Legacy Health System

Legacy Health System, Portland, OR

An integrated health system with facilities located in Oregon and Washington, and annual revenues of over $1 billion. The system has over 8,000 employees, 5 acute care hospitals and 300 employed physicians located in over 15 sites 

Senior Vice President, Chief Medical Officer , 6/98-12/06

Responsibilities included oversight of employed physician group, all research and education for the system, medical staff affairs, technology assessment, plus  shared responsibility for quality and risk management. Member of the Executive council which was responsible for strategic planning and operations of the entire system. Supervised a staff of 600 people with an annual budget of $60 million.

  • Expanded the employed physician group from 20  to 260 physicians while improving productivity and physician wellbeing. Reduced system support of the group from $120,000 per physician to $40,000 per physician per year
  • Oversaw creation of a production and quality based compensation system for the expanded medical group.
  • Oversaw the creation of hospitalist programs at all of the Legacy hospitals, including the following specialties: internal medicine, pediatrics, Obstetrics and gynecology, critical care medicine.
  • Was a member of a small team that designed and built a brand new, fully digital  hospital in Vancouver Washington (Legacy Salmon Creek Hospital)
  • Built the new medical staff structure for Legacy Salmon Creek Hospital
  • Created a renal transplant program that was in the top 50 in the US within 2 years of its creation. In addition, created the following new programs: endovascular surgery, podiatry, neurosurgery.
  • Developed an on-call compensation program for emergency room coverage that stabilized specialist availability to all 5 Legacy hospitals.
  • Negotiated a long-term  education agreement with the local medical school that preserved an unstable orthopedic residency.
  • Improved physician credentialing turnaround time from 3 months to 30 days
  • Oversaw a growing research facility that garnered over $15 million in research funds (half of it cam from NIH sources) on an annual basis.
  • Developed a physician leadership program for both employed and aligned physicians—with improved physician relationships in all 5 hospitals.  
  • Created a monthly CMO newsletter as part of improving communications among physicians in the system.