Accolades

St. Luke’s Health CEO Dr. T. Douglas Lawson, Ph.D. Receives Prestigious Earl M. Collier Award for 2021

The Texas Hospital Association (THA), the leading professional and advocacy organization representing acute-care hospitals and healthcare systems across the state of Texas, has named Chief Executive Officer of St. Luke’s Health and Senior Vice President of Operations for CommonSpirit Health, T. Douglas Lawson, Ph.D., the recipient of the 2021 Earl M. Collier Award for Distinguished Health Care Administration. “This award represents much more than my own accomplishment. It honors all of the dedicated people on our team who have made St. Luke’s Health an exemplar in patient care,” stated Dr. Lawson. “To be this year’s recipient of the Earl M. Collier Award is a great honor, especially at this time in history, as a global pandemic has tested the readiness, resilience and resolve of all healthcare providers,” Dr. Lawson continued. Dr. Lawson leads a team of more than 20,000 employees, caregivers, medical staff and doctors in an integrated provider health network of 16 acute care hospitals and more than 270 access points serving Greater Houston, East Texas, and the Brazos Valley. He has built a long-tenured career in healthcare administration in a variety of leadership roles, with a solid track record for vastly improving the patient experience by turning around underperforming hospitals. In just three years under his leadership, St. Luke’s Health has been nationally recognized as one of the top health systems in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, the American College of Cardiology and the Leapfrog Group. Dr. Lawson’s career began with the development of the cancer program at Scott & White Memorial Hospital and Clinic in Temple, Texas. He went on to serve in Kansas City with Saint Luke’s Health System, and was later was named COO of Cabell-Huntington Hospital in Huntington, West Virginia, where over the course of three years his team brought patient satisfaction ratings from the single digits to the 90th percentile and earned the ranking of most preferred hospital in the region by Forrester Research. Dr. Lawson returned to Texas in 2007 to become President of Baylor Scott & White Medical Center – Grapevine, where in just four years, he and his team elevated the hospital to a top performer in the region. In 2012, he took on the Chief Operating Officer role at Baylor University Medical Center; and in 2015 was named President of the center and of the North Texas Central Region. Dr. Lawson has been in his current role with St. Luke’s Health and CommonSpirit Health (St. Luke’s Health’s parent ministry) since 2018 and currently serves on various boards. He was recently elected as president of the Board of the American Heart Association for the Greater Houston Division. He is also a board member of the THA, where he works in collaboration with other members on key federal health policy issues. During the 87th Legislative Session, his advocacy helped lead to the passage of Texas Senate Bill 1876, which requires dialysis centers to have emergency planning measures in place in the event of a disaster that disrupts the water supply. He was

HCA Houston Healthcare Southeast Announces the Appointment of Gurvir Saini, M.S.N., R.N., as Chief Nursing Officer

Following HCA Houston Healthcare Southeast is pleased to announce the appointment of Gurvir Saini, M.S.N., R.N., as chief nursing officer (CNO), effective April 18, 2022. Saini currently serves as assistant CNO at HCA Houston Healthcare Clear Lake, a role she’s held since April 2020. In her new role, Saini will provide executive-level leadership for nursing operations including management of all nurses and nurse leaders to ensure consistency in the hospital’s practice standards. She will also spearhead initiatives related to nursing also involved in supporting the 2019 passage of Texas House Bill 2059 which requires human trafficking prevention training for frontline health care providers. Dr. Lawson is also deeply committed to addressing social justice issues that impact access to health care. During the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, he led a partnership between St. Luke’s Health and Texas Southern University — a historically Black college with a reputation for service within its community — to inoculate thousands of at-risk patients. A Texas native, Dr. Lawson received his Ph.D. in Leadership Studies from Dallas Baptist University and his Master of Science in Health Care Administration from Trinity University. He is a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives and is on faculty at Baylor College of Medicine. 

colleague engagement, quality, patient safety and overall patient experience across the hospital and affiliated sites of care. Saini was born and raised in India, where she started her career as a bedside nurse in 2001. In 2006, she was awarded the opportunity to come to the United States to serve as a bedside nurse at Bayshore Medical Center (now HCA Houston Healthcare Southeast), where she worked for nine years. Committed to growing future nurse leaders, Saini began her own leadership journey in 2010 as an assistant nurse manager and was later promoted to nurse manager for multiple units. In 2015, she was promoted to director of nursing at HCA Houston Healthcare Conroe. Saini joined HCA Houston Healthcare Clear Lake in 2017 as director of nursing for the medical-surgical, Gurvir Saini, M.S.N., R.N., intermediate medical care and stroke units until her promotion to assistant CNO in April 2020. “Gurvir is a personable and dedicated nurse leader with over twenty years of healthcare experience in a variety of medical settings,” said

More Than 160 Match at Baylor College of Medicine’s First In-Person Match Day in Two Years

Obstetrics and gynecology or emergency medicine. Thirty-nine students will continue their training in residencies at Baylor College of Medicine, and 61 matched with residency programs in Texas. Before envelopes were opened and students’ lives were changed, Dr. Paul Klotman, president, CEO and executive dean of the College, said this particular cohort had lived through the most difficult medical school experience of all time, with events like a tropical storm, a freeze and a global pandemic. Klotman remembers his Match Day like it was yesterday, he said, including the fact that he did not match into his first-choice school. But he understands now that the day is about matching into a program that is excited for a new doctor, not a student selecting where they will learn to be a doctor. “It’s really important to know wherever you go, whatever it says on that envelope, that the people on the other side are happy about you joining them,” he said. “People are really excited about you coming to them. Once you open your envelope, be really happy.” In 2020, days after Harris County went on lockdown at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Baylor made the decision to hold Match Day virtually. Last year, only students were invited to participate in an intimate in-person ceremony. This year, however, all students were invited to attend with an unlimited number of friends and family. For many, this made the day more special and their futures in medicine more solidified. As the students prepare for their next step, whether it’s in Houston or elsewhere, Dr. Lee Poythress, associate dean of student affairs in the School of Medicine at Baylor, said it’s important to not forget what they learned at Baylor. “This is a day of ‘what’s next,’ but you should carry the culture of being a Baylor College of Medicine student with you,” Poythress said. “You are hardworking, industrious with energy and positivity that is palpable. Be bold and a changemaker for excellence.”

Match Day 2022, Baylor College of Medicine fourth year students find out where they will continue their training as residents.