Why the Orca?
The Orca is the largest member of the dolphin family. Nicknamed the “Wolf of the Sea”, she has been memorialized for countless centuries in Indigenous cultural teachings, and in the imagination and media of modern western cultures.
The orca is known to Indigenous Cultures for many things, among them family, harmony, and community. They are admired for their intelligence, great athleticism and strength, and tight communication and coordination. They are known by some as the Lord or Guardian of the Ocean. Orcas are highly social, travelling in community pods that are multi-generational. Periodically, pods will come together and collaborate to accomplish a particular purpose. They travel and communicate over impossibly great distances.
In the hunt, orcas are each highly critical to the accomplishment of their objective. They rely on the competency of each other, and the success of the pod is dependent on each member’s ability to deliver in a coordinated way. While each are exceptional, they only achieve their goal when all work together and do their part to accomplish a singular shared goal.
The movement of health care to deliver on the Quintuple Aim has been too slow and too little. We believe health care is in an ocean of trouble. We believe health care needs more orcas.
Orcinus Health Solutions brings together highly competent and verifiably accomplished executives, leaders, and subject matter experts to work collaboratively with you and your organization to accomplish goals in the complex and difficult world of health care. We are a core pod of experts, and as dictated by the situation we add like-minded experts to the pod to accomplish our goal.
This pod is not about egos. It is about results.
We rely on each other explicitly.
We trust each other implicitly.
Through our expertise, our approach, and our beliefs
we can accomplish goals that others simply can’t.
We are Orcinus Health Solutions.
About Us
Kristen Woods is a certified business and executive coach focused on physician leaders who wish to enhance their executive skillset to become a trusted voice for improving the delivery of healthcare while reducing moral distress for healthcare workers and physicians.
As a coach, Dr. Woods brings forward her experience as a leader in population health and medical group operations. In her most recent corporate role, she served as the SVP of Network and Physician Experience for Southwestern Health Resources, one of three ACOs in the country to earn the Leaders in Quality Excellence Award by the National Association of Accountable Care Organizations in 2023. In addition, SWHR clinically integrated network has generated more than $150 million in Medicare shared savings while maintaining high quality scores. Prior to joining the ACO, Dr. Woods served as the President of Trinity Health Medical Group, West Michigan – a multispecialty medical group consisting of over 800 providers and 95 clinics. In this role, she has responsibility for strategy design, clinical and financial operations, and cultural integration. Previously, she held executive positions as Vice President of Mercy Health Physician Partners, Muskegon - a 250-provider medical group with 42 clinics - and Medical Director of National Solutions at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. She practiced as a family physician for 13 years prior to starting her executive career. She has extensive background in practice and organizational transformation having led the evolution to patient centered medical homes locally and the integration of a large, complex multispecialty medical group. She received her Masters of Medical Management degree from Carnegie Mellon University, Heinz School of Business and her Medical Degree from Michigan State University, College of Human Medicine.
Kristen is an avid runner, yogi, and exercise enthusiast. She enjoys spending time with her spouse, interacting with nature, and watching her children play collegiate soccer. As a curious learner and a lover of music, she has attempted to learn to play piano as an adult.
You can find Kristen on LinkedIn.
Dr. Paul Woods is a family physician who practiced clinically in both rural and urban settings over 25 years in Canada, the USA, and the Canadian military. His leadership career spans more than 15 years. He has led a national medical group in the United States comprised of over 7,000 providers and served in his native Canada as the President and Chief Executive Officer of London Health Sciences Centre, a leading academic health institution specializing in advanced care, medical research, and training upcoming healthcare professionals.
Under his leadership, there was a renewed emphasis on quality, the introduction of "Just Culture" and "Safety Culture," and the design and execution of a Lean Management System. During his tenure, LHSC opened its first Indigenous Healing Space and operationalized Ontario’s first publicly-owned Ambulatory Surgery Centre.
For the past several years, Dr. Woods has focused professionally on providing consultation to companies looking to grow through value-based market strategies. He has worked with both US-based and Canadian companies, from start-up through scale-up and pre-IPO. His focus on helping companies to craft outcome-based product and market strategies is based on his belief and experience that healthcare providers don’t need more gadgets and niche services; they need partners who can help them to deliver Quintuple Aim outcomes.
He recently added (with his life and business partner Dr. Kristen Woods) business and executive coaching to his professional expertise and is certified as a Business and Executive Coach through FocalPoint International. Healthcare needs leaders with deep and broad skills, who are balanced in their lives and understand that healthcare deserves better than transactional business models and “No Margin No Mission.” Healthcare leaders must lead with their heart. The best healthcare is a crucial right for all in a just and moral society. By working with many leaders, he aspires to help build that cadre of exceptional heart-led and ethically guided executives who will deliver health to all.
In January 2024, Paul returned to the Healthcare Executive workforce serving as President and CEO of a large community hospital in his hometown. In this role, he remains committed to making healthcare deliver a better experience and improved outcomes to patients, a healthier population, health equity, a focus on workforce and care team wellness, and an affordable and sustainable cost structure.
Paul is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the University of Western Ontario. He loves hiking and cycling with his wife Kristen, and he admits to being hopelessly hooked on German Shepherd Dogs. In addition, he loves hanging out with his adult kids and four grandchildren.
You can find Paul on LinkedIn.