Bernadette Loftus (The Permanente Medical Group) Dr. Bernadette Loftus, MD, has served as associate executive director of the Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group (MAPMG) since it legally affiliated with The Permanente Medical Group (TPMG) of Northern California in 2008. In this role, Bernadette is responsible for the health care of over 777,000 Kaiser Permanente members in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. The Mid-Atlantic Permanente Group comprises over 1,878 physicians and staff members, over 76% of whom were hired since 2009; operates 30 medical centers in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area; and has affiliations with several top hospitals in the region.
Bernadette joined The Permanente Medical Group in 1991. She has held a number of roles at TPMG during her career, including TPMG board member and assistant secretary to the board; and physician-in-chief of the Santa Clara Medical Center, one of Kaiser Permanente’s largest tertiary medical centers in California.
She serves as a voting member on the National Committee for Quality Assurance’s Committee on Performance Measurement, and a member of Kaiser Permanente’s National Health Policy Committee. As the founder of the annual Women in Leadership series hosted by MAPMG, Bernadette is a member of the Women Business Leaders of the U.S. Health Care Industry Foundation, a national nonprofit organization bringing together a peer group of senior executive women from all parts of the health care industry. Until January 2018, Bernadette was a member of the National Committee on Evidence-Based Benefit Insurance Design of the National Business Group on Health. From 2011 to 2016, she was a commissioner on the State of Maryland’s Health Services Cost Review Commission, serving during the development of the Commission’s successful global budgeting innovation project with CMS related to improving quality while simultaneously reducing overall cost trends for Marylanders. She has also served on the Board of Directors of the American Medical Group Association.
Bernadette is a frequently requested speaker on engendering health care evolution in pursuit of value-based health care, and utilizing successful physician leadership and employee engagement initiatives to drive performance. Her broader health care interests lie in technology-enabled population care management; leadership for rapid performance improvement; and using data and transparency to achieve the Triple Aim. Bernadette has been featured in numerous publications including “Fix It: Getting Accountability Right” by Roger Connors and Tom Smith, the world’s leading experts on workplace accountability; and “Prescription for the Future: The Twelve Transformational Practices of Highly Effective Medical Organizations” by Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, Chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
Board-certified in otolaryngology/head and neck surgery, Bernadette received her medical degree with honors from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland; did preliminary general surgery residency at Albert Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia; and completed her otolaryngology/head and neck surgery residency at Columbia University, where she was also appointed chief resident in head and neck surgery.