As senior vice president, Dr. Safa Farzin leads the Penn State Health Medical Group Community Practice Division. His priorities include ensuring providers have the tools they need to provide the highest-quality patient care and supporting a seamless continuum of care from outpatient to inpatient settings across the health system.

Farzin joined Penn State Health in 2019 as vice president for medical affairs and staff development at Penn State Health Hampden Medical Center. In addition to developing the new hospital’s leadership team and clinical services, he was instrumental in collaborating with community physicians in the greater Harrisburg region who will use Hampden Medical Center to care for their patients.

Prior to joining the health system, Farzin served as chief executive officer for the Medical Group of Pennsylvania, the largest independent physician association in central Pennsylvania; vice president of Pulmonary Critical Care Medical Associates, which is now a member of Penn State Health; and director of critical care medicine at UPMC Pinnacle Health.

Board-certified in critical care medicine, Farzin earned his medical degree from St. Georges University School of Medicine, Grenada, West Indies. He then completed an internal medicine residency at UPMC Pinnacle Health System in Harrisburg and a fellowship in critical care medicine at The Miriam Hospital, Providence, R.I.

As interim administrative and operational lead, Ruth Gundermann oversees the day-to-day operations of Penn State Health Medical Group outpatient practices. She has served as senior director of operations and performance for Penn State Health Medical Group since 2021, leading change and standardizing operations and clinical practice across the Medical Group. Her priorities include patient safety, performance improvement and the experiences of our employees and patients.  

Gundermann joined the organization in 1988 as a staff nurse and has extensive hospital and ambulatory care experience in direct clinical care, leadership, education and quality/safety roles. Her career has spanned medical, surgical, cancer, behavioral health, adult, geriatric and pediatric areas.

She earned her bachelor of science degree in nursing from the University of Pennsylvania and her master of science degree in nursing from Penn State.

Peter Ostasewski serves as vice president and chief financial officer for Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and its affiliated outpatient practices, as well as chief financial officer for Penn State Health Medical Group. He is responsible for business planning and execution, financial reporting and analysis, operating and capital budgeting, benchmarking, and performance optimization. He is also involved in accounting, business intelligence, decision support, revenue management, provider compensation plans, system service line leadership, mergers, acquisitions, and Penn State Health strategy.

Ostasewski has more than 30 years of experience in health care finance leadership. Prior to joining Penn State Health, he was the chief financial officer for the MedStar Medical Group, the provider organization for MedStar Health, in Maryland and the Washington, D.C., region. He oversaw all aspects of financial performance, accounting and reporting, practice management economics, operating and capital budgeting, long-range financial forecasting, performance benchmarking, physician compensation model design and management, and pro forma development for practice acquisitions and strategic initiatives.

He also has held regional, health system and entity level chief financial officer and executive finance roles at UPMC Central PA Region (Formerly Pinnacle Health System), Tenet Healthcare Corporation, the Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children and Nemours duPont Pediatrics.

Ostasewski served in U.S. Army Special Operations Medicine with the 75th Ranger Regiment.  He is an active member in the 75th Ranger Regiment Association and a lifetime member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. He is also a member of the Healthcare Financial Management and Medical Group Management associations. After earning his bachelor’s degree in science from the University of Maryland, he obtained a master’s degree in business administration from Loyola University Maryland’s Sellinger School of Business and Management.