| .Radiology News |
| ... |
RADIOLOGY
Dieter R. Enzmann, M.D.
Leo G. Rigler Chair and Professor
(310) 481-7512
(310) 301-6800
Fax Number (310) 794-8056
DEnzmann@mednet.ucla.edu
Radiology Image Library
Brenda Izzi, R.N., M.B.A.
Chief Administrative Officer
(310) 481-7516
(310) 794-8056
BIzzi@mednet.ucla.edu
Brenda Jones, director
Ian
Laura
Eduardo
Request Copies of Imaging Studies
(310) 794-1414
Request an Imaging Report
(310) 206-0084
The Image Library reserves the right to comply within
five business days of receipt of a signed authorization
[as required by California law.]
Phone (310) 825-6425 FAX (310) 825-3205
8:00am - 4:30pm Monday - Friday
200 Medical Plaza, Suite B165-11
Los Angeles, CA 90095-6952
TO REQUEST YOUR IMAGING STUDY
Fill out the Authorization for Release of Health Information form. Please include the following information:
Patient Name, Birth Date, and Medical Record Number
Your contact phone number
Your signature
The description of the study requested
Your complete address including suite number and zip code
Fax the completed form to: (310) 825-3205
Contact the Imaging Library at (310) 825-6425
Payment in advance when required.
No charge for CD
$10.00 per sheet for film duplication
UCLA Health System
WHAT'S NEXT AT UCLA?
Next, we do more. More investigation to identify well proven approaches that can bring innovation to how
UCLA serves its communities of patients, referring physicians and affiliates. More detailed evidence
gathering on our pilots to ensure we can scale them to offer value to the entire Medical enterprise. More
opportunities for innovators like you to bring ideas to fruition. The Image Exchange
pilot that is being managed by Brenda Izzi in the
Department of Radiology and supported by MITS will continue to be a focus for the
attention of the Innovation Institute. We have mobilized support from Dr. Carol Mangione and her
colleagues to help generate the evidence of the impact of this new technology. We are using the work
led by Farzad Buckley in the workflow and operational changes that they developed in Neurosurgery to
create baseline plans for implementation at a department level. Peter Kung, from Hospital Operations is
our liaision with the pilot team to ensure we have an implementation model that can be repeated as
other Departments plan to roll out the Image Exchange service. The eConsult pilot is also being
managed by Peter Kung, creating a close reflection of how our pilot participants believe we can best
support efficient and user friendly eReferral functions. The evaluation of this pilot will feed into a
"Request for Information" which will detail our specific needs and look across the vendor community for
solutions that best meet those needs. Shannon O'Kelly and his team at Hospital Operations will be
taking the lead here to ensure that any solution fits well into the overall management of patients. And, of
course, the continued innovation at an individual and departmental level that typifies UCLA Health
System. We invite contributions to achieving our system level targets from all innovators. Contacting the
Innovation Institutue at info@uclainnovates.org is a good start.
WHAT HAVE WE DONE SO FAR?
The Innovation Institutue has sponsored and supported two pilot projects in the area of eReferral. We
have engaged a wide range of external experts in the medical and investment fields to explore the latest,
evidence based innovations in eReferral and eConsult and are preparing to approach the vendor
community for well established solutions that we can consider bringing into use at UCLA Health System.
There are on-going efforts to improve the referral processes at UCLA Health System. CPN is
undertaking a study, tracking patterns of referrals and identifying areas for improvement. Dr Neil Martin
and his colleagues have led the way in analysing how to better deal with diagnostic images that are
generated externally, which support patient referrals. Shannon O'Kelley and his team are undertaking
cycles of improvements in the operations of the Referral Center. The Innovation
Institute focused on an enterpise solution identified by
Drs. Enzmann & Zaragoza in their efforts to improve the
exchange of diagnostic images with referring Physicians. A pilot project is now
underway in Radiology to implement a cloud based image exchange system that allows referring
Physicians to make images available to the Specialists in UCLA for their review. It avoids the practical
problems caused by patients carrying images on disks and affords UCLA Departments the opportunity
to send images and documents to referring physicians electronically. This system has the potential to
provide a useful facility for many Departments and even more referral support in the future.
We are also piloting the use of a simple web based tool to make referrals easier for Physicians across
our communities. This pilot responds directly to some of the issues raised by CPN and anecdotaly by
others. This experience will generate the data we need to identify and select a commercial tool to be
made available across the Medical enterprise.
UCLA Faculty and Staff have a deserved reputation for creativity and exploration. There have been a
significant number of projects and programs focused on referrals and consultation, we will continue to
highlight these in the future.
Dieter R. Enzmann, M.D.
Leo G. Rigler Chair and Professor
(310) 481-7512
(310) 301-6800
Fax Number (310) 794-8056
DEnzmann@mednet.ucla.edu
Radiology Image Library
Brenda Izzi, R.N., M.B.A.
Chief Administrative Officer
(310) 481-7516
(310) 794-8056
BIzzi@mednet.ucla.edu
Brenda Jones, director
Ian
Laura
Eduardo
Request Copies of Imaging Studies
(310) 794-1414
Request an Imaging Report
(310) 206-0084
The Image Library reserves the right to comply within
five business days of receipt of a signed authorization
[as required by California law.]
Phone (310) 825-6425 FAX (310) 825-3205
8:00am - 4:30pm Monday - Friday
200 Medical Plaza, Suite B165-11
Los Angeles, CA 90095-6952
TO REQUEST YOUR IMAGING STUDY
Fill out the Authorization for Release of Health Information form. Please include the following information:
Patient Name, Birth Date, and Medical Record Number
Your contact phone number
Your signature
The description of the study requested
Your complete address including suite number and zip code
Fax the completed form to: (310) 825-3205
Contact the Imaging Library at (310) 825-6425
Payment in advance when required.
No charge for CD
$10.00 per sheet for film duplication
UCLA Health System
WHAT'S NEXT AT UCLA?
Next, we do more. More investigation to identify well proven approaches that can bring innovation to how
UCLA serves its communities of patients, referring physicians and affiliates. More detailed evidence
gathering on our pilots to ensure we can scale them to offer value to the entire Medical enterprise. More
opportunities for innovators like you to bring ideas to fruition. The Image Exchange
pilot that is being managed by Brenda Izzi in the
Department of Radiology and supported by MITS will continue to be a focus for the
attention of the Innovation Institute. We have mobilized support from Dr. Carol Mangione and her
colleagues to help generate the evidence of the impact of this new technology. We are using the work
led by Farzad Buckley in the workflow and operational changes that they developed in Neurosurgery to
create baseline plans for implementation at a department level. Peter Kung, from Hospital Operations is
our liaision with the pilot team to ensure we have an implementation model that can be repeated as
other Departments plan to roll out the Image Exchange service. The eConsult pilot is also being
managed by Peter Kung, creating a close reflection of how our pilot participants believe we can best
support efficient and user friendly eReferral functions. The evaluation of this pilot will feed into a
"Request for Information" which will detail our specific needs and look across the vendor community for
solutions that best meet those needs. Shannon O'Kelly and his team at Hospital Operations will be
taking the lead here to ensure that any solution fits well into the overall management of patients. And, of
course, the continued innovation at an individual and departmental level that typifies UCLA Health
System. We invite contributions to achieving our system level targets from all innovators. Contacting the
Innovation Institutue at info@uclainnovates.org is a good start.
WHAT HAVE WE DONE SO FAR?
The Innovation Institutue has sponsored and supported two pilot projects in the area of eReferral. We
have engaged a wide range of external experts in the medical and investment fields to explore the latest,
evidence based innovations in eReferral and eConsult and are preparing to approach the vendor
community for well established solutions that we can consider bringing into use at UCLA Health System.
There are on-going efforts to improve the referral processes at UCLA Health System. CPN is
undertaking a study, tracking patterns of referrals and identifying areas for improvement. Dr Neil Martin
and his colleagues have led the way in analysing how to better deal with diagnostic images that are
generated externally, which support patient referrals. Shannon O'Kelley and his team are undertaking
cycles of improvements in the operations of the Referral Center. The Innovation
Institute focused on an enterpise solution identified by
Drs. Enzmann & Zaragoza in their efforts to improve the
exchange of diagnostic images with referring Physicians. A pilot project is now
underway in Radiology to implement a cloud based image exchange system that allows referring
Physicians to make images available to the Specialists in UCLA for their review. It avoids the practical
problems caused by patients carrying images on disks and affords UCLA Departments the opportunity
to send images and documents to referring physicians electronically. This system has the potential to
provide a useful facility for many Departments and even more referral support in the future.
We are also piloting the use of a simple web based tool to make referrals easier for Physicians across
our communities. This pilot responds directly to some of the issues raised by CPN and anecdotaly by
others. This experience will generate the data we need to identify and select a commercial tool to be
made available across the Medical enterprise.
UCLA Faculty and Staff have a deserved reputation for creativity and exploration. There have been a
significant number of projects and programs focused on referrals and consultation, we will continue to
highlight these in the future.
| ... |
| San Diego Education Report |
| SDER |
San Diego
Education Report
Education Report
| SDER |
| SDER |
| SDER |
UCLA Radiology and Medical Records
UCLA's medical records department is called
"Health Information Management Services"
Mike Sauk, Chief of IT
Chief Of Applications/
UCLA Health Systems
July 2011 – Present (1 year 4 months)
Los Angeles California
VP/CIO UW Hospital and Clinics
2006 – June 2011 (5 years)
Senior VP/CIO City of Hope National Medical Center
1998 – 2006 (8 years)
UCI Medical Center 1991 – 1999 (8 years)
MSA, Business at Central Michigan University
Ascending the HIMSS Ladder
by Gary Baldwin
Health Data Management
Nov. 1, 2010
Five years ago, rising to the top rung of the HIMSS EHR scale was the furthest thing from anybody's mind
at U-Wisconsin Hospital. For one thing, the organization's leaders were largely unaware of the ranking.
But a bigger factor was the fact that the hospital had been mired in an attempt to complete a two-way
interface between its legacy EHR and pharmacy systems, which had been in place 25 and 10 years,
respectively. U-Wisconsin's current vice president and CIO, Mike Sauk, had been recruited to evaluate the
integration project. Sauk's rapid diagnosis: "Interfacing was not going to happen. They were two different
systems with different data formats and data definitions. Synchronizing the formularies was a nightmare."
The project, in essence, was doomed from the beginning.
Sauk regrouped, promptly launching an effort that would build an enterprise EHR around software from
Epic Systems, a nearby software vendor. U-Wisconsin's physician group had already begun installing
Epic in its clinics, and the prospect of an expanded system, with a single database of patients across the
care spectrum, proved irresistible. "There was no RFP process," Sauk recalls. "We wanted Epic."...
Director of Health Information Management
Maria Alizondo, UCLA employee
310-794-5575 phone
310-206-4023 fax
Past: Vice President & Director - Consulting Services at Caban Resources, LLC
Paula Van Gelder, UCLA employee
Asst. Director of the Health Information Department
310 825 0738
Katherine Mair,
special project manager, employed by Precise
phone 310 206 9132
FAX 310 206 2820
Pazzette McCray--contractor, manager
310 825 9381
Erik Lozano--contractor
No phone number; Mr. Lozano seems to
keep his door closed most of the time,
or is in a meeting
Erika, contractor
310 825 1578
FAX 310 206 4035
TO REQUEST A WRITTEN REPORT
Fill out the Authorization for Release of Health Information form.
