Christopher Strear, MD is the Chief Medical Officer at Columbia Memorial Hospital in Astoria, Oregon. He began his career in operational flow and process improvement as the director of patient flow at Legacy Emanuel Health Center in Portland, Oregon in 2008. He published the first report in North America on hospital flow improvement using the Theory of Constraints. Dr. Strear has written many articles and book chapters and has presented his research nationally. He has lectured at hospitals and universities on patient flow. In addition to his role as chief medical officer, Dr. Strear is a practicing emergency medicine physician and a clinical associate at Oregon Health and Sciences University. Prior to his current role, Dr. Strear was the Director of Patient Flow and the Director of Revenue Cycle Management for Northwest Acute Care Specialists and was an attending emergency physician at a Level 1 trauma center in Portland, Oregon. He is a past-president of the Oregon chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians. Dr. Strear earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry and English from Williams College in western Massachusetts and a medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He completed his residency training in emergency medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, California. He currently lives on the beautiful Northern Oregon coast.
