San Diego, CA, March 09, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Modern Healthcare magazine has given one its 2026 Leading Women awards to Ghazala Sharieff, M.D., M.B.A., Scripps Health corporate executive vice president and chief medical and operations officer for acute care. The honor celebrates outstanding health care leaders across all sectors of the industry.
Dr. Sharieff was chosen from among nominees representing hospitals, health systems, insurers, associations, government agencies, investment firms, suppliers, digital health startups and patients’ rights groups.
Modern Healthcare’s editorial team selected the winners based on their contributions to advancing their organization’s financial, operational and clinical goals, along with their efforts to champion gender equality within their organization and across the broader industry.
“I am honored to be recognized by Modern Healthcare and included among such an impressive group of women leaders in our industry,” Dr. Sharieff said. “This award rightly highlights the important role that women play in the delivery of care to patients everywhere. And it celebrates the opportunities created by organizations like Scripps Health for women to succeed at all levels of health care.”
Modern Healthcare announced the winners online on March 9. The magazine’s upcoming print edition also will feature the women, and the winners will be honored in June at a conference and luncheon in Chicago.
“Everyone at Scripps Health is proud of the important work that Dr. Sharieff has done throughout her career, first as a physician and now as a senior leader with our organization,” said Scripps Health President and CEO Chris Van Gorder. “Scripps has a long history of female leaders that stretches back over 100 years to our founding by a pair of pioneering women – Ellen Browning Scripps and Mother Mary Michael Cummings. Dr. Sharieff is part of that legacy, and her inspirational leadership is reflected in Scripps’ ranking among the best places to work for women in the United States.”
Dr. Sharieff has served as Scripps’ CMO for acute care since 2020, overseeing a wide range of areas across the San Diego-based health system, including quality, information services, pharmacy, support services and employee assistance.
Under her leadership, Press Ganey patient satisfaction scores rose to No. 82 nationally over the past two years; quality improvement initiatives reduced falls, pressure ulcers, blood clots and pneumonia, while lowering readmissions, decreasing hospital infections and reducing the overall cost of patient care; and cost-savings initiatives in areas that she manages helped Scripps achieve all of its financial targets last fiscal year.
Dr. Sharieff initiated “sprint teams” — highly focused, multidisciplinary groups that work to improve a specific element of patient care over a short period of time – that produced profound results in reducing surgical site infections, central line infections and patient falls.
The six R’s
She also developed an easy-to-teach system for achieving system goals dubbed the “six R’s”: retaining staff, repatriating patients, reducing costs, reducing lengths of stay, raising revenues and reassessing/reimagining. The initiative serves as a unifying structure to drive both clinical and financial outcomes, with an emphasis on empowering frontline staff and employees through a shared language across Scripps.
Dr. Sharieff co-chairs the Scripps Collaborative for Health Promotions, which is dedicated to improving outcomes in vulnerable populations. In 2025, the collaborative offered up to $15,000 in funding for research by Scripps employees or staff that addresses women’s health equity in cancer, cardiometabolic or neurocognitive disparities.
She is a role model for other women at Scripps and a mentor to many, using her knowledge and experiences to create a positive environment for them.
ABOUT SCRIPPS HEALTH
Founded in 1924 by philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps, Scripps Health is a nonprofit integrated health care delivery system based in San Diego, Calif. Scripps treats more than 650,000 patients annually through the dedication of more than 3,500 affiliated physicians and nearly 18,000 employees among its five acute-care hospital campuses, more than 70 outpatient and specialty care locations, and hundreds of affiliated physician offices throughout the region.
Recognized as a leader in disease and injury prevention, diagnosis and treatment, Scripps is also at the forefront of clinical research and is the only health system in the region with two level 1 trauma centers. With highly respected graduate medical education programs at all five hospital campuses, Scripps is a longstanding member of the Association of American Medical Colleges. Scripps has been ranked seven times as one of the nation’s best health care systems by Premier. Its hospitals are consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report among the nation’s best, and Scripps is recognized by the Advisory Board, Fortune and Working Mother magazine as one of the best places in the nation to work. More information can be found at www.scripps.org.
- Ghazala Sharieff, M.D., M.B.A., Scripps Health corporate executive vice president and chief medical and operations officer for acute care