Getting to know Providence, our caregivers and our communities

I have the privilege of serving as your new chief operating officer. While I hope to meet many of you over the coming weeks, months and years, I recognize we are a very large system and that it won’t be possible to meet all of you. Therefore, I thought it would be helpful to share a bit more about myself here.

I grew up in Southern California (where my parents and sister still reside) and moved to Michigan for medical school. While there, I met my wife (a fellow med student, now pediatrician) and while I brought her back to California for our residencies, we ultimately settled back in Michigan. I spent much of my career as a practicing cardiac electrophysiologist (essentially an electrician of the heart) and loved my patients, my colleagues and the field. However, after many years, I was increasingly frustrated with how hard it had become to practice medicine. After years of being a “PhD” in complaining about what wasn’t working, I was given wise counsel by my wife. She called me out and told me to stop complaining and instead told me to “Do something about it.”

That inspired me to learn more about the business of medicine with the goal of making it easier to provide excellent care and to drive better experiences and outcomes for our patients. Over the course of the past decade-plus, I took on different roles within the health system in Michigan where I worked. This culminated in becoming the system’s chief operating officer.

I am proud of the work that our teams did along the way and leaving Michigan was very bittersweet. However, the more I learned about Providence, its dedication to its Mission and the breadth of support for the many communities it serves, the more I felt called to join.

I fully recognize the many significant challenges Providence has and will face. Coming from another market and a large (but smaller than Providence) system made me realize that many of the challenges Providence faces are the same challenges most of US healthcare is facing right now. None are insurmountable and ultimately, our goal of taking care of each other and our patients has to be what drives us to excellent clinical outcomes and long-term sustainability.

Thank you for your commitment to patient care, Providence’s Mission and continuous improvement.