Scripps Health Earns National Honors as 2008 Top Leadership Team in Healthcare

Bringing a dramatic financial and cultural turnaround full circle, Scripps Health has earned national honors as the 2008 Top Leadership Team in Healthcare for large hospitals and health systems from HealthLeaders Media. 

Scripps has rebounded in the past eight years to post an operating margin of $100 million in 2007 (compared to $15 operating losses in 1999) and is now embarking on a $2 billion expansion plan to upgrade its facilities and technologies over the next decade.   Scripps has also achieved a remarkable cultural transformation, with employee and physician satisfaction scores rising significantly in recent years, and charitable contributions reaching an all-time high in 2007.  

The turnabout has come at the direction of Chris Van Gorder, FACHE, who has been Scripps Health’s president and CEO since 2000.   Van Gorder assembled a new management team and rebuilt the health system from scratch on the strength of five core values: teamwork, transparency, accountability, authority and responsibility. 

An early catalyst for change at Scripps was the creation of the Physician Leadership Cabinet, an advisory group of physician leaders who meet regularly with hospital administrators. Since the cabinet’s founding, 100 percent of its recommendations have been accepted.     

Leadership teamwork has been strengthened by the Scripps  Leadership  Academy   , a management training program that encourages understanding between managers of different units within Scripps.