Please include the following information:
Patient Name, Birth Date, and Medical Record Number
Your contact phone number Your signature
The description of the study requested
Your complete address including suite number and zip code
Fax or mail the completed form to:
FAX: (310) 825-3356
Mailing Address:
UCLA Health Information Management Services
10833 Le Conte Ave.,
CHS Suite BH265-177620
Los Angeles, CA 90095
"Health Information Management Services"
Mike Sauk, Chief of IT
Chief Of Applications/
UCLA Health Systems
July 2011 – Present (1 year 4 months)
Los Angeles California
VP/CIO UW Hospital and Clinics
2006 – June 2011 (5 years)
Senior VP/CIO City of Hope National Medical Center
1998 – 2006 (8 years)
UCI Medical Center 1991 – 1999 (8 years)
MSA, Business at Central Michigan University
Ascending the HIMSS Ladder
by Gary Baldwin
Health Data Management
Nov. 1, 2010
Five years ago, rising to the top rung of the HIMSS EHR scale was the furthest thing from anybody's mind
at U-Wisconsin Hospital. For one thing, the organization's leaders were largely unaware of the ranking.
But a bigger factor was the fact that the hospital had been mired in an attempt to complete a two-way
interface between its legacy EHR and pharmacy systems, which had been in place 25 and 10 years,
respectively. U-Wisconsin's current vice president and CIO, Mike Sauk, had been recruited to evaluate the
integration project. Sauk's rapid diagnosis: "Interfacing was not going to happen. They were two different
systems with different data formats and data definitions. Synchronizing the formularies was a nightmare."
The project, in essence, was doomed from the beginning.
Sauk regrouped, promptly launching an effort that would build an enterprise EHR around software from
Epic Systems, a nearby software vendor. U-Wisconsin's physician group had already begun installing
Epic in its clinics, and the prospect of an expanded system, with a single database of patients across the
care spectrum, proved irresistible. "There was no RFP process," Sauk recalls. "We wanted Epic."...
Director of Health Information Management
Maria Alizondo, UCLA employee
310-794-5575 phone
310-206-4023 fax
Past: Vice President & Director - Consulting Services at Caban Resources, LLC
Paula Van Gelder, UCLA employee
Asst. Director of the Health Information Department
310 825 0738
Katherine Mair,
special project manager, employed by Precise
phone 310 206 9132
FAX 310 206 2820
Pazzette McCray--contractor, manager
310 825 9381
Erik Lozano--contractor
No phone number; Mr. Lozano seems to
keep his door closed most of the time,
or is in a meeting
Erika, contractor
310 825 1578
FAX 310 206 4035
TO REQUEST A WRITTEN REPORT
Fill out the Authorization for Release of Health Information form.
Please include the following information:
Patient Name, Birth Date, and Medical Record Number
Your contact phone number Your signature
The description of the study requested
Your complete address including suite number and zip code
Fax or mail the completed form to:
FAX: (310) 825-3356
Mailing Address:
UCLA Health Information Management Services
10833 Le Conte Ave.,
CHS Suite BH265-177620
Los Angeles, CA 90095
(Info on this page current
as of Oct. 4, 2012)
Executive Board,
Radiology
Dieter R. Enzmann, M.D.
Chair and Professor
Paul Finn
Vice Chair of
Imaging Technology
Lawrence Bassett
Vice Chair of
Academic Affairs
Denise Aberle
Vice Chair of
Research
Barbara Kadell
Vice Chair of
Clinical Operation
- Westwood
Jonathan Goldin
Executive
Vice Chair of
Clinical Care
Planning Team
„ Brenda Izzi, CAO, UCLA
Department of Radiology
Izzi, Brenda - UCLA 100
Medical Imaging
100 Ucla Medical Plz, #100
Los Angeles, CA 90024
Telephone (310) 206-8900
Dr. Dieter Enzmann, Chair, UCLA
Department of Radiology:
UCLA Department of Pathology:
Dr. Jonathan
Braun, Chair
Dr. Scott Binder, Executive
Vice Chair, UCLA
Department of Pathology
„ Dr. Deni Aberle, UCLA
Department of Radiology
as of Oct. 4, 2012)
Executive Board,
Radiology
Dieter R. Enzmann, M.D.
Chair and Professor
Paul Finn
Vice Chair of
Imaging Technology
Lawrence Bassett
Vice Chair of
Academic Affairs
Denise Aberle
Vice Chair of
Research
Barbara Kadell
Vice Chair of
Clinical Operation
- Westwood
Jonathan Goldin
Executive
Vice Chair of
Clinical Care
Planning Team
„ Brenda Izzi, CAO, UCLA
Department of Radiology
Izzi, Brenda - UCLA 100
Medical Imaging
100 Ucla Medical Plz, #100
Los Angeles, CA 90024
Telephone (310) 206-8900
Dr. Dieter Enzmann, Chair, UCLA
Department of Radiology:
UCLA Department of Pathology:
Dr. Jonathan
Braun, Chair
Dr. Scott Binder, Executive
Vice Chair, UCLA
Department of Pathology
„ Dr. Deni Aberle, UCLA
Department of Radiology
Blog posts re UCLA
UCLA
UCLA Radiology and Medical
Records
UCLA CareConnect
UCLA Compliance
Dr. Andrew Saxon, author of
paper on harmlessness of
indoor mold
UCLA Cull case
UCLA Dermatology
UCLA lawyers
UCLA Patient Advocates
UCLA Patrick Harron to be
arraigned in burning death in
chemistry lab
UCSF
UCLA
UCLA Radiology and Medical
Records
UCLA CareConnect
UCLA Compliance
Dr. Andrew Saxon, author of
paper on harmlessness of
indoor mold
UCLA Cull case
UCLA Dermatology
UCLA lawyers
UCLA Patient Advocates
UCLA Patrick Harron to be
arraigned in burning death in
chemistry lab
UCSF
Dieter Enzmann, M.D.
Leo C. Rigler Chair and
Professor, Department of
Radiological Sciences, UCLA
Medical Center
“State-of-the-art technology is
deeply woven into the DNA of
the new Ronald
Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
Equipped with the latest
clinical imaging devices
and a digital-based imaging
system to speed diagnoses,
the new facility will
further enhance the ability of
our highly skilled subspecialty
radiologists to provide
outstanding care to patients.”
Dr. Dieter Enzmann is chair of
the Department of Radiological
Sciences at UCLA Medical
Center. He has
served in this position since
January 2001, leading the
department in an aggressive
capital replacement
plan to update the imaging
equipment at both of the new
hospitals in Westwood and
Santa Monica.
The Department of
Radiological Sciences is
completely digital and is
capable of providing everything
from a simple chest X-ray to a
complex coiling procedure for
brain aneurysms. Ronald
Reagan UCLA Medical
Center houses innovations
such as PET/CT and MRI on
patient-care floors. Areas of
specialty expertise in
radiology at UCLA include
neuroscience, oncologic
imaging, breast imaging,
cardiovascular and pulmonary
disease, computer-aided
diagnosis and medical
informatics.
Dr. Enzmann earned his
medical degree from Stanford
University School of Medicine in
1972. He
completed his internship and
residency at Stanford University
Medical Center in the
Department of
Radiology and a
neuroradiology fellowship at
University of California, San
Francisco. He is certified by the
American Board of Radiology.
Leo C. Rigler Chair and
Professor, Department of
Radiological Sciences, UCLA
Medical Center
“State-of-the-art technology is
deeply woven into the DNA of
the new Ronald
Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
Equipped with the latest
clinical imaging devices
and a digital-based imaging
system to speed diagnoses,
the new facility will
further enhance the ability of
our highly skilled subspecialty
radiologists to provide
outstanding care to patients.”
Dr. Dieter Enzmann is chair of
the Department of Radiological
Sciences at UCLA Medical
Center. He has
served in this position since
January 2001, leading the
department in an aggressive
capital replacement
plan to update the imaging
equipment at both of the new
hospitals in Westwood and
Santa Monica.
The Department of
Radiological Sciences is
completely digital and is
capable of providing everything
from a simple chest X-ray to a
complex coiling procedure for
brain aneurysms. Ronald
Reagan UCLA Medical
Center houses innovations
such as PET/CT and MRI on
patient-care floors. Areas of
specialty expertise in
radiology at UCLA include
neuroscience, oncologic
imaging, breast imaging,
cardiovascular and pulmonary
disease, computer-aided
diagnosis and medical
informatics.
Dr. Enzmann earned his
medical degree from Stanford
University School of Medicine in
1972. He
completed his internship and
residency at Stanford University
Medical Center in the
Department of
Radiology and a
neuroradiology fellowship at
University of California, San
Francisco. He is certified by the
American Board of Radiology.
UCLA Radiology
Department--Who's in
charge of losing my X-rays?
OCT. 4, 2012
[Maura Larkins comment:
Dr. Enzmann states in the
article below, "the
Department of Radiological
Sciences is completely
digital."
Why was I told that the
image library couldn't find
my X-rays, and "the
originals might be in
Dr. Raz' office"?]
Department--Who's in
charge of losing my X-rays?
OCT. 4, 2012
[Maura Larkins comment:
Dr. Enzmann states in the
article below, "the
Department of Radiological
Sciences is completely
digital."
Why was I told that the
image library couldn't find
my X-rays, and "the
originals might be in
Dr. Raz' office"?]
UCLA hospitals to
pay $865,500 for
breaches of
celebrities' privacy
July 08, 2011
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske
Los Angeles Times
UCLA Health System has
agreed to pay $865,500 as
part of a settlement with
federal regulators
announced Thursday after
two celebrity patients
alleged that hospital
employees broke the law
and reviewed their medical
records without
authorization.
Federal and hospital
officials declined to identify
the celebrities involved. The
complaints cover 2005 to
2009, a time during which
hospital employees were
repeatedly caught and fired
for peeping at the medical
records of dozens of
celebrities, including Britney
Spears, Farrah Fawcett and
then-California First Lady
Maria Shriver.
Violations allegedly
occurred at all three UCLA
Health System hospitals —
Ronald Reagan UCLA
Medical Center, Santa
Monica UCLA Medical
Center and Orthopaedic
Hospital and Resnick
Neuropsychiatric Hospital,
according to UCLA
spokeswoman Dale Tate.
The security breaches were
first reported in The Times
in 2008.
The violations led state
legislators to pass a law
imposing escalating fines
on hospitals for patient
privacy lapses.
After the law took effect on
Jan. 1, 2009, state
regulators fined Ronald
Reagan UCLA Medical
Center $95,000 in
connection with privacy
breaches that year that
sources said involved the
medical records of Michael
Jackson, who was taken to
the hospital after his death
in June 2009.
The same month, the U.S.
Department of Health and
Human Services' Office for
Civil Rights began
investigating alleged
violations of the federal
Health Insurance Portability
and Accountability Act at
the hospitals, according to
the settlement agreement.
Investigators found that
UCLA employees examined
private electronic records
"repeatedly and without a
permissible reason" in 2005
and 2008, including an
employee in the nursing
director's office, according
to the agreement reached
Wednesday.
The employee was not
named in the agreement,
and the hospital
spokeswoman declined to
identify who it was. But the
timing and description of
the alleged violations cited
in the agreement suggest
that it may have been
Lawanda Jackson, an
administrative specialist at
Ronald Reagan UCLA
Medical Center who was
fired in 2007 after she was
caught accessing Farrah
Fawcett's medical records
and allegedly selling
information to the National
Enquirer.
Jackson later pleaded guilty
to a felony charge of
violating federal medical
privacy laws for commercial
purposes but died of cancer
before she could be
sentenced. Fawcett died of
cancer in 2009.
Federal investigators
faulted the hospital system
for failing to remedy the
problems, discipline or
retrain staff.
"Employees must clearly
understand that casual
review for personal interest
of patients' protected health
information is unacceptable
and against the law,"
Georgina Verdugo, director
of the Office for Civil Rights,
said in a statement
Thursday, adding that
healthcare facilities "will be
held accountable for
employees who access
protected health information
to satisfy their own personal
curiosity."
As a condition of the
settlement, UCLA Health
System was required to
submit a plan to federal
regulators detailing how
officials would prevent
future breaches. They
agreed to retrain staff on
privacy protections,
formulate privacy policies,
appoint a monitor to
oversee improvements and
report to regulators for the
next three years.
UCLA Health System
released a statement
Thursday noting that, "Over
the past three years, we
have worked diligently to
strengthen our staff
training, implement
enhanced data security
systems and increase our
auditing capabilities."
