Chief Administrative Officer, Hospital Division
Elizabeth Seely brings extensive experience and a track record of outstanding leadership in hospital operations and community engagement to her role at the Wexner Medical Center. In October 2017, she assumed the position of chief administrative officer – Hospital Division for the OSU Health System, with responsibility for University Hospital, East Hospital, Ross Heart Hospital, Harding Hospital, the Brain and Spine Hospital and Dodd Rehabilitation Hospital. The scope of her operational responsibility includes 1,100 inpatient beds; 50,000 annual admissions; 25,000 annual surgeries; 132,000 emergency department visits; and 800,000+ outpatient visits. Throughout the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, in collaboration with the chief clinical officer, she managed the organizational response to this public health emergency.
Prior to this role, Elizabeth served for 10 years as executive director of East Hospital, leading the hospital to a 37% growth in admissions and the addition of new services, such as a STEMI program, a primary stroke-certified program and limb preservation program—all coupled with a 48% improvement in patient satisfaction and excellent quality metrics: multiple “A” grades for hospital safety from the Leapfrog Group and six Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence awards from Healthgrades.
Elizabeth’s leadership in effective fiscal and resource management also resulted in positive operating margins at East Hospital. In 2010, she led the acquisition and renovation of Outpatient Care East to provide expanded ambulatory access to a variety of Ohio State Wexner Medical Center medical and surgical specialties on the Near East Side of Columbus, with now more than 1,100 patient encounters each day at this site.
Elizabeth is a founding board member and current board chair of Partners Achieving Community Transformation (PACT), guiding a $10-million commitment by Ohio State to create a healthy, financially and environmentally sustainable community where residents have access to safe and affordable housing, quality health care, education and employment opportunities on the Near East Side of Columbus. She also serves on the MedFlight (air medical transport) and MedCare (ground medical transport) boards of directors.
Before her time at East Hospital, Elizabeth served for 16 years at University Hospital in positions of progressive leadership, culminating in associate executive director of University Hospital and the Ross Heart Hospital.
A Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, Elizabeth served on the American Hospital Association Region 5 Policy Board, received the distinguished alumnus awards from the Ohio State Graduate Program in Health Services Management and Policy Alumni Society and the Ohio State College of Public Health, was profiled in the 2011 edition of the Columbus Women’s Book and in the Spring 2020 edition of Buckeye Lifestyle magazine and was a WELD (Women for Economic and Leadership Development) calendar honoree in 2016. She was honored as a YWCA Columbus Woman of Achievement in 2018.
Elizabeth is an active member of WELD and the Young Presidents’ Organization Gold Columbus Chapter. She devotes significant volunteer time to the Girl Scouts of Ohio’s Heartland, currently serving on the board of directors and the finance committee after spending 16 years as a Girl Scout troop leader.
Elizabeth graduated Summa Cum Laude from Wake Forest University as a Carswell Scholar with a bachelor’s degree in biology, was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and earned her Master of Health Administration degree with a concentration in finance at The Ohio State University as a University Fellow.