Professor and Executive Vice Chair, Surgery
Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles
Healthcare challenges include significant regulatory burdens such as Stark regulations that inhibit collaboration, labor shortages, declining reimbursements and rising administrative costs. As such, today’s leader must inspire others to respond effectively in a rapidly changing environment, making midcourse corrections as new information arises, and refining the solution.
As an academic surgeon, my early career network was physician-centric. With my transition from surgical practice to leadership, I joined ACHE to meet and learn from experts in other fields. Becoming board certified in healthcare management as an ACHE Fellow bolstered my confidence and credibility.
Between 2010 and 2014, I applied many of the skills learned through ACHE to support a multinational medical staff providing care after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.
I encouraged professionals in underrepresented specialties such as nursing, medicine and pharmacy to become active in ACHE; these are now among the organization’s most rapidly growing groups.
To address the fragmentation of care, Cedars Sinai created a physician advocate program in which a clinician joins daily progression of care rounds with nursing, pharmacy, case management and social work. This initiative improves interactions with the attending physician, facilitates care coordination and significantly reduces risk-adjusted length of stay. Cedars Sinai collaborated with UCLA to open the California Rehabilitation Institute, providing specialized post-acute rehabilitation services and increased capacity in our acute care facilities. Our programs for young careerists create mentorship opportunities and identify emerging talent who can support our mission.
Immediate Past President, Healthcare Executives of Southern California
Member, ACHE’s Physician Executives Forum
Medical Officer, Santa Monica Squadron 51, Civil Air Patrol
Member, Committee on Human Factors Engineering, American College of Surgeons