Dr. Chisholm is an emergency medicine-trained physician who has served as a CMO at Providence Swedish for more than four years, currently with oversight of four hospitals and a stand-alone emergency department.
Chris Chisholm, M.D., has been named Chief Operating Officer for Providence Swedish Central Puget Sound, effective June 15.
Dr. Chisholm brings deep clinical and operational experience to this role, along with a strong commitment to our caregivers and the patients we serve.
As COO, Dr. Chisholm will lead day‑to‑day operations across our Central Puget Sound (CPS) hospitals and care sites. His focus will be:
- Driving operational excellence, including patient flow, access and efficiency
- Aligning teams and resources so we function as one coordinated system
- Supporting transformation work, including major projects underway across our service area
- Bringing our strategic plan to life across CPS
- Partnering closely with clinical, nursing and administrative leaders to ensure long‑term success
This role is critical as we continue to evolve how we deliver care across our service area. With significant change underway, we need strong operational leadership to turn strategy into action, support our teams and help move this work forward.
Dr. Chisholm knows our system, understands the complexity of the work ahead, and leads with humility, clarity and deep respect for our caregivers. In his most recent role as Chief Medical Officer (CMO), he’s helped shape clinical strategy, strengthen care delivery and advance key initiatives across our campuses.
About Chris Chisholm, M.D., MS, MBA
Dr. Chisholm is an emergency medicine-trained physician who has served as a CMO at Providence Swedish for more than four years, currently with oversight of four hospitals and a stand-alone emergency department.
Dr. Chisholm spent the first 23 years of his career after medical school in the U.S. Navy. He completed his internship and residency at Balboa Naval Medical Center, where he was selected as Chief Resident in his final year. Early in his career, he served as a Navy Flight Surgeon and was part of the initial response to 9/11. In 2001, he was named the U.S. Navy Operational Flight Surgeon of the Year. During his time in the Navy, Dr. Chisholm’s interest in cardiac disease led him to complete a fellowship in cardiovascular emergencies and earn a master’s degree in health services research, both at Stanford. He was also named Bedside Teacher of the Year for the Stanford Emergency Medicine Residency Program in 2009.
During his military career, Dr. Chisholm deployed to Afghanistan as trauma team lead for a forward surgical unit. He also began his executive medicine path in the military. As part of his progression in the Medical Corps, he took an administrative role leading a small group of medical and dental clinics. Based on his success in those clinics, that role expanded to director of all medical and dental clinics in the San Diego area, then COO of the trauma hospital in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 2017, then CMO of Balboa, the largest Naval Medical Center in the Pacific region, and finally CMO of the Pacific region, covering all Naval hospitals west of the Mississippi and around the Pacific Rim. In 2020, Dr. Chisholm retired from the Navy as a CAPT and began his civilian journey in the Pacific Northwest.
About Providence Swedish
Providence Swedish has served the Puget Sound region since the first Providence hospital opened in Seattle in 1877 and the first Swedish hospital opened in 1910. The two organizations affiliated in 2012 and today comprise the largest health care delivery system in Western Washington, with 24,000 caregivers, eight hospitals and 244 clinics throughout Western Washington – from Everett to Centralia. A not-for-profit family of organizations, Providence Swedish provides more than $545 million in community benefit in the Puget Sound region each year. The health system offers a comprehensive range of services and specialty and subspecialty care in a number of clinical areas, including cancer, cardiovascular health, neurosciences, orthopedics, digestive health and women’s and children’s care. For more information, visit providence.org/swedish.
