Scripps Health President and CEO Ranked No. 18 in Nation’s 100 Most Influential People in Health Care

San Diego – Scripps Health President and CEO Chris Van Gorder, FACHE, has been named No. 18 on Modern Healthcare’s annual ranking of the nation’s 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare, published in the magazine’s Aug. 22, 2011 edition.

Van Gorder has been named to the list for five straight years and is the only San Diego health system executive ever to make the list since its inception in 2002. Scripps is the only health care system in the country with two people on this year’s Most Influential list.

Dr. Eric Topol, chief academic officer of Scripps Health, is the only other San Diegan to make the list at No. 69. A world-renowned cardiologist and researcher, Dr. Topol is spearheading Scripps’ venture into leading-edge research areas such as genomics, translational science and wireless medicine.

Finishing first on the list is House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) who seeks to remake the nation’s Medicare and Medicaid systems. Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin—who seeks to make his state the first in the union to adopt a government run single-payer system—came in second.

Distributed nationally, Modern Healthcare is one of the nation’s largest health care trade publications. Earlier this year, Modern Healthcare invited readers to nominate candidates for the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare list. Readers submitted more than 414,000 nominations, almost four times the nearly 56,000 cast last year, and Modern Healthcare then placed the 300 people who received the most nominations on a final ballot on its website. A full listing of this year’s selections can now be viewed at modernhealthcare.com.

As president and CEO of Scripps Health since 2000, Van Gorder has led the nonprofit health system through $115 million operational turnaround, and in the process positioned Scripps among the nation’s leading health care institutions. Van Gorder has gained attention of late for his horizontal restructuring of the Scripps Health system, which has been hailed as a model structure for success in the face of health care reform.

US News & World Report recently named the combined heart programs of Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla, Scripps Green Hospital and Scripps Clinic as one of the best heart programs in the country. Scripps has also been named among the nation’s top employers by Fortune magazine, AARP and Working Mother magazine.

In addition to his duties with Scripps Health, Van Gorder is the immediate past chairman of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), an international professional society of more than 30,000 health care executives.

Van Gorder also serves as a commissioner on the California Commission on Emergency Medical Services. Under his leadership, Scripps Health worked with the state of California’s Emergency Medical Services Authority to develop the internal operations structure for the state’s recently purchased mobile field hospitals, to be used in the event of mass casualties from natural disasters or terrorist events. Van Gorder is also serving his third term as a commissioner to the United States Commission for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Founded in 1924 by philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps, Scripps Health is a $2.3 billion nonprofit community health system based in San Diego, Calif. Scripps treats a half-million patients annually through the dedication of 2,500 affiliated physicians and 13,000 employees among its five acute-care hospital campuses, home health care services, and an ambulatory care network of physician offices and 23 outpatient centers and clinics. Scripps is also at the forefront of clinical research, genomic medicine, wireless health and graduate medical education. With three highly respected graduate medical education programs, Scripps is a longstanding member of the Association of American Medical Colleges. More information can be found at www.scripps.org.