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HEALTHY LIFE
HEART & STROKE
May 1-2, 2013
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All clinics are recognized under NCQA’s
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438223.050113 HL
By RAY PITZ
Pamplin Media Group
W
hen talking about preventing
heart disease and strokes, Dr.
George Brown likes to quote
the iconic Fram Oil Filter com-
mercial from the 1980s: “You can pay me
now or you can pay me later.”
Brown, this year’s chairman of the Ameri-
can Heart Association’s annual Greater
Portland & SWWashington Heart & Stroke
Walk, said the event is important for getting
out the message that heart disease is still
the No. 1 killer in this country, with strokes
ranking No. 4.
President and Chief Executive Officer for
Legacy Health, Brown said he’s excited to
participate in the upcoming walk.
“We’re going to have a good time,” he said,
pointing out that more than 90 Legacy teams
comprised of more than 800 employees will
participate in the annual walk that has raised
more than $5 million for research for heart
disease and stroke over the years.
Since 2008, Brown has been at the helm of a
system that runs Legacy Emanuel Medical
Center, Randall Children’s Hospital at Legacy
Emanuel, Legacy Good Samaritan Medical
Center, Legacy Meridian Park Medical Cen-
ter and Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center
in Oregon along with Legacy Salmon Creek
Medical Center in Washington.
The most recent addition to the Legacy
family is Randall Children’s Hospital at Lega-
cy Emanuel.
“It been very busy,” he said of the 164-bed
hospital.
Helping to get the facility up and running
was a $25 million fundraising campaign, for
which Legacy’s 9,000 employees pitched in al-
most $4 million.
Brown’s response to how he feels about his
job five years into it is simple — he loves it.
Brown came to Legacy from MultiCare
Health System in Tacoma, Wash., where he
worked for a decade. Prior to that, he spent 26
years in the U.S. Army, running four hospi-
tals and a research lab.
He said the Army culture has followed him
into his current position.
“As part of the Army culture, you’ve got to
be physically fit,” Brown said.
And while no one can control his or her ge-
netics, that’s not the main reason people suf-
fer from heart disease or strokes.
“They’re largely preventable illnesses,” he
said.
Despite signifi-
cant inroads made
throughout the
years to prevent
those diseases,
factors such as
obesity, diabetes
and living a seden-
tary lifestyle keep
heart disease and
stroke rates high.
Brown, 65,
pointed out that
the cost of heart
disease and
strokes to the community is high and can sig-
nificantly alter a person’s quality of life.
In his own regimen, Brown, the first medi-
cal doctor to run Legacy, rides a stationary
bike and uses the treadmill or elliptical ma-
chine before doing weight training and aero-
bic exercise. He then moves on to dumbbells
and works on developing his core strength.
But he emphasizes that no one has to be-
long to an expensive gym to get exercise. All
they have to do is take the time to walk regu-
larly, a simple feat that can lower blood pres-
sure, allow for weight loss and get endor-
phins going all at the same time.
“It gives you a chance to do some thinking,
and it costs you nothing,” Brown said. “I
would say you should walk every day.”
Brown takes his advice to heart, trying to
get in walks two or three times a day.
Ensuring that all his work gets done, the
CEO typically spends 12-hour days at the of-
fice, except on Wednesdays when his days
often last 17 hours (from 5:30 a.m. to 10:30
p.m.)
He said what keeps him going is watching
out for the patients Legacy serves, and he
can often be found walking down one of Leg-
acy’s hospital patient units, which he said re-
minds him of one of the reasons he’s here.
Brown also tries to have a sense of humor
about life. He has an antique sign on his desk
given to him by a patient who found it in a
thrift shop. It’s a reminder of a simpler time
in health care: “A Deposit of $5 is required on
all Hospital Cases.”
In the past, Brown has been an avid rac-
quetball player.
Today, he’s an accomplished photographer
and a tuba player, playing in two bands. He
has two tubas (one weighing 29 pounds, the
other 24 pounds) and performs in the Annual
Tuba Christmas Concert at Pioneer Court-
house Square, an event that featured 362 tuba
players last year.
It’s a tough instrument to lug around and
“you gotta be fit” to do it, he said.
■
Dr. George Brown takes
his own health advice to heart
Legacy CEO practices what he preaches
BROWN