Lipika Dutra
2024 Forty Under 40 winner
by Gary Quackenbush, for North Bay Business Journal
Dutra Lipika is a full-time executive and director of business development at Providence Healthcare’s Queen of the Valley Hospital in Napa. She evaluates external and internal data to analyze market dynamics, physician referral patterns and the competitive landscape to inform and prioritize strategies to increase market demand and market share.
“Over the last decade in health care I realized that systems in place are hard for patients to navigate. It became my passion to help open up access to people in the community. My commitment to pursue a business degree was driven by a desire to become better equipped to lead this change.”
Dutra is pursuing her MBA at UC Davis and will graduate in June.
She said a benefit of being under 40 is possessing sufficient experience to contribute significantly to an organization while maintaining the openness and adaptability to embrace new concepts and business methodologies. The primary challenge lies in establishing respect within a team, especially where colleagues may have longer tenure.
Her greatest accomplishment has been the $3.5 million year over year surgical volume growth for San Ramon Regional Medical Center.
“More recently, I was nominated for a Values in Action award by colleagues at Queen. This award is for people who inspire others with their commitment to Providence’s core values of compassion, dignity, justice, excellence and integrity,” she said.
One of her greatest professional challenge is effectively balancing the increasing demand for high-quality patient care with the constraints of limited resources. Despite the challenges, she said finding innovative solutions to maintain high-quality patient care extremely rewarding.
Lipika led full-scale, data-driven evaluations of all departments and services provided.
“My approach to leadership has always been collaborative. I make sure everyone understands the purpose of the work, how their expertise supports the process, and provide people with the tools needed to contribute successfully.”
She recently completed a comprehensive review of all services provided by Queen by collaborating closely with other members of the executive team. Dutra collected the data required to determine immediate and long-term priorities for the hospital and created a template for directors to guide their thinking about how to grow their departments. She also leveraged feedback from physicians to gauge how they responded to the plan.
Best advice received: “Always be true to yourself.”
Lipika Dutra
Providence Queen of the Valley Medical Center
Napa County
Director of business development
Recognitions