Tom Patrias came to hospital administration through an unlikely door. A Tulane-trained electrical engineer, his first job took him to an architectural engineering firm working on hospital construction projects across Michigan, Wisconsin and Colorado. The work gave him a window into healthcare operations, but it was the people around him who changed his trajectory.
His wife is a registered nurse. His brother, a respiratory therapist. His sister-in-law, a urologist. Many of his Tulane friends became physicians. What they all shared, regardless of title, was a visible passion for making a difference in people’s lives and their communities.
“This unwavering enthusiasm to mission was the draw for me,” he said. Unsure how to channel that fervor without clinical training, he sought out physician executives at his wife’s hospital, who steered him toward healthcare administration. He landed his first hospital administration role 20 years ago and hasn’t looked back.
Patrias joined UMC nearly two years ago as chief operating officer, after previously serving as CEO of Tulane Medical Center and Lakeside Hospital, and in senior leadership roles with Community Health Systems.
Since Aug. 1, 2025, Patrias has served as CEO of University Medical Center New Orleans — the region’s only Level 1 Trauma Center. He succeeded John R. Nickens IV, who now serves as CEO of Phoenix Children’s Hospital.
Patrias is currently at work on several initiatives, including opening a new 12-bed cardiovascular surgical ICU, completing the expansion of a cancer center clinic, adding 28 behavioral health inpatient beds in partnership with New Orleans East Hospital and deepening the hospital’s food security work with Second Harvest Food Bank.
He said one of the hospital’s biggest opportunities lies in UMC’s academic partnerships with LSU Health New Orleans and Tulane. The collaboration is already bearing fruit. In January, UMC earned “triple crown” status in emergency care, becoming the only facility in the Gulf South to hold all three of the region’s highest national emergency care designations (Level 1 Trauma Center, Verified Burn Center and Comprehensive Stroke Center).
His biggest challenge? Stabilizing leadership at every level while connecting UMC’s nearly 5,000 employees, contractors, physicians and learners to the mission that drew Patrias himself into this work decades ago.
Patrias said he is particularly proud of the young talent he has helped to develop over the course of his career. More than a dozen leaders he has mentored now hold CEO, COO or CFO positions at hospitals across the country — a legacy he considers more meaningful than any single operational achievement.
COMPANY
University Medical Center New Orleans
TITLE
Chief Executive Officer
Assumed New Position
August 2025
