Denver Health’s Dr. Patricia Gabow To Be Honored with NCHL’s National Healthcare Leadership Award

The National Center for Healthcare Leadership (NCHL) has named Patricia A. Gabow, MD, chief executive officer of Denver Health, as the recipient of the 2008 National Healthcare Leadership Award for her contributions to health care. Under her leadership, Denver Health, part of  Community Voices: Health Care for the Underserved, an initiative funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, has established a comprehensive, integrated health care system that achieves organizational excellence.  

“Dr. Gabow represents the future of health care leadership serving the neediest of all patients and is highly regarded for her willingness to innovate, take bold moves, create new knowledge, and share her findings with the field,” said Barbara Sabol, program director at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

Denver Health has successfully treated at-risk populations, a model that is being adopted by other health care systems throughout the nation. Dr. Gabow is additionally recognized for her commitment to building teams and mentoring the next generation of physicians and health care leaders during her 36-year career.

“Under Dr. Gabow’s guidance, Denver Health separated from the city in order to achieve greater financial and operational agility, initiated an innovative and intensive transformational project that already has saved Denver Health $10.6 million, and has achieved critical quality measurements including having one of the lowest medical mortality rates among peers in the University Healthcare Consortium (UHC),” said Marie E. Sinioris, president and CEO of NCHL.

Dr. Gabow will be honored at an awards dinner immediately following the NCHL Invitational Symposium on Friday, November 21, 2008 in Chicago.