David Lopez
President and CEO, Harris County Hospital District, Houston
Biography
David S. Lopez, FACHE, is President and CEO of the Harris County Hospital District, the fifth largest metropolitan public healthcare system in the nation. He is a respected community leader with more than 28 years of administrative healthcare experience.
He became permanent President and CEO of the Harris County Hospital District in April 2004 after nearly a year as its interim President and CEO.
Before assuming his duties as President and CEO, Mr. Lopez helped lead many initiatives to strengthen the fiscal health of the Harris County Hospital District and improve the health of the community. His work as Chief Operating Officer was vital in creating strategic partnerships with business, industry and community leaders to ensure that the Harris County Hospital District receives all state and federal funds needed to improve patient access to primary and specialty care.
Mr. Lopez knows that the heart line of the Harris County Hospital District is its dedicated workforce. His management philosophy is to challenge and continually improve the organization to make it a Most Efficient Organization (MEO) as outlined by the principals of the American College of Healthcare Executives.
He has always appreciated the need to care for others, particularly the impoverished and medically underserved. His family upbringing in San Antonio, Texas, taught him that people can always use a helping hand during times of need. His father, a Pentecostal minister, instilled in him a ‘missionary’ purpose in life and he sees the work of the Harris County Hospital District as a continuation of that.
The Harris County Hospital District serves more than a million patient visits annually through its network of three hospitals, 12 neighborhood health centers, 13 homeless shelter clinics, six school-based clinics and four mobile health units.
In its 40 years of service, the Harris County Hospital District has steadfastly worked to improve the Harris County community’s health and train the next generation of health professionals. Mr. Lopez believes the best work of the Harris County Hospital District is still to come.
Mr. Lopez has a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a master’s degree in Health Care Administration from Trinity University in San Antonio.
He lives in Clear Lake, Texas, and is married to Patricia, his wife of 27 years. He has five children, all attending the University of Houston. Three are working on undergraduate degrees, one on a master’s and one on a doctorate. Mr. Lopez plays the saxophone and on Sundays joins his musically-inclined children in the church band.
Some of his healthcare administrative experience includes:
July 2000 – April 2004: Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for the Harris County Hospital District
September 1998 – June 200: Senior Executive Director
of the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston, Texas
October 1996 – September 1998: Consultant with Healthcare Services in Corpus
Christi, Texas
June 1991 – October 1996: President and CEO of Memorial Medical Center in
Corpus Christi, Texas
September 1989 – June 1991: CEO of Medical Center Hospital in Odessa, Texas.
November 1984 – August 1989: Associate Administrator of Santa Rosa Medical
Center in San Antonio, Texas.
May 1980 – November 1984: Assistant Administrator of Bexar County Hospital
District in San Antonio, Texas.
September 1978 – May 1980: Executive Director of Atascosa Health Clinic in
Pleasanton, Texas.
November 1977 – August 1978: Health Planner in West Texas Health Systems
Agency in El Paso, Texas.