"Our patients' health,
privacy and well-being are
of paramount importance to
us," said Dr. David T.
Feinberg, chief
executive of the
UCLA Hospital
System.
[See article about
Dr. Feinberg below.]
"We appreciate the
involvement and
recommendations made by
OCR in this matter and will
fully comply with the plan of
correction it has formulated.
We remain vigilant and
proactive to ensure that our
patients' rights continue to
be protected at all times."
David Feinberg isn't our public
employee of the month
UCLA's Millionaire
Doctor David
Feinberg
How Feinberg got $1.3
million amid tuition
hikes, budget cuts and a
recession
By Beth Barrett
LA Weekly
Mar 31 2011
Last year, when Stanford
Hospital & Clinics was
considering poaching Dr.
David Feinberg from UCLA,
where he is the associate
vice chancellor and CEO of
its public hospital system,
the university brass and the
powerful UC Board of
Regents decided to do
whatever was required to
keep their golden
administrator.
Things were bad at UCLA
when the feverish bid to
retain Feinberg broke out. It
had just been slammed with
$60 million in academic
program cuts by the deficit-
riddled state of California,
and faces another $96
million bite on July 1. In a
series of recent hikes, the
university raised average
student tuition 40 percent
from about $7,000 to more
than $11,000.
More tuition hikes were
coming, and the university
owed its employees $21.5
billion in future pension
payments that it had no
clear-cut way to pay.
But the vast Ronald
Reagan UCLA Medical
Center, a public nonprofit,
had experienced a
financially robust previous
year under Feinberg, and
the facility in 2009 enjoyed
high patient-satisfaction
rankings as usual. Despite
California's stubborn
recession, UCLA
Chancellor Gene
Block — like
Feinberg, a
psychiatry
professor at the
School of Medicine
— decided to make his
colleague a staggering
offer: He would nearly
double Feinberg's
$739,695 base salary to
$1.33 million.
[Maura Larkins comment:
A lawsuit has been filed
against yet another
professor of psychiatry at
UCLA. Dr. Alexander
Bystritsky is accused of
causing the wrongful
death of a woman by
giving her dangerous
medications in order to
make her feel happy and
cause her to give large
donations to UCLA.]
That included a 22 percent
pay raise of $160,300 and
an annual "retention bonus"
of $250,000 paid every
year that Feinberg does not
leave for another job. Block
also decided to continue
Feinberg's "incentive
bonus," which had hit
$210,739 in the previous
fiscal year.
There was nothing else
quite like Block's offer
elsewhere in California's
university medical schools.
The next highest paid is UC
San Francisco's CEO Mark
Laret. San Francisco, like
UCLA, is a top facility,
ranked seventh in the
nation by U.S. News &
World Report, close behind
No. 5 UCLA.
In 2010, Laret's $739,700
pay was reduced as a result
of the systemwide pay cuts.
But with an "incentive"
bonus of $176,912 and a
car allowance of $8,916, he
earned $876,215. Now,
suddenly Feinberg was in
line to earn nearly half a
million dollars more than
Laret.
On June 30, Feinberg will
begin getting his annual
quarter-million-dollar bonus
simply for not leaving for
another job.
Feinberg's juicy pay
package led to
uncomfortable headlines for
UCLA on Sept. 17, the day
after the Board of Regents
approved it.
Then, in late December,
Feinberg earned UCLA
another round of unwanted
media attention. The San
Francisco Chronicle
obtained a private Dec. 9
letter in which Feinberg and
35 other executives in the
UC system lashed out at the
Board of Regents. The
highly compensated group
weren't demanding help for
academic programs and
students. They were
threatening to sue the
struggling California
universities if the regents
didn't boost the executives'
long-standing $245,000
salary caps used to
calculate their pensions.
The change would create a
sizable pension boost,
costing the universities
$5.1 million per year —
for just 36 government
employees.
In addition, the 36
executives insisted the
new pension deal be
retroactive to 2007,
taking from the
universities an
additional bite of $51
million.
In the letter, Feinberg and
the others wrote that it was
"the University's legal,
moral and ethical
obligation" to hand over
the pension boosts. They
also threatened, "Failure to
do so will likely result in a
costly and unsuccessful
legal confrontation," and
emphasized that they were
writing "URGENTLY."
The letter, which proved to
be deeply embarrassing to
UC officials and the
regents, was widely
assumed to have been
leaked by a UC university
system insider disgusted by
the demands.
The demands from the 36
were a direct political
challenge to UC President
Mark Yudof, who had
publicly opposed bigger
pensions for university
executives. The University
of California system owes
$21.6 billion in future
pension payments to all its
retirees — but it hasn't got
the money, and doesn't
know where it's going to get
it. Yudof is pursuing fiscal
reforms to raise the missing
billions, including upping
the retirement age for
future employees from age
60 to 65 for maximum
pension benefits — and,
once again, raising student
tuition and fees.
The leaked letter enraged
students, critics of cushy
government pensions and
salaries and incoming Gov.
Jerry Brown, who is a
nonvoting member of the
Board of Regents.
Brown opined in the
Chronicle in December:
"These executives seem
very out of touch at a time
when the state is
contemplating billions of
dollars in reductions that will
affect people who are far
less advantaged."
In early January, under a
media spotlight, Block
opposed the pension
boosts, and the demand
was not approved by the
regents.
But three weeks later,
without a formal vote, the
regents — who include
such notables as
investment banker Richard
C. Blum, husband of Sen.
Dianne Feinstein, and
Sherry L. Lansing, former
chair/CEO of Paramount
Pictures — found a way to
give Feinberg and other UC
system medical center
executives statewide a
different costly reward:
"incentive" bonuses totaling
$2.6 million that had been
deferred from 2009.
Feinberg topped the bonus
recipient list, raking in
$218,728.
The popular doctor now has
critics aplenty. Students,
facing further tuition hikes
as Gov. Brown struggles
with a massive deficit, are
flabbergasted at the Wall
Street–like disparity
between how the UC system
treats its highfliers versus
its students.
Student Matt Margolis,
president of the Bruin
Democrats, says thousands
of UC, California State
University and community
college students "have to
take quarters off, drop
classes, get kicked out of
their housing." For UC
leaders "to respond to the
need to scale back by
cutting the budget and
raising tuition — I don't see
how that sits well with the
CEO of the medical center
having his salary doubled...
pay $865,500 for
breaches of
celebrities' privacy
July 08, 2011
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske
Los Angeles Times
UCLA Health System has
agreed to pay $865,500 as
part of a settlement with
federal regulators
announced Thursday after
two celebrity patients
alleged that hospital
employees broke the law
and reviewed their medical
records without
authorization.
Federal and hospital
officials declined to identify
the celebrities involved. The
complaints cover 2005 to
2009, a time during which
hospital employees were
repeatedly caught and fired
for peeping at the medical
records of dozens of
celebrities, including Britney
Spears, Farrah Fawcett and
then-California First Lady
Maria Shriver.
Violations allegedly
occurred at all three UCLA
Health System hospitals —
Ronald Reagan UCLA
Medical Center, Santa
Monica UCLA Medical
Center and Orthopaedic
Hospital and Resnick
Neuropsychiatric Hospital,
according to UCLA
spokeswoman Dale Tate.
The security breaches were
first reported in The Times
in 2008.
The violations led state
legislators to pass a law
imposing escalating fines
on hospitals for patient
privacy lapses.
After the law took effect on
Jan. 1, 2009, state
regulators fined Ronald
Reagan UCLA Medical
Center $95,000 in
connection with privacy
breaches that year that
sources said involved the
medical records of Michael
Jackson, who was taken to
the hospital after his death
in June 2009.
The same month, the U.S.
Department of Health and
Human Services' Office for
Civil Rights began
investigating alleged
violations of the federal
Health Insurance Portability
and Accountability Act at
the hospitals, according to
the settlement agreement.
Investigators found that
UCLA employees examined
private electronic records
"repeatedly and without a
permissible reason" in 2005
and 2008, including an
employee in the nursing
director's office, according
to the agreement reached
Wednesday.
The employee was not
named in the agreement,
and the hospital
spokeswoman declined to
identify who it was. But the
timing and description of
the alleged violations cited
in the agreement suggest
that it may have been
Lawanda Jackson, an
administrative specialist at
Ronald Reagan UCLA
Medical Center who was
fired in 2007 after she was
caught accessing Farrah
Fawcett's medical records
and allegedly selling
information to the National
Enquirer.
Jackson later pleaded guilty
to a felony charge of
violating federal medical
privacy laws for commercial
purposes but died of cancer
before she could be
sentenced. Fawcett died of
cancer in 2009.
Federal investigators
faulted the hospital system
for failing to remedy the
problems, discipline or
retrain staff.
"Employees must clearly
understand that casual
review for personal interest
of patients' protected health
information is unacceptable
and against the law,"
Georgina Verdugo, director
of the Office for Civil Rights,
said in a statement
Thursday, adding that
healthcare facilities "will be
held accountable for
employees who access
protected health information
to satisfy their own personal
curiosity."
As a condition of the
settlement, UCLA Health
System was required to
submit a plan to federal
regulators detailing how
officials would prevent
future breaches. They
agreed to retrain staff on
privacy protections,
formulate privacy policies,
appoint a monitor to
oversee improvements and
report to regulators for the
next three years.
UCLA Health System
released a statement
Thursday noting that, "Over
the past three years, we
have worked diligently to
strengthen our staff
training, implement
enhanced data security
systems and increase our
auditing capabilities."
"Our patients' health,
privacy and well-being are
of paramount importance to
us," said Dr. David T.
Feinberg, chief
executive of the
UCLA Hospital
System.
[See article about
Dr. Feinberg below.]
"We appreciate the
involvement and
recommendations made by
OCR in this matter and will
fully comply with the plan of
correction it has formulated.
We remain vigilant and
proactive to ensure that our
patients' rights continue to
be protected at all times."
David Feinberg isn't our public
employee of the month
UCLA's Millionaire
Doctor David
Feinberg
How Feinberg got $1.3
million amid tuition
hikes, budget cuts and a
recession
By Beth Barrett
LA Weekly
Mar 31 2011
Last year, when Stanford
Hospital & Clinics was
considering poaching Dr.
David Feinberg from UCLA,
where he is the associate
vice chancellor and CEO of
its public hospital system,
the university brass and the
powerful UC Board of
Regents decided to do
whatever was required to
keep their golden
administrator.
Things were bad at UCLA
when the feverish bid to
retain Feinberg broke out. It
had just been slammed with
$60 million in academic
program cuts by the deficit-
riddled state of California,
and faces another $96
million bite on July 1. In a
series of recent hikes, the
university raised average
student tuition 40 percent
from about $7,000 to more
than $11,000.
More tuition hikes were
coming, and the university
owed its employees $21.5
billion in future pension
payments that it had no
clear-cut way to pay.
But the vast Ronald
Reagan UCLA Medical
Center, a public nonprofit,
had experienced a
financially robust previous
year under Feinberg, and
the facility in 2009 enjoyed
high patient-satisfaction
rankings as usual. Despite
California's stubborn
recession, UCLA
Chancellor Gene
Block — like
Feinberg, a
psychiatry
professor at the
School of Medicine
— decided to make his
colleague a staggering
offer: He would nearly
double Feinberg's
$739,695 base salary to
$1.33 million.
[Maura Larkins comment:
A lawsuit has been filed
against yet another
professor of psychiatry at
UCLA. Dr. Alexander
Bystritsky is accused of
causing the wrongful
death of a woman by
giving her dangerous
medications in order to
make her feel happy and
cause her to give large
donations to UCLA.]
That included a 22 percent
pay raise of $160,300 and
an annual "retention bonus"
of $250,000 paid every
year that Feinberg does not
leave for another job. Block
also decided to continue
Feinberg's "incentive
bonus," which had hit
$210,739 in the previous
fiscal year.
