2023 Hospital @ Home Leadership Summit Speaker Bio

Dr. Dacones is currently the Optum Pacific Northwest market president. An internist/hospitalist she is a recognized leader in driving value-based care models transformation and innovation. Before joining Optum two years ago, she spent 22+ years in Kaiser Permanente (KP) Northwest, where she served in various roles-- primary care physician, hospitalist, Chief of Staff/Chief Medical Officer, and regional medical director of hospital operations. In her last 6 years there, she was the president and CEO of Northwest Permanente P.C., co-chair of the national KP Program (enterprise strategy) Group, and chair of The Permanente Federation representing the 8 medical groups of KP with its more than 22,000 physicians. In these roles Dr. Dacones helped shape enterprise and market strategy, modernize business functions, and grow the KPNW footprint, while improving margins, driving innovations such as hospital care at home, and fostering clinician and team member engagement. In 2016 she became one of the directors of the founding board of the KP School of Medicine. She has been recognized in her roles as a physician and leader including, in 2020, Dacones was named one of Modern Healthcare’s Top 25 Minority Leaders. In 2019, she was the recipient of Portland Business Journal’s (PBJ) Health Care Leadership Award, in addition to multi-year PBJ Top Docs recognition by peers. Dr. Dacones received her B.S. biochemistry and MD degrees from the University of Chicago, where she also completed her internship and residency training in internal medicine.