Denver Health's Dr. Patricia Gabow Receives NCHL's 2008 National Healthcare Leadership...

Denver Health's Dr. Patricia Gabow Receives NCHL's 2008 National Healthcare
Leadership Award

CHICAGO, June 16 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Center for Healthcare
Leadership (NCHL) said today it has named Patricia A. Gabow, MD, chief
executive officer of Denver Health, as the recipient of the 2008 National
Healthcare Leadership Award for her significant and lasting contributions to
healthcare. Under her leadership, Denver Health has established a
comprehensive, integrated healthcare system that achieves organizational
excellence while treating at-risk populations, a model that is being adopted
by other healthcare systems throughout the nation. She is additionally
recognized for her commitment to building teams and mentoring the next
generation of physicians and healthcare leaders during her 36-year career.
"Patricia Gabow has earned widespread recognition for her role in guiding
Colorado's largest safety-net healthcare system and developing one of the
country's most successful healthcare systems that has maintained its mission
to care for uninsured and vulnerable populations while creating organizational
excellence that has resulted in an ongoing thriving institution," said Marie
E. Sinioris, president and CEO of NCHL. "Under her guidance, Denver Health
separated from the city in order to achieve greater financial and operational
agility, initiated an innovative and intensive transformational project that
already has saved Denver Health $10.6 million, and has achieved critical
quality measurements including having one of the lowest medical mortality
rates among peers in the University Healthcare Consortium (UHC). With Dr.
Gabow's encouragement, all Denver Health leaders share their leadership
initiatives and learnings through publications and public forums underscoring
her commitment to advance healthcare leadership."
Patricia A. Gabow, 64, joined Denver Health in 1973 as chief of renal
diseases and later became director of medical services from 1981 to 1991.
From 1992 to 1997 she served as manager and medical director of the hospital
and then in 1997 became its CEO after the hospital changed its governance
structure and became the Denver Health and Hospital Authority. In her role as
head of the city's safety-net hospital system, she was appointed to the Denver
Mayor's cabinet from 1992 to 1997 and continues to be an invited member at
cabinet meetings.
She received her Bachelor of Arts in biology from Seton Hill College in
Greensburg, PA and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of
Medicine, where she also completed her internship in medicine. She completed
her residency in internal medicine at Harbor General Hospital, which is now
Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. She is a member of The Commonwealth Fund
Commission on a High Performance Health System and has worked with the
Institute of Medicine on policy issues related to healthcare quality
improvement. Dr. Gabow is widely published and was named one of Modern
Healthcare's Top 25 Women in Healthcare in 2005.
"I am most honored to be named the 2008 recipient of this prestigious
national award," Dr. Gabow said. "Denver Health's integrated system has
become a model for the nation and, in my view, this award belongs to everyone
in the Denver Health family. My thanks go to the National Center for
Healthcare Leadership for this recognition of Denver Health that lives its
tagline 'Level One Care of ALL'."
Fawn Lopez, vice president and publisher of Modern Healthcare said, "Dr.
Gabow should be congratulated not just for what she's achieved but also for
what she represents for the future of healthcare leadership as a female
physician running a public healthcare system serving the neediest of all
patients."
The selection committee for the National Healthcare Leadership Award was
co-chaired by Stephen M. Shortell, PhD, Blue Cross of California Distinguished
Professor of Healthcare Policy and Management and Dean of School of School of
Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, and Thomas M.
Priselac, president and CEO of Cedars Sinai Health System.
Dr. Gabow will be honored on Friday, November 21, 2008 at an award event
and recognition dinner at The Drake in Chicago that is being held in
conjunction with NCHL's Invitational Symposium earlier that day. Dr. Gabow
will be presented with an original glass sculpture by Czech-born artist Martin
Rosol.
The NCHL National Healthcare Leadership Award is co-sponsored by Modern
Healthcare. In conjunction with the award recognition event a special
supplement of Modern Healthcare on healthcare leadership, which will include
an interview with Dr. Gabow, will be published.
ABOUT DENVER HEALTH
Denver Health is Colorado's primary "safety-net" institution and in the
last 10 years it has provided more than $2.1 billion in care for the
uninsured. Nearly $285 million of that care was provided last year,
constituting 42 percent of all unsponsored care provided in metropolitan
Denver and nearly 30 percent in the state. Twenty-five percent of all Denver
residents, or 160,000 individuals, receive their health care at Denver Health
and one of every three children in Denver is cared for by Denver Health
physicians. Its main 477-bed hospital is the academic Level I Trauma Center in
Denver's urban area.
ABOUT NATIONAL CENTER FOR HEALTHCARE LEADERSHIP
The National Center for Healthcare Leadership (NCHL) is a not-for-profit
organization that is an industry catalyst to assure the availability of
accountable and transformational healthcare leadership for the 21st century.
Its vision is to optimize the health of the public through leadership and
organizational excellence. As the authoritative and objective source on
healthcare leadership, NCHL conducts research on global best practices and
tests new models for leadership excellence within its Leadership Excellence
Networks (LENS). It provides innovative leadership development programs
through the NCHL and GE Institute for Transformational Healthcare Leadership.
For more information please visit NCHL's website at http://www.nchl.org.
SOURCE National Center for Healthcare Leadership (NCHL)

Marie E. Sinioris of National Center for Healthcare Leadership,
+1-312-755-5018