By April Watson, CIN Managing Partner, Director, Practice Transformation Initiative, California Quality Collaborative

by Healthforce Director Sunita Mutha, MD, FACP

As a fellow in the  CHCF Health Care Leadership Program, Dr. Wei An Lee, an endocrinologist at Los Angeles County+University of Southern California (LAC+USC) Medical Center, developed a medical innovation incubator that aimed to reduce the fragmented care so commonly received by patients with chronic disease. His project contributed to the establishment of a weekly farmers market featured in the video below.

The farmers market is open to staff, patients and the community at large.

Seventeen health care organizations have been selected as partners for the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF)’s California Improvement Network (CIN). Collectively, these organizations serve or support more than 20.6 million patients across the state – more than half the population of California.

CHCF Health Care Leadership Program fellow Sergio Camarillo, MBA, MS, RN, decided he wanted to be a physical therapist after he learned about the profession at a career day in high school. While taking prerequisite courses for physical therapy in college, he became friends with a man who planned a career in a different health care field: Nursing.

“At the time, that struck me as odd because I saw nursing as a predominately female profession,” Camarillo said.

This month, the country’s largest pharmacy, CVS, bought one of the largest insurance companies, Aetna, as part of a $69 billion deal. Though mergers and acquisitions in the commercial sector far outpace those in the safety net and have very different outcomes, health center consolidation will continue at a slow but steady pace, according to Bobbie Wunsch, a partner with Pacific Health Consulting Group and an expert in the restructuring and financing of healthcare delivery organizations, primarily safety net providers.

Each day seems to bring a new story of sexual harassment or abuse of power in workplaces across sectors: Government, entertainment and tech. With a glaring physician pay gap, and countless examples of unconscious bias, health care cannot claim immunity from this disturbing trend. Healthforce Center at UCSF Director Sunita Mutha, MD, FACP, recently shared her thoughts on this issue. 

Q: How would you characterize gender discrimination in the health care workforce? What does it look like?

Thirty-one mid-level clinicians, administrators, and other non-clinical staff who work in health clinics in Los Angeles have been selected to participate in Cedars-Sinai’s Community Clinic Initiative Managing to Leading. Administered by Healthforce Center at UCSF, this program equips leaders with the knowledge, skills and confidence to effectively lead change and improve health care in their communities.

Dan Lowenstein, MD, UCSF’s executive vice chancellor and provost, has served in many leadership roles including director of the UCSF Epilepsy Center, dean of medical education at Harvard Medical School and president of the American Epilepsy Society. Despite this career trajectory, he had never undergone formal leadership training until last year when he reached out to Healthforce Center. We spoke with Lowenstein about his experiences and related insights.

Healthforce Center recently spoke with Thelma Rodriguez who is the clinic manager at Belmont Wellness Center- Asian Pacific Health Care Venture, Inc. and an alum of the Cedars-Sinai Managing to Leading Program. She shared her motivation for working in community health, her insights about our program and advice for potential applicants.