There was nothing else
quite like Block's offer
elsewhere in California's
university medical schools.
The next highest paid is UC
San Francisco's CEO Mark
Laret. San Francisco, like
UCLA, is a top facility,
ranked seventh in the
nation by U.S. News &
World Report, close behind
No. 5 UCLA.
In 2010, Laret's $739,700
pay was reduced as a result
of the systemwide pay cuts.
But with an "incentive"
bonus of $176,912 and a
car allowance of $8,916, he
earned $876,215. Now,
suddenly Feinberg was in
line to earn nearly half a
million dollars more than
Laret.
On June 30, Feinberg will
begin getting his annual
quarter-million-dollar bonus
simply for not leaving for
another job.
Feinberg's juicy pay
package led to
uncomfortable headlines for
UCLA on Sept. 17, the day
after the Board of Regents
approved it.
Then, in late December,
Feinberg earned UCLA
another round of unwanted
media attention. The San
Francisco Chronicle
obtained a private Dec. 9
letter in which Feinberg and
35 other executives in the
UC system lashed out at the
Board of Regents. The
highly compensated group
weren't demanding help for
academic programs and
students. They were
threatening to sue the
struggling California
universities if the regents
didn't boost the executives'
long-standing $245,000
salary caps used to
calculate their pensions.
The change would create a
sizable pension boost,
costing the universities
$5.1 million per year —
for just 36 government
employees.
In addition, the 36
executives insisted the
new pension deal be
retroactive to 2007,
taking from the
universities an
additional bite of $51
million.
In the letter, Feinberg and
the others wrote that it was
"the University's legal,
moral and ethical
obligation" to hand over
the pension boosts. They
also threatened, "Failure to
do so will likely result in a
costly and unsuccessful
legal confrontation," and
emphasized that they were
writing "URGENTLY."
The letter, which proved to
be deeply embarrassing to
UC officials and the
regents, was widely
assumed to have been
leaked by a UC university
system insider disgusted by
the demands.
The demands from the 36
were a direct political
challenge to UC President
Mark Yudof, who had
publicly opposed bigger
pensions for university
executives. The University
of California system owes
$21.6 billion in future
pension payments to all its
retirees — but it hasn't got
the money, and doesn't
know where it's going to get
it. Yudof is pursuing fiscal
reforms to raise the missing
billions, including upping
the retirement age for
future employees from age
60 to 65 for maximum
pension benefits — and,
once again, raising student
tuition and fees.
The leaked letter enraged
students, critics of cushy
government pensions and
salaries and incoming Gov.
Jerry Brown, who is a
nonvoting member of the
Board of Regents.
Brown opined in the
Chronicle in December:
"These executives seem
very out of touch at a time
when the state is
contemplating billions of
dollars in reductions that will
affect people who are far
less advantaged."
In early January, under a
media spotlight, Block
opposed the pension
boosts, and the demand
was not approved by the
regents.
But three weeks later,
without a formal vote, the
regents — who include
such notables as
investment banker Richard
C. Blum, husband of Sen.
Dianne Feinstein, and
Sherry L. Lansing, former
chair/CEO of Paramount
Pictures — found a way to
give Feinberg and other UC
system medical center
executives statewide a
different costly reward:
"incentive" bonuses totaling
$2.6 million that had been
deferred from 2009.
Feinberg topped the bonus
recipient list, raking in
$218,728.
The popular doctor now has
critics aplenty. Students,
facing further tuition hikes
as Gov. Brown struggles
with a massive deficit, are
flabbergasted at the Wall
Street–like disparity
between how the UC system
treats its highfliers versus
its students.
Student Matt Margolis,
president of the Bruin
Democrats, says thousands
of UC, California State
University and community
college students "have to
take quarters off, drop
classes, get kicked out of
their housing." For UC
leaders "to respond to the
need to scale back by
cutting the budget and
raising tuition — I don't see
how that sits well with the
CEO of the medical center
having his salary doubled...
BRENDA IZZI BUILDS BUZZ
Building Brand and Buzz
Imaging Economics
by Tor Valenza
September 2009
Brenda M. Izzi, RN, MBA
UCLA launched a marketing campaign to bring the radiology department out of
the reading room and into the hearts and minds of the public and referring
physicians.
It wasn't long ago that the latest and greatest technology was the prime way to convince
physicians to refer patients to your practice. While having a 3T MR and 256 slices of CT
horsepower certainly remains impressive, radiology practices are realizing that marketing
one's practice needs physicians in front of their technology, as well.
A case in point is the University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Radiology.
UCLA already had a great reputation, but administrators felt it needed to define itself
beyond the hospital's brand and directly reach out to consumers. Consequently, when a
new outpatient center was being designed for a market 30 minutes away from the main
campus, UCLA looked to RED Marketing, a boutique marketing firm that knows
both radiology as well as the new community. RED designed a branding and
communications package that not only maintains UCLA's academic reputation,
but also emphasizes the importance of patients choosing the right radiologist.
Focusing the UCLA Radiology Brand
Brenda M. Izzi, RN, MBA, is chief administrative officer at UCLA Radiology. When Izzi
began to plan a new outpatient center in Manhattan Beach, she purposely wanted to set
the new center apart, not only geographically from the main Los Angeles campus, but
also from the general UCLA brand.
Izzi said, "We found very early on that UCLA, as a brand, is a very strong one, but the
only thing that people recognized as UCLA were the hospitals. Radiology is not
necessarily a hospital-driven service. It does provide hospital level imaging, but the
majority of radiology is outpatient growth and expansion."
Carrie Becks, ARRT
The UCLA radiology department had already developed robust outpatient services in a
nearby clinic, with a total of 12 unique locations in six different buildings. They had a
thriving cash-pay system for interventional vein and pain procedures, and word of
mouth among referring physicians for their women's imaging and orthopedic and sports
injuries was also strong.
However, with the new Manhattan Beach outpatient center, they were entering a
completely new community that was far from their main West Los Angeles physician
referral base. To meet the challenge of building a uniquely branded imaging center in
unfamiliar territory, the department sought a marketing voice that was more specific to
their radiology needs.
Enter Carrie Becks, ARRT, founder of RED Marketing, located in El Segundo, a
few miles from the new Manhattan Beach facility. RED not only was a local firm,
but also specialized in the radiology niche, thanks to Becks being a former
radiology tech and administrator. ("RED" is actually an acronym for Radiology
Education Delivered.)
Becks said, "A typical advertising agency is not going to understand a PACS system or
the benefits to patients and referring physicians. That's something that we know about,
and that's why it's important to have an agency that specializes in imaging and radiology."
Becks knew that UCLA needed to brand the new center as UCLA affiliated, yet still build a
reputation that would be recognized by local referring physicians. Her solution was to
highlight not only UCLA, but also the radiologists as a trusted and accessible resource.
The New Face of Radiology
"In medical circles, marketing has always been looked down upon—it's just not done,"
said Becks. "In the past, physicians were able to get referrals from colleagues or the
hospitals without having to have any printed materials, Web sites, or direct mail pieces to
attract patients. When newly ordained physicians took the
Hippocratic Oath, they didn't have to market their services.
Times have changed."
Despite the consolidation of outpatient imaging since the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005
(DRA), there is still a great deal of competition for outpatient imaging services. Gone are
the years when you could "build it and they will come." Highly competitive markets such as
Los Angeles already have the latest and greatest technology in their centers with long
relationships with local physicians.
Rather than putting technology in front of the physicians, RED's strategy was to put the
radiologists in front of the technology—and in front of patients.
"We are bringing the radiologist out of the basement and positioning them in front of the
patient as a consultant to help direct treatment and to empower them to make the right
decisions," said Becks.
In addition, RED is educating the referring physicians about the advantages of
UCLA's subspecialty radiologists instead of relying on another practice that might
have generalists. Becks said, "If you have a breast MRI, it should be interpreted by a
breast specialist, not necessarily a neuroradiologist. If you are looking for sports injury-
related services with ultrasound or MRI, that should be read by a specialist in that area."
Izzi added, "We took ownership of our different product lines and developed a
business team that meets together with IT and dedicated, department funded
field marketers. We track referring physicians by name, the types of studies they
send, the volumes they send, and their referral payor mix. We also monitor overall
procedure volumes to capture self-referrals. It is a very sophisticated system for defining
field marketer efforts related to products and product lines; whether we are in front of
referring physicians or patients."
One of the physician faces on the front
line of this initiative is Jonathan G. Goldin,
MD, PhD, vice chairman for business
development and outreach, Department
of Radiology, UCLA.
"The visible radiologist is our new mantra," said Goldin. "It is important that patients know
who is reading their images in the same way they get to know their primary physician or
surgeon. Nobody thinks about the fact that the person reading your scan is actually
making a clinical assessment on further courses of care."
The Marketing Plan
RED's strategy for introducing its Manhattan Beach center and physicians to the
community has utilized multiple media sources and feet-on-the ground resources.
Although Becks could not reveal the cost for the campaign, she
said it was significant—though worth it. She sees the benefits of marketing as
being directly proportional to the money invested in it. "Investing in marketing is the only
way to get any kind of return. You have to invest and reinvest in your business."
UCLA's overall marketing budget has been allocated 60% toward reaching patients and
40% toward reaching referring physicians. Their target demographic is adults 25 and over
with a household income above $50,000 in the South Bay-Manhattan Beach area.
Because RED is local and medical focused, the company also has the advantage of being
familiar with local referring physicians and can aid UCLA's field marketers.
UCLA's Manhattan Beach facility has
been open for only a few months, but
Brenda Izzi (seated), chief administrative
officer at UCLA Radiology, says her
branding campaign is already
showing signs of success.
{Carrie Becks at left in photo)
In terms of messaging, the gist of the campaign is to encourage patients to ask their
doctor who is going to be performing their imaging and to realize that they have a choice
when it comes to their imaging services.
Becks is using a wide array of media outlets, including print advertisements, a lecture
series, brochures, direct mail pieces, newsletters, and event sponsorships. Her RED team
is also redesigning a new Web site that will be distinct from the traditional UCLA design.
"Everyone should have a properly designed and comprehensive Web site," said Becks. "It
should be streamlined and easy to navigate, so that whatever the center wants to focus
on, whether it is pain management, vein ablation, or anything else, the visitor
encountering the home page will be directed through the content. It will follow the strategy
we have for that visitor or patient to go through. Do we want them to pick up the phone
and make an appointment? Do we want to educate them? The Web site is more than just
an online brochure. It's really a marketing tool."
In a future phase two of the marketing plan, RED will be designing some radio and cable
TV campaigns, as well as Internet marketing and movie theaters that show prescreening
advertisements.
Becks noted that there are many affordable advertising options now because of media
companies losing steady business. As a result, radiology centers utilize traditionally
expensive print, radio, and cable television at significantly lower rates.
For the face-to-face marketing initiative to referring physicians, UCLA field marketing
clinicians are still visiting physician offices and informing physicians about the Manhattan
Beach center's interventional services, technology, and physician access. In addition,
physicians often participate in patient health fairs, directly engaging patients in
conversations about women's imaging screening and the interventional services.
Becks concedes that all of this face-to-face attention does require a commitment on the
part of the staff. "Marketing doesn't have to be expensive," she said, "but it does require
significant investment when it involves an FTE to act as a liaison to your practice."
A Good Start
As of this writing, UCLA's Manhattan Beach facility has been open for only a few months,
but Izzi and Goldin agree that the program has been effective.
Izzi estimated that 80% of the patients who have come to the Manhattan Beach center
have seen either a direct mail promotion designed by RED or newspaper advertisements.
Goldin added, "From day one, people had heard about us, and as soon as our
schedulers were offering that Manhattan Beach venue, people said that they'd
heard about it and that it was close to where they live, it's easy to get there, so I'll go
there. So we're very happy with the effect of our campaign that went ahead of our
opening. It seemed to reach who we wanted to reach."
