Scripps CEO Among 100 Most Influential People in Health Care

Scripps Health President and CEO Chris Van Gorder has been named No. 74 on Modern Healthcare’s annual ranking of the nation’s 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare, which was published in the magazine’s Aug. 22 edition.

This is the eighth time that Van Gorder landed on the prestigious list, and he was the only person from San Diego County to make the rankings.

Van Gorder oversees more than 15,000 employees at five acute-care hospital campuses and 28 outpatient clinics operated by the nonprofit health system in San Diego County. More than 3,000 physicians are affiliated with the organization.

Distributed nationally, Modern Healthcare is one of the nation’s largest health care trade publications.

The annual 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare list honors individuals in health care who are deemed by magazine readers, their peers and senior editors of Modern Healthcare to be the most influential individuals in the industry, in terms of leadership and impact.

The rankings are chosen from among 300 nominees selected from thousands of online submissions. Online voting and the magazine’s editors determined who would become part of the final ranking.

Topping this year’s list was President Barack Obama.

As part of Van Gorder's profile on the list, Modern Healthcare editors noted that Scripps is in the midst of a more than $2 billion expansion plan that has included the opening of two new emergency care centers at Scripps Mercy Hospital San Diego and Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas; the Prebys Cardiovascular Institute on the campus of Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla; and the Scripps Radiation Therapy Center.

Since becoming president and CEO in 2000, Van Gorder has been instrumental in positioning the organization among the nation’s leading health care institutions.

In 2014, Van Gorder’s book, “The Front-Line Leader: Building a High-Performance Organization from the Ground Up,” was published. A chronicle of Scripps’ turnaround and Van Gorder’s journey from police officer to CEO of a major health system, the book was ranked No. 10 on the July list of best-selling business books compiled by the specialty business book retailer 800-CEO-READ.

In 2013, he received the Innovation Award from Press Ganey, a national firm specializing in patient experience improvement.

Board-certified in health care management and an American College of Healthcare Executives Fellow, Van Gorder also served as 2010 chairman of the association, an international professional society of more than 40,000 health care executives who lead hospitals, health care systems and other health care organizations.

In 2010, Van Gorder launched a new direction for Scripps. In anticipation of dramatic changes in health care, he turned the organization on its side, creating a horizontally matrixed management structure to identify and significantly reduce unnecessary variation in patient care and health care operations.

Learn more about Scripps Health, a nonprofit integrated health system in San Diego, Calif.