Trinity Health Leadership

Over a career spanning 35 years, Joseph R. Swedish has built a legacy of dynamic leadership and service excellence. Since becoming President and CEO of Trinity Health in December 2004, Mr. Swedish has focused his leadership on the transformation of health care delivery through improved clinical and business processes and expanding access to the growing population of underinsured patients.

As a Unified Enterprise Ministry® Mr. Swedish leads, Trinity Health, the nation’s fourth-largest Catholic health system by its leveraging scale and skill to create efficient and effective quality care for everyone. Under his leadership Trinity Health has accelerated its performance financially and operationally as the result of strategic and tactical initiatives focused on six imperatives: community benefit ministry, patient care excellence, financial stewardship, best people/spiritual workplace, physician alignment, and growth/collaboration. Trinity Health is a recognized leader in quality improvement and innovation having received the National Committee for Quality Health Care 2004 Award.

Mr. Swedish has a diverse senior executive operations experience in both investor owned and non-profit health care systems that spans faith based and secular health care, university and community based academic medical centers, integrated delivery systems and regional rural referral hospitals in the mid-Atlantic states, Florida, Colorado and now seven states that encompass Trinity Health’s markets.

Prior to joining Trinity Health, Mr. Swedish was President and CEO of Centura Health, the largest health care provider in Colorado with twelve hospitals that combined the operations of Catholic and Seven Day Adventist hospitals. The faith-based system won both national and international awards for excellence in patient care and for the successful incorporation of spirituality into the health care workplace. He served as President of the East Florida and Central Florida Divisions for the Hospital Corporation of America from 1994 to 1998.

He currently serves the American Hospital Association’s as Chairman for the Institute for Diversity in Health Management, as a member of the Special Advisory Group on Improving Hospital Care for Minorities; and the Non-profit System CEO group examining health care tax exempt status, He has served as a member of its Long Range Policy Committee and the Ad Hoc Committee on Payment for Health Services, and as a member of the AHA Regional Policy Board – Region 8. In 1999, he was elected Chairman of the Colorado Hospital Association Board of Directors.

He is a member of the Catholic Health Association and its Board of Trustees, and the National Center of Healthcare Leadership as a board member.

Mr. Swedish was chosen the Modern Healthcare “Top 100 Most Powerful Leaders in Healthcare” in 2006, 2007, and 2008. He was awarded the University Medal by the Board of Regents for the University of Colorado, received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Rocky Mountain Region and was recipient of the 2004 Career Achievement Regent’s Award, American College of Healthcare Executives.

He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and a master’s degree in health administration from Duke University.