2015 Leaders in Health Care Awards: Outstanding Medical Group Executive

WINNER

Ralph Pascualy, M.D.

CEO, Swedish Medical Group, Seattle

In the three years that Dr. Ralph Pascualy has led Swedish Medical Center as CEO, the organization has gone through the type of innovative change thats considered a successful blueprint for the future of health care.

My interest in taking the job was to help Swedish move from being a fee-for-services business to a patient population management system, he says. The goal was to put patients first, with doctors being paid for quality, not volume.

Doctors are scientists who will do the right thing if they have the right data, Pascualy explains. We set up metrics so everyone could see how we were doing in terms of whats best for patients. This metric transparency is working.

Swedish physicians are taking a leadership role in implementing change, Pascualy notes, and outpatient service prices were reduced an average of 35 percent in 2014.
Pascualy is described by those who work with him as a dynamic leader, innovator and entrepreneur who is always three or four steps ahead of the curve.

Founded in 1910, Swedish is the largest nonprofit health care provider in the Seattle area with five hospitals and a network of more than 100 primary care and specialty clinics throughout the Puget Sound region. It became an affiliate of Providence Health & Services in 2012.

SILVER AWARD

Mika Sinanan, M.D.

President, University of Washington Physicians, Seattle

In his sixth year leading the 2,000-member University of Washington Physicians practice group, Dr. Mika Sinanan believes patients come to see doctors, not hospitals. Part of my job is to keep that front and center with hospital directors, says Sinanan, who also maintains an active surgical practice. My colleagues are aware that anything I suggest, I have to live with myself. I have a hands-on perspective on how to manage work flow of ambulatory care.