Ajith Pai Appointed President of Texas Health Harris Methodist Southwest

Texas Health Harris Methodist Southwest this week announced that Ajith Pai had been appointed its new president.

Pai’s appointment is effective July 3. Pai formerly served as president of Texas Health Cleburne over the past four years.

“During that time, he actively recruited OB/GYNs and worked alongside the Texas Health Physicians Group to bring multiple new primary care and general surgery physician practices to Cleburne,” says Janine Kraus, vice president of funding and development in Greater Fort Worth, in a statement. “Ajith also oversaw the launch of dialysis service earlier this year, working with an independent nephrologist to start the program. He and his team focused on quality and earned a spot on Washington Monthly’s 2020 inaugural list of the Top 20 Best Hospitals for America.

Pai, a son of Indian immigrants raised in North Richland Hills, is a trained clinician who made the journey to an executive leadership role. Pai has more than 15 years of health system experience that reflects a wide operational and clinical background.

He is a graduate of the Texas Tech University School of Pharmacy in Amarillo, where he earned a Doctorate of Pharmacy. Pai also earned an MBA from UT Dallas, with a focus on health care administration and management. He is board certified through the FACHE credential, earned through the American College of Healthcare Executives.

He has a long association with Texas Health Resources.

“Initially, I didn’t know the specific direction in which I wanted to go,” Pai said in an interview with the Journal of Healthcare Management. “A family friend who was a physician told me, ‘If you’re not sure what you want to do, get into pharmacy. It’s really interesting.”

In 1999, he started as a pharmacy tech at Texas Harris Methodist HEB in Bedford, the hospital where he was born.

“The first time I walked into a pharmacy and saw all those drugs lined up on the wall, I thought, ‘My God, you have to learn about all these medications, all the ways they work, and all their names. I was fascinated.”

After earning his degree from Texas Tech, he returned to Texas Harris HEB as a pharmacist.

“One thing that I especially loved about the work was that I got to be in all different areas of the hospital. Bedford is a midsize facility, so you don’t get pigeon-holed into being only a critical care pharmacist or an emergency care pharmacist. Pharmacists work alongside and closely with nurses and physicians, and that dynamic has further broadened my fascination with the continuum of patient care.”

Before joining Cleburne in 2018, Pai was the professional and support services officer at Texas Health Kaufman, where in 2011 he was named director of pharmacy, according to his THR bio.