Meet the new CEO of Central Health, Travis County's hospital district

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Travis County's hospital district, which Austinites voted on and help pay for, is getting new leadership. Central Health named Dr. Patrick Lee the new CEO and president after Mike Geeslin announced he was stepping down down earlier this year.

Lee was most recently the first system chairman of medicine at One Brooklyn Health, which serves over one million New York residents in need. His resume before that is extensive.

"I'm a physician executive with that broad U.S., international experience and a lifelong commitment to health equity, who believes and understands that our core business, especially when talking about equity, is trust," Lee said.

Lee takes over at a pivotal time. Central Health is in the early stages of enacting its Healthcare Equity Plan, a roughly decade-long project aimed at filling gaps in the system that exists now. Attached to that plan: 150 new projects and nearly $700 million. When asked about top priorities, that plan was the first thing Lee discussed.

"To have the opportunity to try to lead and turn that plan into reality, what an amazing opportunity," he said.

Central Health helps more than 150,000 low income residents of Travis County with health coverage and care, according to the district. That's roughly one in nine people who live in the county.

Earlier this year, Mayor Kirk Watson told KXAN he was working to make Austin's healthcare web heartier, and that he sought to fix communication and care gaps between the various groups that work in that space.

That announcement from the mayor came after Integral Care unexpectedly lost funding. Central Health stepped in during its budget process to offset the product of that loss, which would have resulted in staff and program cuts.

To make the system better, the mayor said he was looking to gather leaders of those organizations, including Dell Medical, Integral Care, Travis County and Central Health. KXAN asked Lee if he was willing to take part of that process.

Lee said collaboration was a top priority and said: "I will do my upmost to be a full and active and trustworthy partner in that process."

The Central Health board is also shuffling leadership. Ann Kitchen, a former Austin City Council member, will transition to the chair of the board of managers. She also touched on collaboration as being a key part of the role.

"To really sit down and work together and collaborate particularly on issues related to folks that are living on the streets who are unsheltered, we all know that is very challenging situations for those folks," she said.