Becks cautions that one's marketing success will depend on a number of key factors,
including the ability to successfully present the benefits of the center to existing patients
in a highly competitive market. "Even if you are lucky enough not to have a competitor in
your market, proactive strategies will maintain your patient volume, even when
competitors find you," she said.
Izzi also reported that UCLA Health System's internal marketing group has been
very accepting of RED's participation in the development and launching of the
Manhattan Beach center. With RED, it is getting more personalized attention than it might
have with UCLA's general marketing group.
She said, "RED's benefit is their understanding of what we're trying to do, and the fact
that they are small means they are nimble and can give us personalized attention.
UCLA's Marketing team is responsible for the Health System as a whole which is
quite large and can create unwanted delays in turning around edits or final documents."
Brenda Izzi
X-ray equipment has been properly registered with the State of CA
Building Brand and Buzz
Imaging Economics
by Tor Valenza
September 2009
Brenda M. Izzi, RN, MBA
UCLA launched a marketing campaign to bring the radiology department out of
the reading room and into the hearts and minds of the public and referring
physicians.
It wasn't long ago that the latest and greatest technology was the prime way to convince
physicians to refer patients to your practice. While having a 3T MR and 256 slices of CT
horsepower certainly remains impressive, radiology practices are realizing that marketing
one's practice needs physicians in front of their technology, as well.
A case in point is the University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Radiology.
UCLA already had a great reputation, but administrators felt it needed to define itself
beyond the hospital's brand and directly reach out to consumers. Consequently, when a
new outpatient center was being designed for a market 30 minutes away from the main
campus, UCLA looked to RED Marketing, a boutique marketing firm that knows
both radiology as well as the new community. RED designed a branding and
communications package that not only maintains UCLA's academic reputation,
but also emphasizes the importance of patients choosing the right radiologist.
Focusing the UCLA Radiology Brand
Brenda M. Izzi, RN, MBA, is chief administrative officer at UCLA Radiology. When Izzi
began to plan a new outpatient center in Manhattan Beach, she purposely wanted to set
the new center apart, not only geographically from the main Los Angeles campus, but
also from the general UCLA brand.
Izzi said, "We found very early on that UCLA, as a brand, is a very strong one, but the
only thing that people recognized as UCLA were the hospitals. Radiology is not
necessarily a hospital-driven service. It does provide hospital level imaging, but the
majority of radiology is outpatient growth and expansion."
Carrie Becks, ARRT
The UCLA radiology department had already developed robust outpatient services in a
nearby clinic, with a total of 12 unique locations in six different buildings. They had a
thriving cash-pay system for interventional vein and pain procedures, and word of
mouth among referring physicians for their women's imaging and orthopedic and sports
injuries was also strong.
However, with the new Manhattan Beach outpatient center, they were entering a
completely new community that was far from their main West Los Angeles physician
referral base. To meet the challenge of building a uniquely branded imaging center in
unfamiliar territory, the department sought a marketing voice that was more specific to
their radiology needs.
Enter Carrie Becks, ARRT, founder of RED Marketing, located in El Segundo, a
few miles from the new Manhattan Beach facility. RED not only was a local firm,
but also specialized in the radiology niche, thanks to Becks being a former
radiology tech and administrator. ("RED" is actually an acronym for Radiology
Education Delivered.)
Becks said, "A typical advertising agency is not going to understand a PACS system or
the benefits to patients and referring physicians. That's something that we know about,
and that's why it's important to have an agency that specializes in imaging and radiology."
Becks knew that UCLA needed to brand the new center as UCLA affiliated, yet still build a
reputation that would be recognized by local referring physicians. Her solution was to
highlight not only UCLA, but also the radiologists as a trusted and accessible resource.
The New Face of Radiology
"In medical circles, marketing has always been looked down upon—it's just not done,"
said Becks. "In the past, physicians were able to get referrals from colleagues or the
hospitals without having to have any printed materials, Web sites, or direct mail pieces to
attract patients. When newly ordained physicians took the
Hippocratic Oath, they didn't have to market their services.
Times have changed."
Despite the consolidation of outpatient imaging since the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005
(DRA), there is still a great deal of competition for outpatient imaging services. Gone are
the years when you could "build it and they will come." Highly competitive markets such as
Los Angeles already have the latest and greatest technology in their centers with long
relationships with local physicians.
Rather than putting technology in front of the physicians, RED's strategy was to put the
radiologists in front of the technology—and in front of patients.
"We are bringing the radiologist out of the basement and positioning them in front of the
patient as a consultant to help direct treatment and to empower them to make the right
decisions," said Becks.
In addition, RED is educating the referring physicians about the advantages of
UCLA's subspecialty radiologists instead of relying on another practice that might
have generalists. Becks said, "If you have a breast MRI, it should be interpreted by a
breast specialist, not necessarily a neuroradiologist. If you are looking for sports injury-
related services with ultrasound or MRI, that should be read by a specialist in that area."
Izzi added, "We took ownership of our different product lines and developed a
business team that meets together with IT and dedicated, department funded
field marketers. We track referring physicians by name, the types of studies they
send, the volumes they send, and their referral payor mix. We also monitor overall
procedure volumes to capture self-referrals. It is a very sophisticated system for defining
field marketer efforts related to products and product lines; whether we are in front of
referring physicians or patients."
One of the physician faces on the front
line of this initiative is Jonathan G. Goldin,
MD, PhD, vice chairman for business
development and outreach, Department
of Radiology, UCLA.
"The visible radiologist is our new mantra," said Goldin. "It is important that patients know
who is reading their images in the same way they get to know their primary physician or
surgeon. Nobody thinks about the fact that the person reading your scan is actually
making a clinical assessment on further courses of care."
The Marketing Plan
RED's strategy for introducing its Manhattan Beach center and physicians to the
community has utilized multiple media sources and feet-on-the ground resources.
Although Becks could not reveal the cost for the campaign, she
said it was significant—though worth it. She sees the benefits of marketing as
being directly proportional to the money invested in it. "Investing in marketing is the only
way to get any kind of return. You have to invest and reinvest in your business."
UCLA's overall marketing budget has been allocated 60% toward reaching patients and
40% toward reaching referring physicians. Their target demographic is adults 25 and over
with a household income above $50,000 in the South Bay-Manhattan Beach area.
Because RED is local and medical focused, the company also has the advantage of being
familiar with local referring physicians and can aid UCLA's field marketers.
UCLA's Manhattan Beach facility has
been open for only a few months, but
Brenda Izzi (seated), chief administrative
officer at UCLA Radiology, says her
branding campaign is already
showing signs of success.
{Carrie Becks at left in photo)
In terms of messaging, the gist of the campaign is to encourage patients to ask their
doctor who is going to be performing their imaging and to realize that they have a choice
when it comes to their imaging services.
Becks is using a wide array of media outlets, including print advertisements, a lecture
series, brochures, direct mail pieces, newsletters, and event sponsorships. Her RED team
is also redesigning a new Web site that will be distinct from the traditional UCLA design.
"Everyone should have a properly designed and comprehensive Web site," said Becks. "It
should be streamlined and easy to navigate, so that whatever the center wants to focus
on, whether it is pain management, vein ablation, or anything else, the visitor
encountering the home page will be directed through the content. It will follow the strategy
we have for that visitor or patient to go through. Do we want them to pick up the phone
and make an appointment? Do we want to educate them? The Web site is more than just
an online brochure. It's really a marketing tool."
In a future phase two of the marketing plan, RED will be designing some radio and cable
TV campaigns, as well as Internet marketing and movie theaters that show prescreening
advertisements.
Becks noted that there are many affordable advertising options now because of media
companies losing steady business. As a result, radiology centers utilize traditionally
expensive print, radio, and cable television at significantly lower rates.
For the face-to-face marketing initiative to referring physicians, UCLA field marketing
clinicians are still visiting physician offices and informing physicians about the Manhattan
Beach center's interventional services, technology, and physician access. In addition,
physicians often participate in patient health fairs, directly engaging patients in
conversations about women's imaging screening and the interventional services.
Becks concedes that all of this face-to-face attention does require a commitment on the
part of the staff. "Marketing doesn't have to be expensive," she said, "but it does require
significant investment when it involves an FTE to act as a liaison to your practice."
A Good Start
As of this writing, UCLA's Manhattan Beach facility has been open for only a few months,
but Izzi and Goldin agree that the program has been effective.
Izzi estimated that 80% of the patients who have come to the Manhattan Beach center
have seen either a direct mail promotion designed by RED or newspaper advertisements.
Goldin added, "From day one, people had heard about us, and as soon as our
schedulers were offering that Manhattan Beach venue, people said that they'd
heard about it and that it was close to where they live, it's easy to get there, so I'll go
there. So we're very happy with the effect of our campaign that went ahead of our
opening. It seemed to reach who we wanted to reach."
Becks cautions that one's marketing success will depend on a number of key factors,
including the ability to successfully present the benefits of the center to existing patients
in a highly competitive market. "Even if you are lucky enough not to have a competitor in
your market, proactive strategies will maintain your patient volume, even when
competitors find you," she said.
Izzi also reported that UCLA Health System's internal marketing group has been
very accepting of RED's participation in the development and launching of the
Manhattan Beach center. With RED, it is getting more personalized attention than it might
have with UCLA's general marketing group.
She said, "RED's benefit is their understanding of what we're trying to do, and the fact
that they are small means they are nimble and can give us personalized attention.
UCLA's Marketing team is responsible for the Health System as a whole which is
quite large and can create unwanted delays in turning around edits or final documents."
Brenda Izzi
X-ray equipment has been properly registered with the State of CA
| .Medical Records |
Marti Arvin, JD,
Chief compliance officer
UCLA Health System
and David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
924 Westwood Boulevard, Suite 810
Los Angels, CA 90024
Phone: (310) 794-6763
marvin@mednet.ucla.edu
Marti Arvin has more than 22 years of health care
experience with a focus on academic medicine.
As the chief compliance officer for the UCLA
Health System and the David Geffen School of
Medicine at UCLA, Arvin oversees the
compliance program for the hospitals,
the UCLA Faculty Practice Group
and the school of medicine.
Arvin previously worked as the privacy officer at the University of Louisville and holds CHC-F, CCEP-F,
CHRC, CHPC and the CPC certifications. She has written and lectured extensively on compliance and
privacy issues. She is a former board member of the Health Care Compliance Association and served
on the Compliance Certification Advisory Board for the association. She also sat on the certification
committees for the CHC, CHC-F, CCEP, CCEP-F, CHRC and CHPC and served on the faculty for the
Health Care Compliance Assn.'s Basic, Research, and Privacy Academies and the Society for
Corporate Compliance and Ethics Academy.
University of Louisville, University of Pittsburgh Physicians, Indiana University School of Medicine
Experience
Chief Compliance Officer
UCLA Health System and David Geffen School of Medicine
Educational Institution; 1001-5000 employees; Higher Education industry
April 2010 – Present (2 years 7 months) Los Angeles, CA
Privacy Officer
University of Louisville
Educational Institution; 5001-10,000 employees; Higher Education industry
June 2003 – March 2010 (6 years 10 months)
Compliance and Privacy Officer
University of Pittsburgh Physicians
2001 – 2003 (2 years)
Compliance and Privacy Officer
Indiana University School of Medicine
Educational Institution; 5001-10,000 employees; Research industry
1998 – 2001 (3 years)
Certifications
Certified in Health Care Compliance - Fellow
Healthcare Compliance Association
Certified Compliance and Ethics Professional - Fellow
Health Care Compliance Association
Certified in Health Care Research Compliance
Health Care Compliance Association
Certified in Health Care Privacy Compliance
Health Care Compliance Association
[Ms. Arvin is not a member of the California Bar Association.]
