Peter Cardinal MD, MHA, Col (Retired) US Army Bio – General:
Peter was born in 1958 and grew up through 6th Grade in NYC with a single mom, who was an alcoholic and smoker and died at 47 y/o of throat cancer. He then lived in Cocoa Beach, Fla thru High School with his Dad, who died in 2008.
Col. Cardinal had a 29 year Army AD & Reserve career including graduating from West Point and the military medical school in Bethesda, MD. He had progressively broader responsibilities leading in Army healthcare and served in the First Gulf War caring for sick and wounded US and Iraqi soldiers. His last Active Duty assignment was as Chief of Primary Care at Ft Bragg, NC, leading the outpatient care of 110,000 patients including soldiers, their families, and retirees. There he also cared for critically injured soldiers during the “Green Ramp Disaster – the worst peacetime loss of life suffered by the 82nd Airborne Division since the end of World War II”. Retired as a Colonel in 2005 with a 10% VA disability. During this time Dr Cardinal also served as the Medical Director and Advisory Board Member to Interim Home Health Care of Eastern Carolina, and as an adjunct faculty member for Duke University Medical Center’s Family Nurse Practitioner program.
Dr Cardinal wrote a number of articles and gave national and regional presentations on Preventive Health Services and Medical Organization Leadership.
After leaving active duty Dr Cardinal had a fourteen-year career supervising the care of patients in central PA and Philadelphia. His responsibilities included quality of care, physician recruitment, hiring, coaching, and counselling, creating and implementing efficient and cost-effective care processes, implementing and improving the use of Electronic Medical Records, negotiating quality-based payment contracts, being the primary clinical advisor to the organizational CEO, etc. These positions included being the Chief Medical Officer at Gettysburg Hospital – Wellspan, and Holy Spirit Hospital Physician Network; Medical Director at Capital Blue Cross; and SVP Mercy Health System and President Mercy Physician Network – Philadelphia.
After retirement, Peter now has time to read something other than Medical Journals and Business Books, and enjoys history and historical fiction. He also enjoys physical activities including playing PickleBall almost daily, sailing on the Chesapeake Bay, and gardening.
Although retired, Colonel Cardinal is “Still Serving”, currently volunteering with the Red Rose (Lancaster County) Veteran’s Honor Guard (Veterans’ funerals flag folding ceremony & presentation to the next of kin); as Veteran’s Service Officer for American Legion Post 34; and as Military Officers’ Association of America Lancaster Chapter Board Member and College ROTC Leadership Scholarship Coordinator.
Past Community volunteer contributions:
- Afghan Medical Residency Program Director Volunteer, Cure Hospital, Kabul, Afghanistan – March 2006;
- New Hope Ministries Cumberland and York Counties: Board President and Chief Volunteer Officer (2009-2012) and Board Member (2006-2009) – Lead a major expansion, including a $2M Capital Campaign in the midst of “The Great Financial Crisis”, with purchase & renovation of a 15,000 square foot facility expanding capacity almost three-fold;
- Board President and Chief Volunteer Officer, Health Share of Cumberland County 2007-2013;
- USMA Congressional District Applicant Facilitator PA16 (Rep. Smucker);
- Lancaster County Veterans Court (treatment & diversion court);
- The mission of Mercy mobile underinsured treatment in Harrisburg, PA; and
- Faculty USUHS (military medical school) Operation Bushmaster two-week leadership & trauma casualty treatment capstone October 2017.
Dr Cardinal was honored to have been inducted into the Army Order of Military Medical Merit and named a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Association for Physician Leadership.
He has 3 children in Central PA and Baltimore and 6 grandchildren.
