Patrick Sargent

Pat Sargent was born and raised in Panama City, Florida. He enjoys reading, golfing, playing the saxophone and cheering on the Florida State Seminoles. He recently retired from the U.S. Army after 35 years of service at the rank of Major General.

For Sargent, the word "service" beguiles him because it means different things to different people. Like liberty, freedom and justice, he thinks the word "service" needs to be felt, not just heard, in order to be truly understood. 

Sargent felt service first-hand through his grandmother. Though small in stature and poor in material wealth, she was the epitome of a servant leader. His mother, a single parent who worked as a maid to care for him and his siblings, was also a servant leader. The two women instilled in Sargent the meaning of service in the context of Martin Luther King Jr. He said, “Everyone can be great, because everyone can serve… You only need a heart full of grace.”

As a military community, Panama City also contributed to the meaning of the word "service" for Sargent. Family and community instilled in him that freedom is anything but free, and with rights come responsibilities. “Service is responsibility in motion,” he said. “It’s an action and not a concept — a verb, not a noun. I serve because I owe a debt of gratitude to all those who have gone before me in defense of our freedoms. I serve for the love of my daughter and future generations. I serve for the love of this incredible nation, where service is uniquely not a matter of coercion but a matter of conscience.”

Sargent believes that the greatest challenge a CEO faces today is how to remain competitive and thrive amid constant change and disruption. Nowhere is that truer than in health care. The need to evolve and transform at the speed of relevance while remembering the daily demands of running a business is a difficult balancing act.

In the military, Sargent learned that every leader, whether a CEO or general officer, benefits from a second set of eyes, ears, arms, legs and another brain for new and different perspectives and ideas. “Napoleon had his Berthier, Washington his Hamilton, and Batman had Robin,” Sargent said. “As the CEO’s strategic partner, I see myself as the chief integrator, connector, communicator, accelerator and, most importantly, the CHB (Chief Honesty Broker).”

As a former CEO of a regional health system, CEO of an Army Medical Center, COO of the Army Health System, CEO of the US Military Healthcare System for the Iraqi Theater of Operations, and a former MEDEVAC/DUSTOFF pilot, Sargent understands the importance of balancing a highly complex, tightly coupled, unstable system with a lot of energy in it. In aviation, it’s widely recognized and respected that “it’s optional to take off, but mandatory to land.”

“At first, it may not seem intuitive, but I see a lot of similarities between my experience on and above the battlefield and at the bedside in today’s health care ecosystem,” Sargent said. “Our service members, family members and Veterans, just like our patients, deserve nothing but the best. Not yesterday’s concept of best, nor today’s — they deserve tomorrow’s best.”

Sargent’s Optum Serve journey began as a contractor assisting with developing solutions to help federal, state and local governments provide for the medical needs of their citizens. While onboarding as a contractor, he gained a much deeper appreciation for the depth and breadth of UnitedHealth Group and its values. “It caught me by surprise that their values were my values,” Sargent said. “When the opportunity presented itself to become the chief of staff for Patty Horoho at Optum Serve, I felt both a sense of honor and more than a small amount of excitement. Excitement because I believe we are at a point where we can not only change, but fundamentally transform the way we provide health care and influence lives. I believe UnitedHealth Group and Optum are at the epicenter of that transformation.”

The essence of Sargent’s perspective of service was brilliantly espoused and lived by Jackie Robinson, who said, “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” Sargent believes that UnitedHealth Group’s audio matches its video in regard to caring for employees, customers, and bringing humanity to communities across the nation in the form of quality health care. That’s why he’s proud to serve at Optum Serve and proud to be a United States citizen and soldier for life.