Jane Esther Boubelik, Chief Counsel, Medical Sciences
Chief Health Sciences Counsel, UCLA Health System
10920 Wilshire Blvd Ste 420
Los Angeles, CA 90024
12/16/1991 Admitted to The State Bar of California
Phone: (310) 794-3138
Fax: (310) 794-3313
Jane E. Boubelik has served as Chief Counsel for the UCLA Health System since January
2008. Prior to joining the University of California, Ms. Boubelik was a partner at the law firm of
McDermott, Will & Emery LLP, and was a member of the Firm's Health Law Department for fifteen years.
Ms. Boubelik earned her undergraduate degree from UCLA and her law degree from McGeorge School
of Law.
BOUBELIK , JANE ESTHER CHIEF HEALTH SCIENCE COUNSEL
base pay extra pay gross pay
2011 $234,104.00 $0.00 $284,230.35
2010 $235,004.40 $39,764.66 $274,769.06
2008 $233,383.68 $23,500.00 $256,883.68
2009 $244,008.40 $-6,306.92 $237,701.48
2007 SPECIALIST (FUNCTIONAL AREA) $720.32
Chief compliance officer
UCLA Health System
and David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
924 Westwood Boulevard, Suite 810
Los Angels, CA 90024
Phone: (310) 794-6763
marvin@mednet.ucla.edu
Marti Arvin has more than 22 years of health care
experience with a focus on academic medicine.
As the chief compliance officer for the UCLA
Health System and the David Geffen School of
Medicine at UCLA, Arvin oversees the
compliance program for the hospitals,
the UCLA Faculty Practice Group
and the school of medicine.
Arvin previously worked as the privacy officer at the University of Louisville and holds CHC-F, CCEP-F,
CHRC, CHPC and the CPC certifications. She has written and lectured extensively on compliance and
privacy issues. She is a former board member of the Health Care Compliance Association and served
on the Compliance Certification Advisory Board for the association. She also sat on the certification
committees for the CHC, CHC-F, CCEP, CCEP-F, CHRC and CHPC and served on the faculty for the
Health Care Compliance Assn.'s Basic, Research, and Privacy Academies and the Society for
Corporate Compliance and Ethics Academy.
University of Louisville, University of Pittsburgh Physicians, Indiana University School of Medicine
Experience
Chief Compliance Officer
UCLA Health System and David Geffen School of Medicine
Educational Institution; 1001-5000 employees; Higher Education industry
April 2010 – Present (2 years 7 months) Los Angeles, CA
Privacy Officer
University of Louisville
Educational Institution; 5001-10,000 employees; Higher Education industry
June 2003 – March 2010 (6 years 10 months)
Compliance and Privacy Officer
University of Pittsburgh Physicians
2001 – 2003 (2 years)
Compliance and Privacy Officer
Indiana University School of Medicine
Educational Institution; 5001-10,000 employees; Research industry
1998 – 2001 (3 years)
Certifications
Certified in Health Care Compliance - Fellow
Healthcare Compliance Association
Certified Compliance and Ethics Professional - Fellow
Health Care Compliance Association
Certified in Health Care Research Compliance
Health Care Compliance Association
Certified in Health Care Privacy Compliance
Health Care Compliance Association
[Ms. Arvin is not a member of the California Bar Association.]
Jane Esther Boubelik, Chief Counsel, Medical Sciences
Chief Health Sciences Counsel, UCLA Health System
10920 Wilshire Blvd Ste 420
Los Angeles, CA 90024
12/16/1991 Admitted to The State Bar of California
Phone: (310) 794-3138
Fax: (310) 794-3313
Jane E. Boubelik has served as Chief Counsel for the UCLA Health System since January
2008. Prior to joining the University of California, Ms. Boubelik was a partner at the law firm of
McDermott, Will & Emery LLP, and was a member of the Firm's Health Law Department for fifteen years.
Ms. Boubelik earned her undergraduate degree from UCLA and her law degree from McGeorge School
of Law.
BOUBELIK , JANE ESTHER CHIEF HEALTH SCIENCE COUNSEL
base pay extra pay gross pay
2011 $234,104.00 $0.00 $284,230.35
2010 $235,004.40 $39,764.66 $274,769.06
2008 $233,383.68 $23,500.00 $256,883.68
2009 $244,008.40 $-6,306.92 $237,701.48
2007 SPECIALIST (FUNCTIONAL AREA) $720.32
Jody Gaspar
Chief operating officer, UCLA Faculty Practice Group
As chief operating officer of the UCLA Faculty Practice
Group, Jody Gaspar oversees the physicians billing
office, managed care operations, ambulatory
operations, community physician network, billing service
quality development, contracting management, finance,
and decision support units. Gaspar joined the UCLA
Faculty Practice Group in 1999 and was responsible for
development of all accounting records, reporting, and
budgeting for the management service organization,
community physician network and the faculty practice
group, and the UCLA Medical Group. She has directed
the development and maintenance of a data
warehouse-based business intelligence system capable
of monitoring professional billing, ambulatory
operations, and managed care operations in achieving
the strategic business initiatives of the physician faculty
practice group. She earned her bachelor's degree in
business with a concentration in accounting from
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
Chief operating officer, UCLA Faculty Practice Group
As chief operating officer of the UCLA Faculty Practice
Group, Jody Gaspar oversees the physicians billing
office, managed care operations, ambulatory
operations, community physician network, billing service
quality development, contracting management, finance,
and decision support units. Gaspar joined the UCLA
Faculty Practice Group in 1999 and was responsible for
development of all accounting records, reporting, and
budgeting for the management service organization,
community physician network and the faculty practice
group, and the UCLA Medical Group. She has directed
the development and maintenance of a data
warehouse-based business intelligence system capable
of monitoring professional billing, ambulatory
operations, and managed care operations in achieving
the strategic business initiatives of the physician faculty
practice group. She earned her bachelor's degree in
business with a concentration in accounting from
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
David Feinberg, MD, MBA
President, UCLA Health
System
Clinical professor, psychiatry, David Geffen School of
Medicine at UCLA
As the president of the UCLA Health System, David
Feinberg, MD, MBA, is responsible for overseeing all
aspects of the UCLA Health System
President, UCLA Health
System
Clinical professor, psychiatry, David Geffen School of
Medicine at UCLA
As the president of the UCLA Health System, David
Feinberg, MD, MBA, is responsible for overseeing all
aspects of the UCLA Health System
Patricia Kapur, MD
Professor and Ronald L. Katz MD Chair, department of
anesthesiology, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Chief Executive Officer, UCLA Faculty Practice Group
Executive Vice President, UCLA Health System
As chief executive officer of the UCLA Faculty Practice Group,
Patricia Kapur, MD, provides oversight of all internal FPG
activities. Dr. Kapur also serves as chairperson of the FPG
Budget & Finance Committee, as well as the FPG Managed
Care & Contracting Committee. Dr. Kapur earned her MD from
the University of Pennsylvania, and joined the UCLA faculty in
1981 following a research fellowship here in anesthesiology.
She has been chairperson of the department of
anesthesiology in the David Geffen School of Medicine at
UCLA since 1996, and director of perioperative services for
UCLA Health System since 1997. Dr. Kapur also serves on the
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center Medical Staff Executive
Committee and on the vice chancellor's Clinical Strategy &
Services Council. She has served as president of the
American Board of Anesthesiology, president of the
Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research, a
member of the editorial board and section editor of
Anesthesia & Analgesia, and chairperson of the board of
trustees of the International Anesthesia Research Society. Dr.
Kapur currently serves on the board of directors and the
executive committee of the Anesthesia Patient Safety
Foundation.
Mark S. Litwin, MD, MPH
Professor and chair, department of urology, David Geffen
School of Medicine at UCLA
Professor of health services, UCLA Fielding School of Public
Health
Mark S. Litwin, MD, MPH, is professor and chair of the
department of urology and professor of health services at the
UCLA School of Public Health. He holds a degree in
economics from Duke University, an MD from Emory
University, and an MPH from UCLA, where he was a Robert
Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar. He served his residency in
urologic surgery at Harvard Medical School's Brigham and
Women's Hospital. Dr. Litwin practices urologic oncology at
UCLA, where his research focuses on quality of care and
health care outcomes, costs, and access. He directs an $89
million project that provides prostate cancer care to low-
income, uninsured men in California, as well as a $23 million
National Institutes of Health project exploring the
epidemiological burden of urological diseases in America.
Bernadette Lodge-Lemon
Director, patient business services, Ronald Reagan UCLA
Medical Center
Virginia A. McFerran, MS
Chief information officer, UCLA Health System and David
Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
As the chief information officer for the UCLA Health System, Virginia
McFerran is responsible for guiding the development of information
systems and balancing related resources across the medical sciences,
including the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, the UCLA
Faculty Practice Group, and the UCLA Hospital System. Along with the
implementation of CareConnect for UCLA hospitals and clinics,
McFerran's other priorities are initiatives to improve operational
efficiencies and information security. As a key leader in the medical
sciences organization, she plays a vital role in gaining support for the
overall IT strategic plan and operationalizing the plan with successful
implementation policies and procedures. Prior to joining UCLA, she
served as the chief information officer and department head at Weill
Cornell Medical Center in New York, where she and her team led the
technical vision to support multiple growth initiatives. Prior to Cornell,
she held leadership positions at The Salk Institute and the University of
Washington.
Shannon O' Kelley
Chief operating officer, UCLA Hospital System
Shannon O'Kelley serves as the chief operating officer of the UCLA
Hospital System. O'Kelley has served as executive director of operations
for clinical services for the UCLA Hospital System since 2006. O'Kelley
came to Los Angeles from the East Coast, where he worked at the New
York-Presbyterian Hospital, the University Hospital of Columbia, and
Cornell medical schools in the role of executive director for international
and corporate health. Prior to his role at New York Presbyterian, O'Kelley
worked for Johns Hopkins Health System, where he held positions in
international services, department of psychiatry administration, and
strategic planning and business development.
J. Thomas Rosenthal, MD
Chief medical officer, UCLA Hospital System
Professor, urology, associate vice chancellor, David Geffen
School of Medicine at UCLA
Dr. Rosenthal is the chief medical officer of the UCLA Hospital System
and associate vice chancellor in the David Geffen School of Medicine at
UCLA. Dr. Rosenthal has led UCLA’s efforts to improve quality, safety,
and cost since 1999. UCLA has been awarded the Pacific Business
Group on Health’s Blue Ribbon quality award and has been designated
a Leapfrog Group Top Hospital. Dr. Rosenthal graduated from Johns
Hopkins University and Duke University School of Medicine. He trained
in urology at the Lahey Clinic, a teaching hospital of Tufts University
School of Medicine, and was a faculty member at the University of
Pittsburgh. Prior to becoming chief medical officer, he had been the
surgical director of the renal transplant program, executive vice
chairman of the department of surgery, and the director of the Faculty
Practice Group, all at UCLA. He has served as president of the Los
Angeles Transplant Society, president of the Urologic Society for
Transplantation and Vascular Surgery of the AUA, and secretary of the
United Network for Organ Sharing. He was a member of HHS
Commission on Transplantation and co-chaired the first National
Quality Forum task force on efficiency measures. He leads a University
of California-wide initiative on reducing variation in clinical practice.
Samuel Skootsky, MD
Chief medical officer, UCLA Faculty Practice Group
Adjunct professor, department of medicine, David Geffen
School of Medicine at UCLA
Samuel A. Skootsky, MD, is the chief medical officer of the
UCLA Faculty Practice Group as well as an adjunct professor
of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
He is involved in enhancing practice-based care redesign and
research, and examines patient experiences and clinical
performance metrics by UCLA primary care, and specialist
physicians in an effort to improve the quality of patient care
through the use of advanced patient reporting measures. He
specializes in internal medicine and completed his fellowship,
residency, and internships at the UCLA School of Medicine in
the 1980's. Dr. Skootsky received his medical degree from the
Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in
1979.
