Dr. David Druker, longtime CEO at Sutter’s PAMF, dies
Written on July 25, 2010
Dr. David Druker, longtime president and CEO of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation and a key architect of its expansion in the South Bay and other nearby communities, died Friday after battling lung cancer for several years. He was 68.
The news was announced July 23 by the Sutter Health affiliate on its web site and via Twitter. It came a week after a report in Palo Alto Online by longtime colleague Jay Thorwaldson that Druker, a non-smoker, was “near death.”
Druker resigned as a regional vice president with PAMF parent Sutter Health last year, the Palo Alto Weekly reported last week, and “has been scaling back his duties as he has grown less able to handle the physical demands” of running the 80-year-old PAMF and holding down corporate responsibilities for Sacramento-based Sutter.
Sutter/PAMF officials said “It is with profound sorrow that we announce the passing of Dr. David Druker, chief executive officer of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation and a member of the Board of Trustees. … Dr. Druker was a beloved colleague, friend, husband, father and grandfather. He will be greatly missed.”
Prior to becoming CEO of PAMF in 1999, PAMF's online posting said, Druker served as its chief operating officer from 1994 to 1999, and served as regional executive officer of the Sutter Health Peninsula Coastal Region, which includes all of Sutter’s hospitals and physician groups in San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties no fax payday loan.
Druker also was a member of the Sutter System Management Team, which sets overall policy for the 25-hospital nonprofit system, based in Sacramento. Druker served as executive director of the Palo Alto Medical Clinic from 1989 to 1995 and was a member of its executive board from 1979 to 1995.
Druker helped shepherd PAMF growth over the years from a 120-doctor clinic in Palo Alto to a multi-site, multi-specialty clinic with about 1,000 physicians and outposts in the Peninsula, East Bay, South Bay and Santa Cruz. He was named executive director in 1989. Later he became its chief operating officer, and then followed in the footsteps of Dr. Robert Jamplis and became its president and CEO.
He also was a key architect of PAMF’s 1993 affiliation with Sutter.
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