About Our Work
Orca Partners LLC provides healthcare leadership with the guidance, resources, and support needed to make a significant and sustainable impact on organization-wide performance.
Our primary objective is quality and safety enhancement; it is crucial in all organizations and for all individuals. Our focus is on values; how people work together and provide services will enable, inhibit, or undermine the best intended strategies.
Tom was born and raised in a small community south of Portland. He worked on the family farm from an early age and attended high school with 14 classmates. Tom received his Business Administration degree at the University of Oregon, served in the Army National Guard, and returned to Oregon for his MBA.
Tom has been fortunate to have the opportunity to serve as a CEO with high reliability organizations, as well as a governance leader with
Virginia Mason Hospital and Medical Center and Seattle Children's Hospital. He has experienced the tragedy of lives lost to preventable harm on his watch as both a CEO and a board member.
Orca Partners was established to fulfill a commitment to share lessons learned as a CEO and governance leader for improving quality and safety and enhancing organization-wide performance.
Tom and his wife Janet live on Whidbey Island north of Seattle with their six-year-old grandson Damien.
About Our Areas of Expertise
About Tom Van Dawark
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Aligning governance and management roles
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Strengthening the board, chair and CEO partnership
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Enhancing vision, mission and strategies
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Renewing the organization’s cultural values
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Establishing actions that demonstrate commitment
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Facilitating transformational change
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Providing leading practices for patient-centered care
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Measuring performance and closing the gaps
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Coaching, training and resource support