Lloyd Dean grew up with eight siblings and no health insurance. He’s now beginning his 16th year as president and CEO of Dignity Health, a nonprofit that serves patients in 21 states through hundreds of hospitals and community clinics, many of them Catholic. Dean’s kept Dignity in the black since 2002 and built it into the fifth-largest hospital chain in the country. He talked with STAT about his work, his undercover hospital visits, and his fondness for the Kardashians.
What do you think are the biggest problems facing health care today?
Number one is the instability of our system. You have a lot of folks benefitting from various aspects of the Affordable Care Act who are very, very much afraid [that it will go away]. Number two, making sure we have enough physicians and clinical staff to serve an aging population. How we finance health care continues to be a challenge. How we use existing and emerging technology. I’m still concerned about health disparities.
