Scott Nygaard MD, MBA, the COO of Lee Health System in SW Florida, joins “Leader Dialogue” co-hosts Dr. Roger Spoelman, Dr. Charles (Chuck) Peck, and Ben Sawyer on the April 18th, 2022, podcast. The podcast topic “Achieving Systemness: Competitive Challenges” explores how Lee Health has navigated through the pandemic, and some of the key learnings as they emerge into the post-pandemic healthcare environment. Dr. Nygaard shares his perspective and insights on this important topic, providing practical suggestions from which all healthcare leaders could benefit.
Roger Spoelman, DBA, MBA
Roger is a healthcare executive with more than 38 years of industry experience. He most recently served as interim CEO at Trinity Health Regional Systems in New England, Ohio, and Illinois at Loyola University Health System.
His tenure at Trinity Health included leading several hospital mergers, and later as regional executive for the corporation’s Mercy Health operations. He also is founder and executive sponsor of the Trinity Health Innovation Hub. In 2018, Roger oversaw the merger of International Aid Inc. and CURE International Inc., two organizations where he served on the Board of Directors for over a decade. He recently served as the President and CEO for CURE International Inc., which operates eight charitable hospitals in developing nations, and focuses on faith-based care that restores quality of life to pediatric patients with surgically treatable disabilities. Roger was appointed Chair of the BAMF Health board of directors in 2019. He is working closely with the company to achieve their patent-focused mission of bringing intelligence-based precision medicine to the world.
Roger is a co-host of the Baldrige Foundation Leader Dialogue program, and mentors and coaches’ numerous executives and assists organizations and their boards of directors with succession, strategy, and innovation.
Charles (Chuck) Peck, MD, FACS
Charles (Chuck) Peck is an internist and rheumatologist with more than 35 years of healthcare experience as a clinician, scientist, medical school faculty member, administrator, medical director, CEO, and partner in the global healthcare advisory company Guidehouse.
Chuck’s most recent projects include a $108M financial turnaround of a $2B integrated health system in the northeast leading to their affiliation with a leading academic health system. He was a member of President Joe Biden’s Health and Human Services transition team. Prior to joining Guidehouse, Chuck served as CEO of Piedmont Athens Regional Health System, on the board of Vizient Southern States, partner at a global healthcare consulting firm responsible for the clinical operations practice; CEO of a 150 physician group multi-specialty practice; president of the southeast and northeast regions of a large national health insurance carrier; chief medical officer of a start-up retail health clinic operator; chief medical officer/chief operations officer of a national disease management company; and CEO of an ambulatory surgery center and physician services company.
Chuck is a co-host of the Baldrige Foundation Leader Dialogue program and provides mentoring and thought leadership insights to numerous organizations and leaders across the country on a variety of operational, financial, and leadership topics.
Ben Sawyer, MBA, PT, OCS, LBB
Ben Sawyer is an ABOUT executive. He has more than 35 years of industry experience, most recently serving as CEO of SOAR Vision Group, and EVP of Care Logistics.
Ben started his healthcare career in 1985 as a Physical Therapist, focusing on sports medicine and orthopedics, and received his specialist certification as an Orthopedic Clinical Specialist (OCS) in 1997 from the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties.
After securing his MBA, he moved into hospital administration, overseeing rehab, wellness, cardiac therapy, and occupational medicine services, specializing in team development and performance optimization. This expanded into a system leadership role overseeing performance and quality improvement. During that time Ben achieved his Lean Black Belt certification (LBB)
Ben has a gift for recognizing strategic gaps that can be turned into opportunities. For example, during the COVID-19 crisis he initiated national executive roundtables with the Baldrige Foundation via the Leader Dialogue program to help executives turn the pandemic disruption into an opportunity for improved collaboration and performance towards true Community Health beyond the walls of hospitals and to prioritize and coordinate action and resources.
Scott Nygaard/Lee Health
Lee Health is one of the largest public health systems in the U.S. and one of the largest not-for-profit public health system and safety net health systems in Florida that receives no direct tax support. They have four acute care hospitals, two specialty hospitals, and many clinics and outpatient service centers. Lee Health System has more than 1.5 million patient contacts each year with a staff of 14,000 employees, more than 4,500 volunteers and auxilians, a medical staff of more that 2,200, including the Lee Physician Group made up of over 750 primary and specialty care physicians and advanced practitioners in over 80 practice locations throughout Southwest Florida.
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