“I am always impressed with the results of taking a few extra minutes with a patient. This additional time spent discussing their disease regularly improves not only our relationship, but also the quality of care they receive.”

Rhett Cummings, MD is a Pulmonary and Critical Care Physician with The Oregon Clinic working primarily at Providence Portland Medical Center (PPMC) for the last 20 years. He was the Executive Vice President of The Oregon Clinic from 2017-202. He is presently Chair of the PPMC Portland Service Area Advisory Council and has been active on this council since 2012. He also currently sits on the Executive Board of Directors of the Providence High Performing Network. He served as PPMC Medical Staff President from 2015-2017 and Chair of the Oregon Medical Executive Committee from 2014-2016. His professional interests range from critical care and general pulmonary medicine, and he sub-specializes in treating patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension. 

Other than serving Providence Health & Services, his other professional interests include developing programs with CareOregon to improve access to specialty care for Oregon’s Medicaid population. Rhett grew up in Oklahoma, attending college at Oklahoma State University and then graduated from the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine in 1997. He completed his Internal Medicine residency at the University of Maryland Medical Center and Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In his spare time, Rhett enjoys time with family, travel, backpacking, skiing, restoring cars, woodworking, and welding.

Other Activities

Participant/Leader, Care Oregon Specialty Care Innovation Program – Redesigning pulmonary care delivery utilizing a block time model to maximize primary-specialty care coordination and minimize unnecessary visits, Present

Participant/Leader, Pulmonary Specialty Medical Home – “Redesigning Service Delivery through the Tri-County Health Commons” – CMMI Health Commons Grant, 2012 – 2015

Member, Pulmonary Hypertension Association

Member, American Thoracic Society

Member, American College of Chest Physicians

EDUCATION & TRAINING

Fellowship, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, MD, 2004

Internship and Residency, Internal Medicine, University of Maryland Medical System, Baltimore, MD, 2000

MD, University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, Oklahoma City, OK, 1997

BS, Mechanical Engineering, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, 1989

BOARD CERTIFICATION

Pulmonary Medicine

Critical Care Medicine

LEADERSHIP

Executive Vice President, The Oregon Clinic, Present

Member, Portland Service Area Advisory Council (Providence), 2012 – Present

Medical Staff President, Providence Portland Medical Center, 2014 – 2016

Chair, Providence Oregon Medical Executive Committee, 2014 – 2016

President, Oregon Thoracic Society, 2013 – 2015

Honors

Portland Monthly Magazine, “Top Doctors”, 2024