Kenneth A. Samet, FACHE

Kenneth A. Samet has been MedStar Health’s President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) since January, 2008.  Samet previously served as the President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of MedStar Health since 2003, and was responsible for all operational aspects of the more than 25 companies that comprise the largest, not-for-profit, healthcare delivery system in the region with annual revenues of $3.7 billion.  Prior to that, Samet served as COO since the system’s inception in 1998.

With more than a quarter of a century of experience in healthcare administration in the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan region, Samet has provided strategic oversight and management for MedStar Health’s eight hospitals, a comprehensive network of ambulatory centers, the region’s largest comprehensive home health organization, and a large primary care physician practice network.  MedStar Health is one of the largest employers in the region with more than 25,000 associates and 5,000 affiliated physicians, serving more than half-a-million patients and their families each year.

He has dedicated his career to health care since receiving his master’s degree in health services administration from the University of Michigan in 1982. Samet served as president of Washington Hospital Center, one of the nation’s 20 largest tertiary care hospitals, in the District of Columbia from 1990 to 2000.  From the mid-1980s to 1990, Samet held a variety of executive leadership positions with the Medlantic Healthcare Group, which merged with Helix Health in 1998 to create MedStar Health.

Samet is presently a member of the Board of Directors at Georgetown University, serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of the Greater Washington Board of Trade, and the Executive Committee of the Federal City Council.  He is also the Vice Chair of the McLean School of Maryland.  He has held leadership positions on the boards of the American Hospital Association (AHA), District of Columbia Hospital Association and Maryland Hospital Association.  Samet most recently served as the immediate-past Chairman of AHA’s Regional Policy Board III.  In addition, he also served on the Board of Visitors for the University of Maryland School of Nursing. Samet is also a past board member and chair of the Academic Affairs Committee of the Old Dominion University Board of Visitors, where he received his bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1980.  In 1996, the American College of Healthcare Executives named Samet the national Young Healthcare Administrator of the Year.