Good Sam’s new chief medical officer eyes big picture

LAFAYETTE — After about a year in Montana, Dr. Toni Green-Cheatwood is back in Colorado with a new role: chief medical officer at SCL Health Inc.’s Good Samaritan Hospital in Lafayette.

The surgeon had spent several years in administrative roles with Centura Health before heading north for a brief tenure as system chief medical officer at the Billings Clinic in Montana.

“If this past year has taught us anything, it’s that family can not be underappreciated and taken for granted,” Green-Cheatwood told BizWest, so she opted to rejoin her family, including her husband, daughter and son in Colorado. 

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It was family, after all, that sent Green-Cheatwood on the path toward a career in medicine. 

The Chandler, Arizona, native’s mother was a nurse practitioner “so that was my exposure to the medical field,” Green-Cheatwood said. “When I was a kid I thought I’d be able to spend more time with my mom if I was a doctor. So that’s what led me down this path.”

Green-Cheatwood studied medicine at Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine and completed her residency at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. 

She found her niche providing surgery services for breast cancer patients and completed a fellowship in multidisciplinary breast surgery at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

“I have an eye for the big picture,” Green-Cheatwood said, which led her to gravitate toward administrative roles at the institutions where she worked.

“I learned early on that there’s something to be said for the 30,000-foot view and creating the structure in which we care for patients,” she said. “As a doctor, I could care for 400 patients a year, but by creating a program … we can touch thousands of patients in a year.”

When she decided to transition into hospital leadership, Green-Cheatwood decided to return to school to get a master’s in business administration from the University of Colorado in Denver. 

“I wanted to make sure I could speak the lingo and understand the world of administration before going full bore into it.”

Now, rather than operating, Green-Cheatwood focuses on “listening and trying to guide [Good Sam’s broader medical programming], influencing rather than telling” subordinates what to do.

“My job is to make sure that if I’m not here the hospital still runs beautifully,” she said. 

“As a key member of the SCL Health and Good Samaritan leadership team, we are excited for Dr. Green-Cheatwood to lead our ongoing efforts supporting clinical excellence and delivering superior patient and provider experiences,” Good Sam president Jen Alderfer said in a prepared statement. “In partnership with our medical staff, Dr. Green-Cheatwood will advance clinical quality, patient safety and service excellence and will lead our legacy of person-centered care into the future.”

Green-Cheatwood said she decided to return to Colorado and work for SCL because she “love[s] that Good Sam is an acute-care hospital. The Level II trauma program provides a level of service that is needed in this area.”

But, “what sealed the deal was meeting the people,” she said. “The leadership team is truly terrific … and the physicians I’ve met so far are top-notch caregivers who are really focused on giving patient-centric personalized care. The nursing team is dedicated; they’ve had a rough year and a half, and they’re still here everyday taking care of patients and putting their needs first.”

Green-Cheatwood takes over her new leadership during a trying time for hospitals, as COVID-19 continues to strain resources.

She acknowledged that it’s a “huge responsibility” to lead a hospital during a pandemic, but praised Boulder County’s proactive response to the virus. 

“Boulder County has been stellar in terms of vaccinations, which has helped keep our numbers down. We’re seeing a surge across the country of the Delta variant, but Boulder County has helped itself greatly by having a great response to the vaccine.”

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