Dan Wolterman, President and CEO of Memorial Hermann Healthcare System, has been named to Modern Healthcare's 2010 list of the 100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare. The list, published in the August 23 issue, placed Wolterman at No. 36, up from No. 59 in 2009. Those voted to the national "Most Powerful" list are considered to be among the most influential in the health care industry.
This is the third consecutive year for Wolterman to be included in the Modern Healthcare ranking. As President and CEO of the largest not-for-profit healthcare system in Texas, Wolterman leads Memorial Hermann's efforts to continually improve healthcare quality. Memorial Hermann won the National Quality Healthcare Award in 2009 and attributes the honor to spending millions of dollars training all employees in best practices.
President Barack Obama tops this year's list, followed by many of the key players in healthcare reform efforts. Wolterman joins individuals such as HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates. The list also features association and corporate executives, consumer advocates and lobbyists, physicians, and leaders of some of the largest healthcare systems in the nation.
Wolterman is the only Houston healthcare executive to make the list and one of only a handful of leaders interviewed for an extensive story in the publication of the list. He discussed Memorial Hermann's objective to fully integrate private-practice physicians into the system's quality program.
Wolterman has more than 30 years' experience in the healthcare industry and a long history of community involvement. He joined Memorial Hermann Healthcare System in 1999 and was named President and CEO in 2002. Before joining Memorial Hermann, he was Senior Vice President of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word Health Care System. He earned a B.S. degree in business administration in 1979 and an M.B.A. in finance in 1980 from the University of Cincinnati and a Masters Degree in healthcare administration from Xavier University in 1982.
He has chaired numerous organizations, including the Greater Houston Partnership, Texas Hospital Association Board of Directors, Volunteer Hospitals of America-Texas Board of Directors, Air Quality Task Force, the American Heart Association, Houston Region and was a board member of the Greater Gulf Coast Chapter of United Way. He has received numerous recognitions, most recently the AHA Grassroots Champion Award, Health Access Texas Public Health Award, InterFaith Care Partners Sustaining Presence Award and Xavier University Distinguished Alumni Award.
The Memorial Hermann CEO was nominated for this prestigious honor along with nearly 56,000 other health care leaders from around the country. From April 5 through May 7, voters chose the 100 candidates they believed should make the final list of the 100 Most Powerful. Just under half a million votes were cast. The 100 people who received the most votes made the final list with the ranking determined by number of votes received.