José G. Cabañas, MD, MPH, FACHE

Bio

José G. Cabañas, MD, MPH, FACHE, joined University Hospitals in 2026 as System Chief Medical Officer. In this role, Dr. Cabañas provides executive oversight for Chief Medical Officers (CMO) across UH medical centers and leads systemwide efforts spanning medical staff services, EMS and critical care transport, clinical informatics, patient access, system operations centers and pharmacy services. He is responsible for advancing clinical excellence and ensuring its integration into University Hospitals’ strategic goals and operational priorities. Working in close partnership with UH Medical Group and UH Medical Practice presidents, market and entity CMOs and operational leaders, Dr. Cabañas ensures the coordination of resources to support medical staff needs while promoting systemwide initiatives that strengthen physician engagement, retention and professional development across all UH facilities.

Dr. Cabañas comes to UH from North Carolina, where he served as Chief Medical Officer for Wake County. In that role, he oversaw strategy and performance, emergency care, behavioral health, public health, pharmacy, safety net clinics, emergency management and 911 centers while co-managing the system’s $2 billion operating and capital budget. He also served as Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine at Chapel Hill.

He has extensive experience in the design, implementation and evaluation of alternative delivery and care model innovation that improves outcomes while reducing unnecessary utilization and cost. Additionally, Dr. Cabañas has been a leader in pioneering nationally recognized patient-centric programs including nurse navigation, post-acute care, behavioral health pathways and in-home care models leveraging interprofessional teams and mobile integrated healthcare. Prior to joining Wake County, he was the Deputy Medical Director for the City of Austin and Travis County in Texas.

Dr. Cabañas earned his bachelor’s degree from Sacred Heart University and his medical degree from the Ross University School of Medicine. He completed his emergency medicine residency at the University of Puerto Rico and his EMS fellowship at UNC at Chapel Hill, where he also completed his master’s degree in Public Health. Dr. Cabanas is board-certified in Emergency Medicine, EMS and Healthcare Administration Leadership and Management through the American Board of Emergency Medicine. He is a former Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar. He completed the program at UNC at Chapel Hill, working to enhance care transitions, outcomes, and cost-efficiency for high-need individuals.

Dr. Cabañas is the Immediate Past President of the National Association of EMS Physicians and is a nationally and internationally recognized speaker. He served as a national representative for Emergency Medical Services at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Emergency Department Boarding Summit and serves as a subject matter expert to the American Heart Association’s Emergency Cardiovascular Care Guidelines and resuscitation science initiatives.