2012 Outstanding Health Care Executive: Rick Cooper, CEO of The Everett Clinic

Rick Cooper
CEO, The Everett Clinic

As The Everett Clinic’s CEO for the past 27 years, Rick Cooper has seen the physician group practice become a major health care provider for Snohomish County, with nearly 300 doctors, more than 2,000 staff members and eight locations serving about 290,000 patients.

Cooper takes the long view on the initiatives he leads, particularly those that lower costs and thereby improve patient access to care. Those achievements caught the attention of our awards panel, particularly Cooper’s commitment to progressive arrangements such as Medicare Advantage, an alliance with Group Health Cooperative that allows those in one system to see providers in the other.

The program is part of Everett Clinic’s 2010 commitment to reduce the cost of care by 25 percent over five years. As Coop-er notes, that’s a daunting challenge without sacrificing quality of care, especially in an environment of rising costs and shrinking reimbursements.

In 2008, The Everett Clinic, with some controversy, required all new Medicare patients to have Advantage coverage. The program offers greater benefits but sometimes costs patients more in premiums, deductibles and co-pays. The move was seen as necessary to stanch the provider’s annual $10 million—and growing—loss that it incurred serving traditional Medicare patients. While Medicare Advantage has been under fire, particularly with a threatened phase-out under national health care reform, Cooper believes its features will remain essential.

It’s having that long-term outlook that Cooper feels makes him different from his peers. “It’s the exception,” he notes, “and it’s not necessarily rewarded, but we now have a track record built over decades.”

Cooper recognizes that his tenure has benefited from being part of a growing region, noting that the rising tide has caused his job to change fundamentally every two or three years. It’s given him both the opportunity and interest to stay in his post for so long. Says Cooper: “We are very comfortable with being innovators.”

 

SILVER AWARDS

Barbara Trehearne

Vice President of Clinical Excellence, Quality and Nursing Practice
Group Health Cooperative, Seattle

For more than 30 years, Trehearne has contributed to clinical achievement and development and education of the nursing profession at Group Health. She has provided leadership and management in a variety of roles, including nursing education, staff development and nursing administration. Two specific achievements are development of the 24/7 Consulting Nurse Service (a model for health care organizations across the country) and a model for nursing care of chronic disease populations. — Steve Wehrly

 

Johnese Spisso

Chief Health System Officer UW Medicine
Vice President for Medical Affairs
University of Washington, Seattle

Spisso has played a major role in developing and implementing the strategic plan for UW Medicine and overseeing seven clinical entities comprising 16,000 employees and an annual budget of $2.8 billion. She has been tireless in developing the regional Level I trauma system for Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho, and has guided regional efforts to improve emergency preparedness while championing a broad range of programs for the most vulnerable community members. — Steve Wehrly