2011-up-and-comers-carrie-owen-plietz

I think patients being at the center of everything you do is the mantra.” That is Carrie Owen Plietz's formula for success, and it has shaped much of her 14-year career, helping her land her first CEO role at the age of 36. She says she felt a calling toward healthcare, even if it was “not necessarily doing the chemistry,” recognizing what she thought were her strengths—“solving problems and bringing people together.” Owen Plietz, who holds bachelor's and master's degrees in health administration, spent two years with Bon Secours Richmond (Va.) Health System before arriving at Sacramento, Calif.-based Sutter Health. During a nine-year stint with California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco, she was responsible for improving employee and physician-satisfaction rates, as well as what she calls the “never-ending journey to creating the best patient experience possible.” The program helped raise patient-satisfaction scores for many departments from the 10th percentile to the 80th and 90th percentiles. She recalls stories she's heard from patients and family members, and says that, aside from fixing whatever ailment they've come in for, the anecdotes she hears most often are about the doctor who made eye contact while giving an update, the nurse who provided an extra pillow, or the security guard who guided a family member during a stressful time. “It's the mix of art and science, and patient satisfaction is the way to connect people back to the reason they got into healthcare in the first place,” she says. She left California Pacific as chief administrative officer and headed to affiliate Mills-Peninsula Health System in Burlingame, Calif., where she spent two years as chief operating officer. During that time, she was responsible for the implementation of Sutter's first acute-care electronic health-record system. With a succession plan in place, she transferred to Sutter Medical Center in January, spending eight months as COO before replacing longtime CEO Tom Gagen on Sept. 1. She considers creating a paired leadership model—encouraging administrators and physician leaders to work together toward the goal of becoming an accountable care organization—one of her most important initiatives as an administrator. “Having physician involvement has been an underpinning of my career,” Owen Plietz says. “It's always been very important to me, even more so with the medical center I'm with, and the environment we're in now with healthcare reform.” She also brought her passion for patient- and family-centered care to Mills-Peninsula and Sutter Medical Center, installing a Voice of the Patient program that brings caregivers together to review survey results, patient letters and family comments.