Wed. February 16, 2000
Seattle, WA -
Gary S. Kaplan, M.D., has been elected the new chairman and C.E.O. of Virginia Mason Medical Center (VM).
Kaplan, a practicing internal medicine physician, was elected to the four-year term by the medical center's member physicians. The results of the election were ratified yesterday by the medical center's Health System Board. His new role as chairman is effective immediately.
Kaplan has served in a number of senior level leadership positions, most recently as vice chairman and medical director of VM as well as chief of satellites. He has practiced medicine at Virginia Mason since 1978.
Kaplan succeeds Roger C. Lindeman, M.D., who announced last fall his decision to retire at the end of his term. Lindeman worked at VM more than 30 years, the last 20 years as chairman. He is the medical center's longest-serving chairman and C.E.O.
As chairman, Kaplan assumes the helm of a half billion dollar a year health care delivery system that provides care to more than 150,000 residents of the Pacific Northwest. Virginia Mason employs 5,300 staff including nearly 400 physicians spanning 45 medical specialties. In addition to a 336-bed hospital, Virginia Mason operates 16 satellite clinics; an internationally renowned, free-standing research center; and Bailey-Boushay House, the nation's first skilled nursing facility for AIDS patients.
"Virginia Mason is fortunate to have an 80-year history of strong physician leadership," said J. Michael Rona, president of VM. "Dr. Kaplan's election to C.E.O. continues this tradition. His track record of leadership and innovation will be a tremendous asset to VM as he takes on this new role."
Kaplan received his medical degree from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1978. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Virginia Mason in 1981, serving as chief resident during his last year.
Throughout his 22 years at VM, Kaplan has served with distinction on more than 18 leadership committees within the VM health care delivery system, exposing him to every facet of governance and system operations.
In addition to his new role, Kaplan is the current vice chair of the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), a professional association of 8,000 medical groups comprised of more than 200,000 physicians. The MGMA is dedicated to improving the effectiveness of medical group practices and the individuals that lead them, as well as fostering advocacy roles for members in the health care debate.
Kaplan serves as a board member for a host of professional associations including the American Medical Group Association, the Washington State Medical Association and the National Patient Safety Foundation.
In addition, he is a member of the American College of Medical Practice Executives, the American College of Physicians and the Society of General Internal Medicine.
Kaplan is also an associate clinical professor at the University of Washington and writes and speaks frequently on a broad range of medical management topics.
Kaplan and his wife, Wendy, reside in Bellevue and have two children, Erin, 21, and Zachary, 17.
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