It’s your time to create change and leave a mark.
People are looking to you to transform your organization and industry.
You’re excited about the possibilities, but you’re now facing challenges that are more complex than anything else you’ve encountered before.
The stakes are high and you want to get this right.
You don’t have to do it alone. I can help.
Where you are now
Your career in healthcare has grown in leaps.
Your success is clear to everyone: you’ve got a proven track record and strong leadership qualities. You’ve been rewarded with a leadership position as a healthcare, nonprofit or corporate executive.
But working longer days and managing more stakeholders, you’re feeling increasingly angry and frustrated.
Your team gives you excuses why something can’t be done without providing possible solutions or workarounds.
Your (very expensive) consultants are draining your resources without delivering the results they promised.
Your 16-hour work days leave you no time for a personal life at home.
It feels like you’ve been given all the responsibility but none of the conditions to actually get the work done.
We can fix this together.
Hello and Welcome
I’m Lew Sandy.
I’m an executive and leadership coach for physician executives and other healthcare professionals.
I devoted my career to the U. S. healthcare system because I realized that while it had a lot of strengths, we could make it so much better.
We still have a lot of work to do. The status quo is simply not acceptable in healthcare. And in order to make it better, we need effective leaders who are capable of driving the changes that we need, and committed to doing the work.
After four decades of working at all levels of healthcare, in the nonprofit and corporate sectors, I now help the next generation of healthcare professionals through coaching. This is how I continue to improve the system.
My superpower is seeing and understanding the whole system. I help my clients find clarity about themselves, the environment around them, and how they can effectively influence the people around them to bring about change.
Client Testimonial for Lew
Empathetic, intuitive, and skilled.
“I engaged Coach Lew for a mid-career re-evaluation. What I found was a superbly capable coach who was empathetic, intuitive, and skilled. Thoughtful engaging dialogue and tailored reflection questions yielded refreshing insights, self-discovery, and a practical path forward well suited to my skills, personality, and aspirations.
With his keen intellect, broad experience, and compassionate heart Coach Lew is well equipped to successfully coach people through any topic they would want to explore.”
— B. C., Physician Executive, Fortune 25 company
Impact, Growth, and Legacy
Coaching is my way of giving back to improve our healthcare system for those who need care (and those who give care).
I’ve navigated my career by asking two questions that have served me well. At each decision point, I asked myself:
Could I have an impact?
Could I grow?
This approach served me throughout my whole career. It helped me focus, be effective, and create real change. It’s led me to focus on two key areas for health system improvement:
One area is providing incentives for the health system to improve the quality of what it does, rather than simply the volume of services delivered.
The other is transparency: collecting information about the quality of care delivered by different providers and making it available to patients and end consumers, so that they can make informed decisions about who to go to for treatment.
This is important and meaningful work. And in the spirit of continuous improvement, I asked myself: Are there other questions to ask? So I added a third question:
Could I leave a legacy?
I started spending more time asking myself: What is my legacy? What do I want to leave behind?
I realized that I had done “my thing” to make the healthcare system better and what I now really wanted to do was help other people do “their thing”.
I coach because helping the next generation of healthcare leaders is the best way that I can give back and continue to improve the system.
You are here because you want to make things better: to provide better care for patients and family, to implement better policies to address inequalities, to create better working conditions for health professionals.
I’m here to help you flourish as a leader and as a person so that you can bring about that change.
My Superpower
I see and understand the whole healthcare system.
I served as Executive Vice President, Clinical Advancement at UnitedHealth Group, a Fortune 10 company dedicated to making the health system work better for everyone.
I serve on the steering committee for the National Academy of Medicine Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience. I was also on the board of the National Quality Forum, which promotes healthcare quality through measurement and public reporting.
Earlier in my career, I was Executive Vice President at The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the largest philanthropy in the United States devoted to health.
I practiced primary care for over 20 years — in large groups, academic practices, community health centers, and health maintenance organizations (HMOs).
With experience in both the nonprofit and corporate sectors of healthcare, I have a deep and broad understanding of the interpersonal and systemic challenges that you face as a healthcare leader.
When we work together, you get more than just a certified coach — you get insights and perspectives based on four decades of experience so that you can emerge with solutions that are helpful and relevant to your specific situation.
Client Testimonial for Lew
Greater presence as a leader
“Coaching with Dr. Lew Sandy has allowed me to grow as a leader with a strategy focus in mind.
I feel a greater presence as a leader, with respect to relationships and being a positive influence for others. I am mentally present and prepared for every engagement. I maximize my time and contributions to the discussion while providing value to all parties involved.
I would highly recommend working with Dr. Sandy to anyone looking for support reaching their goals, and becoming an even more valuable leader for their organization.”
— MD, Senior Director, Fortune 10 company
Biosketch:
Lewis G. Sandy MD FACP is a seasoned physician-executive, clinical strategist, and leadership/executive coach. He previously served as EVP, Clinical Advancement, at UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) a highly diversified health and well-being company dedicated to helping people live healthier lives and helping make the health system work better for everyone. UnitedHealth Group (UHG) is committed to leading the development of a more modern, progressive and effective health system through two distinct platforms: UnitedHealthcare, which provides health care coverage and benefits services; and Optum, which provides information and technology-enabled health services. At UHG he focused on clinical innovation, quality and patient safety, payment/delivery reforms, and physician/health professional collaboration. From 2003 to 2007, he served as EVP and Chief Medical Officer of UnitedHealthcare. From 1991 to 2003, he served as VP and EVP of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the nation’s largest philanthropy dedicated solely to health. Prior to this, he was a physician executive at the Harvard Community Health Plan in Boston, Massachusetts. An internist with over 20 years in practice, Sandy received his B.S. and M.D. degrees from the University of Michigan and an M.B.A. degree from Stanford University. He was a faculty member, fellow and RWJF Clinical Scholar at the University of California, San Francisco, and served his internship and residency at the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. He serves on many Boards and Advisory Groups, including the Panel of Health Advisors for the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Special Medical Advisory Group for the Department of Veterans Affairs. He is a senior fellow of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Department of Health Policy and Management and a Visiting Fellow of the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy. He is also a Hudson/ICF-certified executive/leadership coach with a practice focused on healthcare leaders. (www.sulucoaching.com)
Outside of Work
Here are some fun facts about me.
I’m interested in human history and the origins of early humans. It’s a fascinating field full of science, culture, and ethics.
I’ve worked on film crews, and met Fred Astaire, Steve Martin, and Jimmy Carter along the way.
Sue and I live in North Carolina. We spend a lot of time outdoors on the American Tobacco Trail, which is part of a project to promote physical activity and wellbeing. They took abandoned railways originally built for the American Tobacco Company in the 1970s into paths that people can walk and bike on. It’s a great story of turning a deadly product into something that promotes health and wellbeing.
Find out how we can work together.
You can transform your organization and leave a mark on the healthcare industry.
If you’re ready to fulfill your leadership potential, click the button below to learn more about our private coaching program.