Dr. Deidra Woods, Chief Medical Officer of Empath Health
Empath Health’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Deidra Woods is featured in the Tampa Bay Business Journal’s Executive Files column published December 12.
Read the column below. To see the original story go to the Tampa Bay Business Journal. You must be a subscriber to see the entire story.
- Alexis Muellner
- Editor-Tampa Bay Business Journal
Dr. Deidra Woods
Title: Chief medical officer
Company: Empath Health
Grew up: W. Columbia, S.C. “on the wrong side of the river”
Downtime: Baking. “I love cakes. I make a deadly tres leches.”
Secret to her tres leches: Rum
TV favorite: Top Chef
Favorite chef: Guy Fieri. “He’s silly and he enjoys what he does. He’s never going to talk about people being maimed or killed or the war in the Middle East.”
Pets: A retired Greyhound racer named Duke
Hot button: People who don’t say what they mean; truth telling
Why Dr. Woods is a big deal: Suncoast Hospice has very recently been part of a rebranding effort and now falls under the Empath Health umbrella. As the organization’s chief medical officer, her position is a mix of clinical and administrative functions. Her main role is to ensure the quality of the medical care for patients across the Empath care continuum. It isn’t widely known how diverse the organization is, as it also includes services in AIDS care, children’s services and home health care, just to name a few. Woods has the rare distinction of being a physician who started her career as a registered nurse.
What is most misunderstood by the business community about Empath Health? We are a very large business in Pinellas County and we have more than 1,000 employees in the county and my department alone, we employ 15 full-time physicians, four part-time positions and five full-time nurse practitioners in addition to my position as the chief medical officer. Many people don’t realize that an organization like Empath Health would have full-time physician employees. But with the current Medicare [rules] and the need for physician involvement in the organization, that’s the most effective way for us to provide physician services in the organization.
How are you growing? I am challenged every day with the organization growing and learning about new business ventures, new opportunities for partnership in our community. As a professional, my future is about really trying to keep up. I didn’t grow up with computers or cell phones and that was a large part of my learning curve.
Alexis Muellner is Editor of the Tampa Bay Business Journal.