Stephen Tarnoff, MD, Named 2018 Outstanding Medical Director by Seattle Business

Stephen Tarnoff, MD, president and executive medical director of the Washington Permanente Medical Group (WPMG), has been named “Outstanding Medical Director or Chief Medical Officer” in Seattle Business magazine’s 2018 Leaders in Health Care awards.

Dr. Tarnoff, who leads a medical group of more than 800 physicians serving over 680,000 Kaiser Permanente members in Washington state, is credited with overseeing the smooth transition last year of Group Health Physicians to WPMG after Kaiser Permanente acquired the health plan Group Health Cooperative in Seattle.

Dr. Tarnoff spent the first 25 years of his career as a family physician, happy in providing the full spectrum of care in family medicine. But he says he took on leadership roles as opportunities to bring about accelerated improvement to clinical quality. “I would ask questions such as, ‘Why can’t we do things differently?’ ” says Dr. Tarnoff.

Visit the Seattle Business magazine site to view a complete list of the 2018 Leaders in Health Care awards.