Paul A. Staton
Chief financial officer, UCLA Hospital System
Paul Staton is a certified public accountant and has worked at
UCLA since 1996. Mr. Staton has been serving as the chief
financial officer for the hospital system since July 2004. He
previously served as controller for the hospital system. Staton
has more than 28 years of experience in healthcare finance
working for various hospital organizations in Southern
California. In his role as chief financial officer, Staton oversees
the following areas: general accounting, patient business
services, financial planning & budgeting, business planning &
development, decision support, purchasing, cashiering,
charge master, third-party cost reporting, managed care, and
real estate.
Randolph Steadman, MD
Chief of the medical staff, Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical
Center
Vice chairperson, anesthesiology, David Geffen School of
Medicine at UCLA
Randolph Steadman, MD, took over the duties of the chief of
the medical staff of the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
in September. Dr. Steadman, who serves as the vice chairman
of the department of anesthesiology, had served in several
roles within the hospital system including as chairman of the
sedation committee, on which he served 13 years; co-
chairman of the medication event committee for eight years;
and the medical staff executive committee. Steadman is
working to ensure the health system addresses the
challenges of a changing health care system that is changing
both at the local and national levels.
Neil S. Wenger, MD, MPH
Professor, general internal medicine and health services
research, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Director, UCLA Health System Ethics Center
Neil S. Wenger, MD, MPH is professor of medicine in the
UCLA division of general internal medicine and health
services research. He directs the UCLA Health System Ethics
Center and serves as chairman of the ethics committee at the
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. He also is director of
the NRSA Primary Care Research Fellowship in the UCLA
Division of GIM&HSR. Dr. Wenger is an active general
internist and carries out research in the empirical study of
clinical ethics, care of and decision-making for the older
patient, and quality of health care. He directs the Assessing
Care of the Vulnerable Elders Project at RAND, which
develops quality-of-care assessments for vulnerable older
persons and interventions to improve care for this group.
Other areas of interest include medication adherence,
teaching clinical ethics, and measuring the quality of end-of-
life care.
Professor and Ronald L. Katz MD Chair, department of
anesthesiology, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Chief Executive Officer, UCLA Faculty Practice Group
Executive Vice President, UCLA Health System
As chief executive officer of the UCLA Faculty Practice Group,
Patricia Kapur, MD, provides oversight of all internal FPG
activities. Dr. Kapur also serves as chairperson of the FPG
Budget & Finance Committee, as well as the FPG Managed
Care & Contracting Committee. Dr. Kapur earned her MD from
the University of Pennsylvania, and joined the UCLA faculty in
1981 following a research fellowship here in anesthesiology.
She has been chairperson of the department of
anesthesiology in the David Geffen School of Medicine at
UCLA since 1996, and director of perioperative services for
UCLA Health System since 1997. Dr. Kapur also serves on the
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center Medical Staff Executive
Committee and on the vice chancellor's Clinical Strategy &
Services Council. She has served as president of the
American Board of Anesthesiology, president of the
Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research, a
member of the editorial board and section editor of
Anesthesia & Analgesia, and chairperson of the board of
trustees of the International Anesthesia Research Society. Dr.
Kapur currently serves on the board of directors and the
executive committee of the Anesthesia Patient Safety
Foundation.
Mark S. Litwin, MD, MPH
Professor and chair, department of urology, David Geffen
School of Medicine at UCLA
Professor of health services, UCLA Fielding School of Public
Health
Mark S. Litwin, MD, MPH, is professor and chair of the
department of urology and professor of health services at the
UCLA School of Public Health. He holds a degree in
economics from Duke University, an MD from Emory
University, and an MPH from UCLA, where he was a Robert
Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar. He served his residency in
urologic surgery at Harvard Medical School's Brigham and
Women's Hospital. Dr. Litwin practices urologic oncology at
UCLA, where his research focuses on quality of care and
health care outcomes, costs, and access. He directs an $89
million project that provides prostate cancer care to low-
income, uninsured men in California, as well as a $23 million
National Institutes of Health project exploring the
epidemiological burden of urological diseases in America.
Bernadette Lodge-Lemon
Director, patient business services, Ronald Reagan UCLA
Medical Center
Virginia A. McFerran, MS
Chief information officer, UCLA Health System and David
Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
As the chief information officer for the UCLA Health System, Virginia
McFerran is responsible for guiding the development of information
systems and balancing related resources across the medical sciences,
including the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, the UCLA
Faculty Practice Group, and the UCLA Hospital System. Along with the
implementation of CareConnect for UCLA hospitals and clinics,
McFerran's other priorities are initiatives to improve operational
efficiencies and information security. As a key leader in the medical
sciences organization, she plays a vital role in gaining support for the
overall IT strategic plan and operationalizing the plan with successful
implementation policies and procedures. Prior to joining UCLA, she
served as the chief information officer and department head at Weill
Cornell Medical Center in New York, where she and her team led the
technical vision to support multiple growth initiatives. Prior to Cornell,
she held leadership positions at The Salk Institute and the University of
Washington.
Shannon O' Kelley
Chief operating officer, UCLA Hospital System
Shannon O'Kelley serves as the chief operating officer of the UCLA
Hospital System. O'Kelley has served as executive director of operations
for clinical services for the UCLA Hospital System since 2006. O'Kelley
came to Los Angeles from the East Coast, where he worked at the New
York-Presbyterian Hospital, the University Hospital of Columbia, and
Cornell medical schools in the role of executive director for international
and corporate health. Prior to his role at New York Presbyterian, O'Kelley
worked for Johns Hopkins Health System, where he held positions in
international services, department of psychiatry administration, and
strategic planning and business development.
J. Thomas Rosenthal, MD
Chief medical officer, UCLA Hospital System
Professor, urology, associate vice chancellor, David Geffen
School of Medicine at UCLA
Dr. Rosenthal is the chief medical officer of the UCLA Hospital System
and associate vice chancellor in the David Geffen School of Medicine at
UCLA. Dr. Rosenthal has led UCLA’s efforts to improve quality, safety,
and cost since 1999. UCLA has been awarded the Pacific Business
Group on Health’s Blue Ribbon quality award and has been designated
a Leapfrog Group Top Hospital. Dr. Rosenthal graduated from Johns
Hopkins University and Duke University School of Medicine. He trained
in urology at the Lahey Clinic, a teaching hospital of Tufts University
School of Medicine, and was a faculty member at the University of
Pittsburgh. Prior to becoming chief medical officer, he had been the
surgical director of the renal transplant program, executive vice
chairman of the department of surgery, and the director of the Faculty
Practice Group, all at UCLA. He has served as president of the Los
Angeles Transplant Society, president of the Urologic Society for
Transplantation and Vascular Surgery of the AUA, and secretary of the
United Network for Organ Sharing. He was a member of HHS
Commission on Transplantation and co-chaired the first National
Quality Forum task force on efficiency measures. He leads a University
of California-wide initiative on reducing variation in clinical practice.
Samuel Skootsky, MD
Chief medical officer, UCLA Faculty Practice Group
Adjunct professor, department of medicine, David Geffen
School of Medicine at UCLA
Samuel A. Skootsky, MD, is the chief medical officer of the
UCLA Faculty Practice Group as well as an adjunct professor
of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
He is involved in enhancing practice-based care redesign and
research, and examines patient experiences and clinical
performance metrics by UCLA primary care, and specialist
physicians in an effort to improve the quality of patient care
through the use of advanced patient reporting measures. He
specializes in internal medicine and completed his fellowship,
residency, and internships at the UCLA School of Medicine in
the 1980's. Dr. Skootsky received his medical degree from the
Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in
1979.
Paul A. Staton
Chief financial officer, UCLA Hospital System
Paul Staton is a certified public accountant and has worked at
UCLA since 1996. Mr. Staton has been serving as the chief
financial officer for the hospital system since July 2004. He
previously served as controller for the hospital system. Staton
has more than 28 years of experience in healthcare finance
working for various hospital organizations in Southern
California. In his role as chief financial officer, Staton oversees
the following areas: general accounting, patient business
services, financial planning & budgeting, business planning &
development, decision support, purchasing, cashiering,
charge master, third-party cost reporting, managed care, and
real estate.
Randolph Steadman, MD
Chief of the medical staff, Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical
Center
Vice chairperson, anesthesiology, David Geffen School of
Medicine at UCLA
Randolph Steadman, MD, took over the duties of the chief of
the medical staff of the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
in September. Dr. Steadman, who serves as the vice chairman
of the department of anesthesiology, had served in several
roles within the hospital system including as chairman of the
sedation committee, on which he served 13 years; co-
chairman of the medication event committee for eight years;
and the medical staff executive committee. Steadman is
working to ensure the health system addresses the
challenges of a changing health care system that is changing
both at the local and national levels.
Neil S. Wenger, MD, MPH
Professor, general internal medicine and health services
research, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Director, UCLA Health System Ethics Center
Neil S. Wenger, MD, MPH is professor of medicine in the
UCLA division of general internal medicine and health
services research. He directs the UCLA Health System Ethics
Center and serves as chairman of the ethics committee at the
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. He also is director of
the NRSA Primary Care Research Fellowship in the UCLA
Division of GIM&HSR. Dr. Wenger is an active general
internist and carries out research in the empirical study of
clinical ethics, care of and decision-making for the older
patient, and quality of health care. He directs the Assessing
Care of the Vulnerable Elders Project at RAND, which
develops quality-of-care assessments for vulnerable older
persons and interventions to improve care for this group.
Other areas of interest include medication adherence,
teaching clinical ethics, and measuring the quality of end-of-
life care.
See Medical Records below, and also HERE.
UCLA EHR project gets help from Sarah Kramer
Posted on Mar 01, 2011
By Molly Merrill, Associate Editor
Healthcare IT News
http://www.healthcareitnews.com
UCLA Health System’s electronic health record program has a new name and a new
leader: former eHealth Ontario CEO Sarah Kramer, according to recent
announcements on the program's website.
As the executive director for UCLA’s CareConnect program, Kramer is working as a
consultant and is not on the staff at this time, officials said. The website says that the
new name reflects both the breadth of the program and the benefits that will result from
its implementation, which is slated for 2012-2013,
According to the announcement, Kramer’s first area of focus will be to work in
collaboration with UCLA Health System's clinical leadership to ensure the electronic
health records program is designed to support the delivery of leading-edge patient
care, research and education at UCLA.
The CareConnect program is using technology from Verona, Wis.-based Epic, but the
actual implementation will be tailored to UCLA's needs, according to a statement by
Michael Steinberg, MD, chair of the executive oversight board, on the CareConnect
website. The rollout will start with scheduling, registration, billing and ambulatory
clinicals followed by inpatient clinicals.
[See also: EHR network in Minnesota to connect 10 healthcare organizations]
"The CareConnect program is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to work together as
an organization to really change how we deliver health are," said Patricia Kapur, MD, co-
chair of the Faculty Practice Group and chair of the Department of Anesthesiology, in
the annoucement about the new name. "It puts UCLA in an excellent position for
examining and enhancing processes that support the overall care experience."
[See also: Yale New Haven Health System plans $250M EHR system]
Kramer resigned from her post at CEO of eHealth Ontario, when the agency
came under media fire about questionable spending and disputed contracts
worth $5.6 million. The Auditor General of Ontario conducted a report on the
allegations. Read Kramer’s response to the report here.
Learn more about the program at the CareConnect program website here.
Source URL: http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/ucla-ehr-project-gets-help-sarah-
kramer
Posted on Mar 01, 2011
By Molly Merrill, Associate Editor
Healthcare IT News
http://www.healthcareitnews.com
UCLA Health System’s electronic health record program has a new name and a new
leader: former eHealth Ontario CEO Sarah Kramer, according to recent
announcements on the program's website.
As the executive director for UCLA’s CareConnect program, Kramer is working as a
consultant and is not on the staff at this time, officials said. The website says that the
new name reflects both the breadth of the program and the benefits that will result from
its implementation, which is slated for 2012-2013,
According to the announcement, Kramer’s first area of focus will be to work in
collaboration with UCLA Health System's clinical leadership to ensure the electronic
health records program is designed to support the delivery of leading-edge patient
care, research and education at UCLA.
