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Gordon C. Hunt Jr, MD, MBA


Gordon Hunt, Jr. MD, MBA, served as senior vice president and chief medical officer for Sutter Health from 1997 until his retirement in 2016. As a member of the system management team, he participated in shaping the strategic direction of the organization, setting budgets and implementing key strategies. He has played a key role in integrating quality and safety practices into the fundamental operations of the health care system. As chief medical officer, he oversaw system wide quality and safety initiatives to improve the delivery of care, with a special focus on eliminating avoidable harm.

During his tenure, Hunt implemented an ongoing program that has trained more than 1,400 doctors, nurses, and administrative leaders in quality, safety, and management skills essential to high performing health care organizations. He also led two multidisciplinary teams on nationwide site visits to review best practices nationally and implemented key culture-building quality and safety efforts throughout Sutter Health. These teams made recommendations that led to top decile performance in national metrics and recognition for excellence for Sutter Health's ambulatory medical groups and hospitals. Hunt then lead implementation of the full services integration for patients in all sites of care.

Supporting the clinicians at Sutter Health with advanced technology was another key focus of Hunt's work. He led the implementation of numerous best-practice safety technologies to protect patients, while improving workflows for clinicians. Sutter Health became the second site nationally to introduce the electronic intensive care unit (eICU), which provides an additional level of safety to the care in ICUs. Through two eICU monitoring sites, critical care physicians and nurses remotely monitor and treat patients in more than 400 ICU hospital beds throughout northern California.

Another of Hunt's system wide projects was the early institution of medication bar coding and automation of medication dispensing and administration to eliminate errors and improve documentation. Innovative "smart pumps" were subsequently introduced into medication delivery at Sutter Health. These pumps prevented errors and improved nursing workflows by confirming, recording and delivering accurate intravenous (IV) medications to patients needing potent IV drugs. For many years, Hunt led the implementation of the electronic health record (EHR) system wide in Sutter Health facilities, which included embedded alarms and alerts, decision-support tools and interactive technologies, to enhance decision-making, eliminate errors, and improve quality.

Before joining Sutter Health, Hunt held numerous leadership roles. He was a founding board member of the Independent Practice Association, which evolved into Sutter Independent Physicians. He also served on the board of Sutter Medical Group, a leading multispecialty group. Later he worked with the leadership of both groups to launch Sutter Physician Alliance, a clinically integrated group serving patients of the greater Sacramento Sierra Region. He was president of his 14-member medical group, which specialized in managing the complex care of patients with pulmonary, infectious disease, and critical care needs. At Sutter Medical Center of Sacramento, he served as chief of the medical staff and as a hospital board member. Hunt acquired extensive experience working with physicians, nurses, and other members of the health care team to develop patient-centered integrated care groups at all sites of care.

Hunt is a board member of WiserCare, a for profit organization that supports informed decision making using technological support systems integrated with doctor and patient interactions. He has been a past advisor to the board of Sotera, a for profit medical monitoring company.

Hunt received a bachelor's degree in biology (cum laude) from the University of Notre Dame, a medical degree from the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, and an MBA with an emphasis in finance from the University of California, Davis. Hunt is board certified in both internal medicine and pulmonary medicine.