Jay Shannon, MD
Principal
Health Management Associates
Chicago, IL
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(312) 641-5007
A physician leader with more than two decades of executive experience, John Jay Shannon, MD, is the former chief executive officer (CEO) of Cook County Health (CCH) where he also served as the system’s chief of clinical integration.
Before joining HMA, Dr. Shannon led efforts for the Illinois Department of Public Health in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. He worked on clinical issues including assessment of medical equipment inventory and distribution including mechanical ventilators, as well as navigated relations between various state agencies and provider communities. He developed and communicated strategies aimed at preserving surge capacity, and staffing and equipping care facilities. He also worked with the Illinois Department of Public Health on strategies regarding elective hospital procedures during various phases of the pandemic and on measures reflecting progress during Restore Illinois.
During his time as CEO of CCH, the system undertook a transformative journey, developing an innovative and integrative approach to the fulfillment of the system’s mission by aligning its role as a provider of care, both in traditional and correctional settings, and as a public health authority and health plan. In addition to fulfilling the health system’s mission to protect the health of all Cook County residents, Dr. Shannon was steadfast in his commitment to ensure CCH was a good steward of taxpayer funds. Through significant operational improvements, CCH reduced its reliance on local taxpayers by more than 75 percent between 2009 and 2019. Today, local tax dollars represent 3 percent of CCH’s operating revenue.
Dr. Shannon spent much of his professional career at John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County, formerly Cook County Hospital, joining the medical staff in 1990 and serving in several roles, including as director of the Adult Asthma Clinic where he led several quality improvement collaborations aimed at improving the delivery of care for asthma patients within the health system and across the county. He also served as an associate chair of the Department of Medicine and chief of the Divisions of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Stroger Hospital.
In addition, Dr. Shannon served as executive vice president for medical affairs and chief medical officer at Parkland Health & Hospital System in Dallas. While there, he served for two years as a trustee of the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council.
His other board and community service work includes serving as a director on the board of the Greater Chicago Food Depository, and as a trustee of Spring Hill College. Previously, he served on the board of the Illinois Health and Hospital Association, the executive board of the American Lung Association of Metropolitan Chicago (now the Respiratory Health Association), and on the executive board of the Chicago Asthma Consortium.
Dr. Shannon earned his bachelor’s degree from Spring Hill College and his medical degree from Rush Medical College. He trained in Internal Medicine and was a chief resident at the University of Texas Southwestern Affiliated Hospitals in Dallas (Parkland Memorial Hospital and the Dallas Veterans Administration Medical Center), and later earned specialty training in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor.