The Guthrie Clinic Appoints First Chief Clinical Officer

The Guthrie Clinic announced today that Robert Kruklitis, MD, PhD, MBA, has been named the health system’s first Enterprise Chief Clinical Officer, Executive Vice President.

In this new role, Dr. Kruklitis will focus on the advancement of clinical care “systemness,” serving as a change agent in transforming care delivery across the enterprise. He will lead Guthrie’s ongoing focus on high-value, safe patient care through oversight of system clinical performance. 

“We are excited to have Dr. Kruklitis join The Guthrie Clinic,” said Dr. Edmund Sabanegh, Guthrie President and CEO. “His extensive experience around innovation and clinical care redesign will support our continued journey to transform clinical delivery in all venues of care to include hospitals, home based care, post-acute facilities, and ambulatory settings.” 

Dr. Kruklitis joins Guthrie from Lehigh Valley Health System, where he held several leadership roles, most recently Vice-Chair, Clinical Programs, Department of Medicine and Medical Director and Vice President of Transformation.

“I'm incredibly excited to be joining the Guthrie team and am truly honored and humbled to become the system’s first Chief Clinical Officer,” Dr. Kruklitis said. “I'm inspired by Guthrie's vision – ‘Improving health through clinical excellence and compassion, every patient, every time.’ Over the past several years I've worked on network transformation by developing innovative care delivery models that can be implemented at Guthrie. I look forward to contributing to the care of the patients we serve,” he added.

Dr. Kruklitis received his Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from Georgetown University and his Master of Business Administration degree from University of Massachusetts, Amherst.