Our Management Team
“Surround yourself with great people... and empower them to make a meaningful and lasting difference.” – Boyd Yarbrough
“Surround yourself with great people... and empower them to make a meaningful and lasting difference.” – Boyd Yarbrough
With over 20 years of experience, Lori is an industry leader in strategic planning and development of many areas of healthcare, including surgical operations and management. She co-founded and functions as the CEO of six healthcare companies, including Avante Surgical Partners. She has partnered with over 1,200 surgeons and has successfully restructured and salvaged many failing partnerships. Lori has extensive experience in handling projects from their infancy and turning around facilities that may not have reached their full potential. She has created multiple joint ventures and hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs) with health systems during her tenure. Her philosophy of providing concierge service to physicians, partners, and their respective patients far exceeds the industry standard. She has created a company-wide culture focused on delivering strategic and customized solutions that allow physicians and partners to focus on the most important part of healthcare, their patients. Prior to founding Avante Surgical, Lori was Senior Vice President of United Surgical Partners International, a company which maintains strategic joint-venture partnerships with more than 4,000 physicians and over 50 health systems. In this role, she generated $40 million in profit continually year after year. Lori holds a master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Houston.
“Be flexible... be tenacious... and have the courage to reinvent yourself when faced with extreme adversity.”
~ Lori Ramirez
These are the words that Lori Ramirez lives by... and she's making them real for herself and countless others through Avante Surgical Partners - the entity she founded in 2008, and now leads as its Chief Executive Officer.
Lori launched her business in the worst recession since the Great Depression - and despite the countless obstacles encountered along her journey - Lori forged ahead to build a highly esteemed company that provides management and development for surgical facilities with a special emphasis on orthopedics, spine and pain. With four surgical facilities operational in Houston and many others in the development phase - Lori has had a remarkable start.
She credits the economic slowdown as making her company even stronger than it would have been otherwise. "We had to implement creative solutions at each and every turn - and now we'll be even more successful once the economy gets back on track," said Lori, noting Avante Surgical is a development company - not an acquisitions company, and that she drew inspiration for the company from her 12 years of prior experience in surgical development, operations and management.
Benefits Abound
The benefits for physicians and patients alike from Avante Surgical's business model are countless. "For our physicians, we provide a niche opportunity, we offer majority ownership, and we provide higher returns than others in the industry," said Lori, noting doctors are invited to join, and they in turn can invite others to join so it's not "come one, come all." "The bottom line is our physicians are aligned with us... and they have a vested interest in providing the best quality and consistency of care - thereby ultimately benefiting our patients."
Relationship Building
When asked what makes her successful, Lori - whose honors including landing on magazine lists of "Companies to Know" and "Women Executives to Know" - says it comes down to being able to recruit talent - whether it's the people who work for her or the physicians she brings on board. Lori has successfully partnered with hundreds of surgeons and credits the success of her company by living by Avante Surgical's corporate motto: "What's good for our patients and physicians is good for us."
Prior Experience
Before founding Avante Surgical Partners, Lori was a Senior Vice President at United Surgical Partners International (USPI). In this role, Lori gained extensive experience in creating joint ventures - including one between Memorial Hermann in Houston and CHRISTUS Health System in South Texas. As part of her work, she maintained a seat on all physician partnership Governing Boards and was a voting member of the Joint Venture Boards of both health systems.
She also was directly responsible for developing the second-largest network of surgical facilities for USPI in Houston and supervised more than 600 employees. Lori oversaw more than 20 surgical facilities, including two surgical hospitals (one of which included an imaging center and three breast imaging centers).
In addition to the development of those surgical facilities, she was responsible for all strategic planning, and the management of operations, physician partnerships and financing. Lori generated $40 million annually in revenues for USPI while maintaining a 35 percent average profit margin.