings People Together
Birthing projects and bringing together people has always been Sadler’s forte, say two of his peers in the health care industry.
“He goes out of his way to include doctors and create a team,” said Dr. Robert Hertzka, immediate past president of the San Diego County Medical Society.
Gary Stephany, president and CEO of the Healthcare Association of San Diego and Imperial Counties, agreed.
“He’s a very dynamic, energetic individual who always keeps the vision of a healthy community in sight,” Stephany said. “Some people say he’s too aggressive, but I don’t see it as a weakness.”
Sadler’s passion at a young age for tennis and squash added perseverance and a competitive edge to the mix.
Born in Manhattan in 1941 to an organic chemist and a musician mother, Sadler spent much of his life in symbiosis with his twin brother, Alfred.
Graduating in 1958 from William Allen High School in Allentown, Pa., the Sadler brothers pursued undergraduate degrees at Amherst College in Amherst, Mass.
Degrees Awarded
Four years later, Blair graduated with an economics degree; Fred , as his brother goes by , with a biology degree.
In 1962, their educational paths parted, but their destination of Philadelphia remained the same.
Sadler spent the next three years memorizing rulings at the University of Pennsylvania while his brother pounded medical terms at the Hahneman Medical School.
“It was a struggle and I most enjoyed graduating,” says Blair Sadler.
The brotherly rivalry in squash and tennis, which continues today, provided an outlet for both in between their studies.
After graduating, Sadler became a law clerk in the appeals court for Pennsylvania for two years.
Looking back, Sadler says, “It was revealing how human judges are. They will have their bias and their way of looking at a case just the way we all would, so they are trying to be objective, but in fact are swayed by some arguments more than others.”
While Blair sat in the chambers, his brother faced another reality as a surgical intern.
Combining Medicine, Law
In 1967, the twins took an opportunity to combine and apply their knowledge in medicine and law at the National Institutes of Health in Washington, D.C.
For the next three years, they collaborated on a series of health policy issues, drafting among others proposals for the use of human tissue and organs for transplantation.
Sadler still prides himself in having been instrumental in creating the now-standard organ donor card on the back of drivers’ licenses.
He also realized that health care, not the practice of law, sparked his interest.
When the Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn., offered the brothers a chance to continue working together, they didn’t hesitate. It was 1970 and Yale had just received a $2 million grant to develop a regional emergency medical communications system. For the next three years, the Sadlers’ pondered guidelines for using the 911 emergency call system and training dispatchers.
Close Quarters
Sadler concedes sharing a domicile and work with his twin was daunting at times.
So when Fred met his future bride, Blair had to make an adjustment. But, it wasn’t all bad.
“I didn’t have to pick up his wet socks any more,” he says.
He picked his brother’s brain for ideas instead.
The new Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in Princeton, N.J., offered the twins what they hoped for , to take the 911-system national.
From 1973 to 1977, the Sadler brothers gave away $15 million in 44 grants to 32 states to train dispatchers, ambulance drivers, paramedics and others.
It was an exciting, idealistic time, Sadler says about his “Camelot years” at the foundation. Some of the country’s brightest people flocked to Princeton to take part in the grand turnaround of America’s health care.
Many dreams never materialized , except one.
In 1975, Sadler met his wife, Georgia, a meeting set up by an old professor. Though Georgia pursued a doctoral degree in public health in London, they bridged the distance separating each other.
In August 1977, the couple moved to La Jolla, because Blair was to become vice president at the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation.
Three years later, he left to head Children’s Hospital , the move was in part inspired by the arrival of his first daughter, Noelle, he says.
Ambitious Family
Noelle is now a filmmaker with Spielberg-like ambitions at the Miramax film studios in New York, he says.
His second daughter, Nicole, is a sophomore at Northwestern University. Georgia has been working at UCSD since 1977, drumming up support for cancer patients and local health issues.
His brother is now the medical director of the Harden Medical Care Center in Salinas, Calif. An avid sportsman, Fred continues to play tennis and squash in national championships.
Every three months or so, the twins take to the courts. These days, Fred says reluctantly, he may have an advantage, because he trains more. He’s also the “wiser” of the two, given he’s four minutes older. Fred Sadler declined to comment on his brother’s weaknesses, but has his own theories why the brothers are so complementary.
“I think it has a lot to do with energy,” Fred says about their “remarkable” nine years’ working relationship. “When one person was down or feeling flat, the other person was usually up.”
For the last two decades, Blair Sadler has carved a legacy of his own at Children’s, gaining the respect of his peers and others in the community.
Hertzka commends Sadler for his leadership and accessibility, saying he’s never heard a single bad word about him. For a health care leader to earn such respect is no mean feat, he says, in a region like San Diego, which struggles each day with some of the greatest health care woes in the nation.
