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Dr. Donald Anspaugh is the Chief Executive Officer of Cook County General Hospital, head of the hospital, an attending surgeon, and a leading hospital board of director who served in administrative positions at County General. Anspaugh is also the uncle of Dr. Simon Brenner.
History[]
He had a Cardiothoracic Surgery fellowship for training and served the U.S. Army as a Trauma surgeon.
In 1996, he was appointed the Chief Executive Officer (executive director) of CGH by the Cook County Board of Commissioners, which meant he lead the entire hospital. This allowed him to appoint and fire both Dr. Romano and Dr. Weaver as chiefs of staff respectively plus supervise the board of directors in the later seasons. Frequently seen as a fair but strict board member, he is the one Dr. John Carter goes to when he wants to switch his specialty from surgery to emergency medicine. He is first taken aback, describing the move as a rupture of contract, however, he shows his empathic side when he agrees that Carter, in his will to help patients from start to end and to treat them as humans and not surgery cases, should go do an ER rotation, and wishes him well.
He is also responsible for keeping Jeanie Boulet as a Physical Assistant after being diagnosed with AIDS, and gets her hired back after Dr. Kerry Weaver fires her because of budget cuts, as to avoid lawsuits.
His son, Scotty, dies in Season 4 after a long battle with cancer. We learn that Dr Anspaugh's wife died a long time ago.