HERstory | LTG (Ret) Patricia Horoho

Patty’s distinguished professional career includes 33 years with the U.S. Army, retiring as a Lieutenant General, the 43rd Army Surgeon General and Commander of the U.S. Army Medical Command. She made history being the first woman, first nurse and non-physician to hold these posts. In these roles, Patty led the third largest health care system in the world, a global logistics, research and care network across five continents, with a multibillion-dollar budget and staff of more than 156,000. An expert in health care transformation, Patty moved the entire Army Medicine organization from a disease model of care to a system for health. She implemented groundbreaking and long-lasting initiatives around behavioral health, while improving health care considerations and force protection measures for military women. Patty has been humbled to serve and lead during pivotal moments in Army Medicine and in defense of the nation, including serving in the emergency room during the Green Ramp Disaster in 1994; standing up triage at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001; transforming care at the Walter Reed Health Care System from 2007 to 2008; and serving as the Special Assistant to the Commander, International Security Assistance Force Joint Command, Afghanistan.
LTG Patricia (Patty) D. Horoho, Retired, is the Chief Executive Officer of OptumServe, the end-to-end federal business of Optum and UnitedHealth Group. Since forming OptumServe in 2017, Patty has grown the business by nearly 90%, resulting in an annual growth rate of 25%. This growth includes securing the $55 billion Veterans Affairs Community Care Network Third Party Administrator contract. Patty is a values-based servant leader whose life’s calling is to improve the U.S. health care system, focused in the areas of health care delivery and health disparities.