Eddie Cruz is an experienced senior executive with extensive health care background, who currently serves as the Vice President of Operations for Access Community Health Network. ACCESS is one of the nation’s largest federally qualified health center organizations. With 36 community health centers, ACCESS provides primary and preventive health care services for more than 176,000 patients throughout Chicago, as well as Cook and DuPage counties.
Eddie’s career reflects his diligence and tenacity. He began his career in health care immediately after high school, working as a hospital orderly and then as a patient care technician in his hometown of Milwaukee, WI. After moving to Chicago and holding a support position in a hospital’s critical care unit, Eddie accepted a position at Advocate Medical Group, where he increasingly assumed greater levels of responsibility and rose to the position of Practice Manager.
Eddie joined ACCESS in 2003 as a regional operations director to assume responsibility for the operations of 16 ambulatory, multi-specialty health centers including several support departments. In 2009, he was promoted to the newly created position of Deputy Operations Administrator. In his current role as Vice President of Operations, Eddie is responsible for all health center operations.
In 2013, Eddie was selected as one of six scholars for the inaugural American College of Healthcare Executives Thomas C. Dolan Executive Diversity Program and received the National Association of Latino Healthcare Executives 2013 Emerging Leader Award. Most recently, he was recognized by the American College of Healthcare Executives with its 2014 Regent Healthcare Leadership Award.
Eddie is bilingual and holds a Bachelor of Science in Commerce from DePaul University and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from National-Louis University.
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