George B. Hernández, Jr. JD, is the President/Chief Executive Officer of University Health System,
the hospital district for Bexar County. He assumed this role in January 2005 after serving as Executive Vice
President/Assistant Administrator for five years and Vice President for Legal Services for 10 years. Prior to
joining University Health System in 1990, Mr. Hernández served as Chief of the Civil Section in the Bexar
County District Attorney’s Office and started his career as an Assistant City Attorney for the City of San
Antonio.
University Health System owns and operates University Hospital, the only civilian Level I trauma
hospital in South Texas, and 16 primary, specialty and preventive care health centers. University
Health System ranks in the top one percent of health systems in the U.S. for achieving a high level of
health information technology integration and was named one of the nation’s Most Wired Hospitals &
Health Systems in 2008. Hernández and University Health System’s chief information officer were joint
recipients of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives’ and the American Hospital
Association’s 2008 Transformational Leadership Award.
Hernández has led several initiatives to strengthen the fiscal health of the organization and
improve the health of the community. His efforts have allowed University Health System to improve
access to care for the uninsured through strategic partnerships with the mental health community center
for Bexar County, faith-based community clinics, federally qualified health centers and private physicians.
He spearheaded University Health System’s Master Facility Plan to invest $899.4 million to increase bed
and emergency center capacity at University Hospital and bring state of the art diagnostic and treatment
facilities to University Health Center - Downtown. Hernández has worked with Bexar County’s legislative
delegation to pass several major pieces of legislation to protect the interests of University Health System
and Bexar County taxpayers. His efforts were key to the passage of HB3588 in 2003, which provides
steady funding for trauma care, to help assure these critical services remain available for residents of
Bexar County and South Texas.
Hernández is a native of San Antonio and earned a bachelor’s degree
in political science from St. Mary’s University. He earned his law degree from
George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Among his numerous
professional and service affiliations, he serves as a member of the “Code Red”
Task Force on Access to Health Care in Texas; a member of the Texas Health
and Human Services Commission’s Medical Care Advisory Committee; past
chair of the Teaching Hospitals of Texas; an executive committee and board
member of the Texas Hospital Association; and a board member for the United
Way of San Antonio & Bexar County. Hernández was honored in 2009 by the
Texas Council of Community MHMR Centers as the recipient of the Frank M.
Adams Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service.
PDF files require Adobe Acrobat Reader to view. You can download Acrobat Reader for free from Adobe's Web site. Please follow the link below to download the program.
Download Adobe Acrobat Reader
Back to top
