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What was it like running the country’s largest and most extensive health care delivery system during a global pandemic that stressed every government sector?

On this episode of the S.O.S. podcast, meet Dr. Richard Stone, a physician, a combat veteran, and former head of the Veterans Health Administration. Starting in December 2019, his team was tasked to perform the near impossible to care for those who served and take on an unprecedented natural disaster response mission that tested every leader and resource available.

Learn Dr. Stone’s best practices for calm leadership under fire and what he suggests for future pandemic responses. What best practices and lessons learned did he take from this crisis?

Dr. Richard Stone served as the Acting Undersecretary for Health at the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), where he directed a health care system with an annual budget of approximately $68 billion, overseeing the delivery of care to more than 9 million enrolled veterans. Dr. Stone chronicled leadership challenges in crisis in his book, Save Every Life You Can: A Reflection on Leadership and Saving Lives During the COVID-19 Pandemic, published in 2022. In the book he discusses the serious organizational and decision-making challenges he faced while leading the nation’s largest health care system through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Stone is retired from the U.S. Army where he served as the Army’s Deputy Surgeon General and the Deputy Commanding General of Support for U.S. Army MEDCOM.

With extensive experience in civilian health care, Dr. Stone served multiple non-profit regional health care systems and has owned multiple businesses. Currently a practicing dermatologist, he obtained his training from Wayne State Affiliated programs in Detroit and the VA Health system and is a Board Certified fellow in the American Academy of Dermatology.

Book Save Every Life You Can

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