The CareConnect program is using technology from Verona, Wis.-based Epic, but the
actual implementation will be tailored to UCLA's needs, according to a statement by
Michael Steinberg, MD, chair of the executive oversight board, on the CareConnect
website. The rollout will start with scheduling, registration, billing and ambulatory
clinicals followed by inpatient clinicals.
[See also: EHR network in Minnesota to connect 10 healthcare organizations]
"The CareConnect program is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to work together as
an organization to really change how we deliver health are," said Patricia Kapur, MD, co-
chair of the Faculty Practice Group and chair of the Department of Anesthesiology, in
the annoucement about the new name. "It puts UCLA in an excellent position for
examining and enhancing processes that support the overall care experience."
[See also: Yale New Haven Health System plans $250M EHR system]
Kramer resigned from her post at CEO of eHealth Ontario, when the agency
came under media fire about questionable spending and disputed contracts
worth $5.6 million. The Auditor General of Ontario conducted a report on the
allegations. Read Kramer’s response to the report here.
Learn more about the program at the CareConnect program website here.
Source URL: http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/ucla-ehr-project-gets-help-sarah-
kramer
What kind of
administrator does
UCLA choose to
work with?
June 7, 2009 11:54 AM
Statement from
Minister David
Caplan on eHealth
Ontario
TORONTO, June 7 /CNW/ -
NEWS
The eHealth agenda is one
of this government's top
priorities.
Modernizing our health care
system is going to lead to
better patient care,
and more efficient health care
service delivery for our
province.
While we have recently
seen progress and
momentum, many valid
concerns have been raised
regarding eHealth Ontario.
That's why I directed the
board of eHealth Ontario
to launch a third-party
review of the agency,
overseen by a
government auditor, and
requested that the Auditor
General report on his own
review as quickly as possible.
The board reported to me
that the current
uncertainty
surrounding eHealth
Ontario threatens to
delay initiatives that
are crucial to our
government's
plan to modernize
and improve our
health care system.
I am acting
immediately upon its
request to revoke
Sarah Kramer's
appointment as
eHealth Ontario
President and Chief
Executive Officer.
Ron Sapsford, Deputy
Minister of Health and Long
Term Care, will serve as
acting President and Chief
Executive Officer of eHealth
Ontario until an interim
President and CEO can
quickly be appointed.
This decision is an
important step to restore
public confidence in the
agency and its mandate of modernizing our health care
system.-------------------------------------------------------------------
------ ontario.ca/health-news
Disponible en français
June 6, 2009
Honourable David Caplan,
M.P.P.
Office of the Minister
Ministry of Health and
Long-Term Care
10th Floor, Hepburn Block
80 Grosvenor Street
Toronto, ON M7A 2C4
Dear Minister Caplan:
The Board of Directors at
eHealth Ontario met to
consider the
organization's mandate and
take the appropriate steps to
ensure that progress
continues to be made in
delivering the government's
strategy for improving
patient care through ehealth
systems.
Both the Board and Ms.
Kramer feel that a change in
leadership is
required to restore public
confidence in the
organization's ability to move
our important mandate
forward. Therefore, Ms
Kramer has decided to
leave the organization.
The Board thanks her for her
service and dedication to
ehealth in Ontario.
We hereby request that you
recommend to the Lieutenant
Governor in
Council, the revocation of the
Order in Council appointing
Ms. Kramer as CEO
of the Corporation.
Thank you for your
attention to this matter.
Regards,
Original signed by
Alan R. Hudson OC, FRCSC
Chair
eHealth Ontario
For further information: Steve
Erwin, Minister's Office, (416)
326-3986;
Andrew Morrison, Ministry of
Health and Long-Term Care,
(416) 314-6197
administrator does
UCLA choose to
work with?
June 7, 2009 11:54 AM
Statement from
Minister David
Caplan on eHealth
Ontario
TORONTO, June 7 /CNW/ -
NEWS
The eHealth agenda is one
of this government's top
priorities.
Modernizing our health care
system is going to lead to
better patient care,
and more efficient health care
service delivery for our
province.
While we have recently
seen progress and
momentum, many valid
concerns have been raised
regarding eHealth Ontario.
That's why I directed the
board of eHealth Ontario
to launch a third-party
review of the agency,
overseen by a
government auditor, and
requested that the Auditor
General report on his own
review as quickly as possible.
The board reported to me
that the current
uncertainty
surrounding eHealth
Ontario threatens to
delay initiatives that
are crucial to our
government's
plan to modernize
and improve our
health care system.
I am acting
immediately upon its
request to revoke
Sarah Kramer's
appointment as
eHealth Ontario
President and Chief
Executive Officer.
Ron Sapsford, Deputy
Minister of Health and Long
Term Care, will serve as
acting President and Chief
Executive Officer of eHealth
Ontario until an interim
President and CEO can
quickly be appointed.
This decision is an
important step to restore
public confidence in the
agency and its mandate of modernizing our health care
system.-------------------------------------------------------------------
------ ontario.ca/health-news
Disponible en français
June 6, 2009
Honourable David Caplan,
M.P.P.
Office of the Minister
Ministry of Health and
Long-Term Care
10th Floor, Hepburn Block
80 Grosvenor Street
Toronto, ON M7A 2C4
Dear Minister Caplan:
The Board of Directors at
eHealth Ontario met to
consider the
organization's mandate and
take the appropriate steps to
ensure that progress
continues to be made in
delivering the government's
strategy for improving
patient care through ehealth
systems.
Both the Board and Ms.
Kramer feel that a change in
leadership is
required to restore public
confidence in the
organization's ability to move
our important mandate
forward. Therefore, Ms
Kramer has decided to
leave the organization.
The Board thanks her for her
service and dedication to
ehealth in Ontario.
We hereby request that you
recommend to the Lieutenant
Governor in
Council, the revocation of the
Order in Council appointing
Ms. Kramer as CEO
of the Corporation.
Thank you for your
attention to this matter.
Regards,
Original signed by
Alan R. Hudson OC, FRCSC
Chair
eHealth Ontario
For further information: Steve
Erwin, Minister's Office, (416)
326-3986;
Andrew Morrison, Ministry of
Health and Long-Term Care,
(416) 314-6197
Former eHealth boss
resurfaces in U.S.
By: Rob Ferguson
The Star
March 1, 2011
Almost two years after she left as
boss of eHealth Ontario in a politically
damaging scandal, Sarah
Kramer has a new job in California.
Kramer, who came under fire at eHealth for runaway spending by consultants and her
$317,000 severance package, is executive director of a team bringing electronic health
records to the UCLA Health System’s patients in four hospitals and clinics with 2,000
doctors. She is working as a consultant, and is not on staff.
Kramer is part of what the University of California at Los Angeles billed as “an
exceptional team of experts” in an online publication Monday.
The goal is to have electronic health records for patients by mid-2013 — two years
ahead of the latest deadline for Ontario, where the eHealth scandal stymied progress.
When Kramer left eHealth as chief executive in the spring of 2008,
her golden parachute fuelled outrage from opposition parties and the
public.
It was later revealed Kramer gave a speech that cost $25,000 to
write and that eHealth gave out $16 million in contracts without
competitive bidding in efforts to get electronic health records in place as quickly
as possible.
But a furor over the spending prompted Premier Dalton
McGuinty to crack down on rules for tendering of contracts and
expenses by consultants, some of whom were paid up to
$3,000 a day and charged tea and chocolate chip cookies to taxpayers.
Kramer did not reply to an email seeking comment about her new job.
The UCLA memo adds: “Kramer has an extensive background in health system
information and performance improvement across government, non-profit and private
sectors in Canada, the United States, Asia and Africa.”
Electronic health records will allow the health system to help the health system “deliver
leading-edge patient care…and to remain prominent in the markets we serve,” the
memo said.
resurfaces in U.S.
By: Rob Ferguson
The Star
March 1, 2011
Almost two years after she left as
boss of eHealth Ontario in a politically
damaging scandal, Sarah
Kramer has a new job in California.
Kramer, who came under fire at eHealth for runaway spending by consultants and her
$317,000 severance package, is executive director of a team bringing electronic health
records to the UCLA Health System’s patients in four hospitals and clinics with 2,000
doctors. She is working as a consultant, and is not on staff.
Kramer is part of what the University of California at Los Angeles billed as “an
exceptional team of experts” in an online publication Monday.
The goal is to have electronic health records for patients by mid-2013 — two years
ahead of the latest deadline for Ontario, where the eHealth scandal stymied progress.
When Kramer left eHealth as chief executive in the spring of 2008,
her golden parachute fuelled outrage from opposition parties and the
public.
It was later revealed Kramer gave a speech that cost $25,000 to
write and that eHealth gave out $16 million in contracts without
competitive bidding in efforts to get electronic health records in place as quickly
as possible.
But a furor over the spending prompted Premier Dalton
McGuinty to crack down on rules for tendering of contracts and
expenses by consultants, some of whom were paid up to
$3,000 a day and charged tea and chocolate chip cookies to taxpayers.
Kramer did not reply to an email seeking comment about her new job.
The UCLA memo adds: “Kramer has an extensive background in health system
information and performance improvement across government, non-profit and private
sectors in Canada, the United States, Asia and Africa.”
Electronic health records will allow the health system to help the health system “deliver
leading-edge patient care…and to remain prominent in the markets we serve,” the
memo said.
Sarah Kramer should fit in perfectly at
UCLA
UCLA
Kramer's $114,000 bonus was double eHealth's allowable
rate
Cancer Care Ontario CEO says no one there was getting such bonuses
CBC News
Jun 05, 2009
EHealth Ontario CEO Sarah Kramer's six-figure bonus was double the maximum rate
allowed at the Crown-owned agency, a spokeswoman for the organization has
confirmed.
EHealth Ontario first came under scrutiny last week for nearly $5 million doled out in
untendered contracts, with more than half questioned over personal ties to company
executives. ((CBC))
In early March, four months after Kramer started her post at the newly created agency,
its board of directors approved a $114,000 bonus, on top of her $380,000 salary.
Under eHealth's regulations, however, executives are permitted to receive a bonus
ranging from zero to 15 per cent of their salary, spokeswoman Deanna Allen told CBC
News.
Fifteen per cent would amount to $57,000 under Kramer's current salary. However,
she received a bonus worth 30 per cent.
Asked by CBC News whether she had an explanation for why Kramer's bonus was
double the highest allowable rate, Allen responded, "No, I don't."
The letter notifying Kramer of her approved bonus was signed by Dr. Alan Hudson,
chairman of the board of directors and the former head of Cancer Care.
Hudson and Kramer have been under fire since late last week for awarding more than
$5.5 million in untendered contracts, more than half of which have raised questions
about personal connections to the vendors...
rate
Cancer Care Ontario CEO says no one there was getting such bonuses
CBC News
Jun 05, 2009
EHealth Ontario CEO Sarah Kramer's six-figure bonus was double the maximum rate
allowed at the Crown-owned agency, a spokeswoman for the organization has
confirmed.
EHealth Ontario first came under scrutiny last week for nearly $5 million doled out in
untendered contracts, with more than half questioned over personal ties to company
executives. ((CBC))
In early March, four months after Kramer started her post at the newly created agency,
its board of directors approved a $114,000 bonus, on top of her $380,000 salary.
Under eHealth's regulations, however, executives are permitted to receive a bonus
ranging from zero to 15 per cent of their salary, spokeswoman Deanna Allen told CBC
News.
Fifteen per cent would amount to $57,000 under Kramer's current salary. However,
she received a bonus worth 30 per cent.
Asked by CBC News whether she had an explanation for why Kramer's bonus was
double the highest allowable rate, Allen responded, "No, I don't."
The letter notifying Kramer of her approved bonus was signed by Dr. Alan Hudson,
chairman of the board of directors and the former head of Cancer Care.
Hudson and Kramer have been under fire since late last week for awarding more than
$5.5 million in untendered contracts, more than half of which have raised questions
about personal connections to the vendors...