George B. Hernández, Jr., JD, is the President/Chief Executive Officer of University 
Health System, an academic medical center and countywide hospital district located 
in Bexar County, Texas. The Health System serves as the principal partner of The 
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and helps train over 2500 
health care professionals annually.

University Health System operates University Hospital, the only civilian Level I trauma 
center, and is the first and only Level II pediatric trauma and burn center in South Texas. 
For three consecutive years, University Hospital has been named the best hospital in 
the San Antonio metro area and 6th
2013-14 Best Hospitals Rankings. 

The Health System also owns and operates 19 primary, specialty and preventive health 
care centers throughout Bexar County; a nonprofit HMO, Community First Health Plans; 
a nonprofit multi-specialty physician practice, Community Medicine Associates; and 
is a fifty percent owner of San Antonio AirLife, an air ambulance program providing 
emergency transport service to Bexar County and South Texas. 

Under Hernandez’s leadership, University Health System was the first and is the only 
health system in San Antonio and South Texas to earn Magnet status from the American 
Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). As one of the Most Wired Hospitals and Health 
Systems in the nation, University Health System ranks in the top one percent of U.S. 
health organizations for achieving a high level of information technology integration. 

Hernández served as the 2013 chairman of the Texas Hospital Association. He serves as 
a member of the “Code Red” Task Force on Access to Health Care in Texas, the Texas 
Health and Human Services Commission’s Medical Care Advisory Committee, the 
Board of America’s Essential Hospitals (formerly the National Association of Public 
Hospitals), and is past chair of the Teaching Hospitals of Texas. He is a recipient (along 
with the Health System’s CIO) of the CHIME and the American Hospital Association 
2008 Transformational Leadership Award; the Texas Council of Community MHMR 
Centers 2009 Frank M. Adams Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service; and the 2010 
Top 25 Minority Healthcare Executives Award by Modern Healthcare Magazine.

Hernández is a native of San Antonio. He earned a bachelor’s degree from St. Mary’s 
University and law degree from George Washington University in Washington, D.C.