Peter Bravos, MD, anesthesiologist and chief medical officer of Sacramento, Calif.-based Sutter Surgery Center Division, joined Becker’s to discuss how his clinical and leadership background prepared him for the role.
Editor’s note: This interview was edited lightly for clarity and length.
Question: What about your clinical background prepared you for this role?
Dr. Peter Bravos: With our development trajectory, by 2030 we’re planning on having over 50 ASCs. Sutter felt that using the dyad approach — which we use across the system — made sense: a physician leader with an administrative leader; in my case, Brad Heaton, who is CEO of Sutter Health’s Surgery Center Division. The two of us work together to stay aligned.
My background is that I’m an anesthesiologist and have practiced over 20 years. I’m also concurrently chief medical officer for one of Sutter’s medical groups — so I’ve been double-hatting — and I have an MBA. I’ve led physician groups, and for 20 years I was a medical director of a surgery center before this role. I also led an anesthesia group. All of that together led me here.
As an anesthesiologist, you see all aspects of surgery and aren’t focused on a single specialty. That’s a big differentiator. We have both joint ventures and wholly owned ASCs, and understanding the differences is important. I’m not an owner of any facility, so I take the perspective of what’s best for the center. That varies by location and what we’re doing.
