Health System Executive of the Year Finalists
Kavitha Bhatia, MD, MMM, FAAP, FACHE
President and Chair, Prime Healthcare Foundation
Chief Medical Officer, Strategy Prime Healthcare
Dr. Kavitha Bhatia, president and chair, Prime Healthcare Foundation and chief medical officer of strategy, Prime Healthcare, leads the development and implementation of strategic initiatives that advance the mission and success of Prime Healthcare and the Prime Healthcare Foundation. Dr. Bhatia works with corporate and hospital leaders to align goals, prioritize system-wide value creation, and implement strategic initiatives and community benefit to ensure Prime’s continued operational, financial and clinical success. Through Dr. Bhatia’s leadership and vision, Prime built the infrastructure to leverage its unique value and national scale, leading to improved efficiency, standardization, and quality care at 45 hospitals across the US. Dr. Bhatia’s leadership has led Prime’s hospitals to achieve hundreds of quality and clinical excellence awards, and recognition among the 100 top hospitals in the nation.
Sunny Bhatia, MD, MMM, FACHE, FACC, FSCAI
CEO, Region & Corporate Chief Medical Officer
Prime Healthcare
Dr. Sunny Bhatia is an interventional cardiologist who is quadruple board certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease, nuclear cardiology and interventional cardiology. As a physician leader, founder of medical groups and executive leader of one of the largest health systems in the United States, Dr. Bhatia leads with the heart of a physician focused on clinical excellence, patient experience and financial stewardship. In his role as CEO of Region I and corporate chief medical officer of Prime Healthcare, Dr. Bhatia establishes and facilitates processes to ensure engagement and alignment of all C-suite leaders and physicians to guarantee safe, quality healthcare delivery for 18 Prime hospitals in Region I. He is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology as well as the Society for Cardiac Angiography and Interventions and has authored numerous publications in notable peer-reviewed journals and presented his research at global conferences.
Rodney B. Hanners
CEO, Keck Medicine of USC
President and CEO, USC Health System
Rod Hanners serves as CEO of Keck Medicine of USC, an academic health system in the ethnically diverse area of East Los Angeles. Hanners also serves as President and CEO of USC Health System with oversight of USC’s clinical activities, including USC Care Medical Group (Keck Medicine’s network of physicians who provide outpatient services and procedures); Keck Medical Center, which includes Keck Hospital and USC Norris Cancer Hospital; USC Verdugo Hills Hospital; and more than 67 outpatient clinics from Bakersfield to Newport Beach and other clinical practices and joint ventures throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties. Hanners is an inspirational leader who builds high trust environments and creates cultures of support and interconnectedness. He is passionate about empowering medical teams to drive patient care excellence and ensuring that physicians and staff have the support and resources they need to care for themselves while providing exceptional patient care.
Chico Manning
System Vice President Enterprise Supply Chain
PIH Health
Chico Manning MHA is the system vice president of enterprise supply chain at PIH Health, a nonprofit, regional healthcare network comprised of PIH Health Good Samaritan Hospital, PIH Health Whittier Hospital and PIH Health Downey Hospital; 35 medical office buildings; more than 90 clinics; and a multi-specialty medical group. PIH Health serves more than 3.7 million residents in the Los Angeles County, Orange County and Gabriel Valley region. In his position, he is responsible for the overall strategic direction and tactical execution for all aspects of supply chain management at PIH Health. Manning’s career spans over 30 years of progressive experience in supply chain sales, sales operations, manufacturing, fleet, and distribution. He is a highly accomplished leader and holds a superior track record for bringing operational excellence to organizations and redefining standards of success. His expert guidance and expertise were especially vital during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hospital CEO or President of the Year
Bernard Klein, MD, MBA
Chief Executive
Providence Holy Cross Medical Center
For decades, Providence Holy Cross Medical Center has served the northeastern San Fernando Valley, growing with the community and, in the tradition of its founding sisters, reaching out to the poor and vulnerable. At the helm since 2013 is chief executive Bernard Klein, MD, whose medical and MBA degrees combine to deliver a chief who has the compassion, intelligence and insight of a doctor and the business acumen and team-building expertise of a C-suite occupant to successfully run one of the largest, busiest and most recognized hospitals in northern L.A. County. Dr. Klein frequently leaves his modest office, tucked away in a prefabricated building behind the hospital, to make rounds among the staff – something he expects of all his leaders. From nursing units to the cafeteria, the busy Emergency Department/Trauma Center to the housekeeping department, he greets caregivers, listens to any concerns – and makes sure they are quickly addressed.
Roger Sharma, CPA, MBA
President and Chief Executive Officer
Emanate Health
Roger Sharma, the president & CEO of Emanate Health, oversees the largest health care system in the San Gabriel Valley, serving one million people in the region. Emanate Health operates Inter-Community Hospital in Covina, Queen of the Valley Hospital in West Covina, Foothill Presbyterian Hospital in Glendora, and both the Emanate Health Care Center, and Emanate Health Hospice and Home Care in West Covina. The three nonprofit, DSH-funded safety-net hospitals offer quality care to underserved, low-income communities throughout the area. Sharma, who assumed his current role in April 2022, had previously served as the CFO for the last 10 years and later added the executive vice president title during a critical time in the history of Emanate Health. Sharma played an active role in leading Emanate Health’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and presided over the interdisciplinary Emanate Health COVID-19 Command Center.
Robert Stone
President and CEO
City of Hope
Robert Stone leads City of Hope, a premier cancer research and treatment center dedicated to innovation in biomedical science and the delivery of compassionate, world-class patient care. The organization’s 100-year heritage of serving patients with a strong sense of mission and values has influenced Stone in determining the path for City of Hope’s second century of service. His leadership, paired with City of Hope’s vision to democratize cancer care, has led to the creation of a system that makes leading-edge research, treatment, and care accessible to more patients, families, and communities across the country. With the recent acquisition of the Cancer Treatment Centers of America, City of Hope has become one of the largest cancer treatment center networks in the country, serving approximately 115,000 patients annually. Under Stone’s leadership, City of Hope aims to continue expanding access and driving solutions that create more equitable access to cancer treatment and more equitable patient outcomes.
Paul S. Viviano
President and Chief Executive Officer
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
Paul S. Viviano is a national pediatric healthcare leader and children’s healthcare advocate. For more than three decades, he has led academic healthcare systems, nonprofit community healthcare organizations and for-profit healthcare service providers delivering excellence in clinical care, research and medical education. Viviano assumed the role of president and chief executive officer of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles in late 2015. Under his leadership, the hospital became the highest-ranked children’s hospital in California, at fifth in the nation, and the highest-ranked children’s hospital in the Pacific Region of the United States. This is a distinction that is due to his attention to continually driving for excellence along every metric of success. During that same time, as the hospital pursued the delivery of higher quality, it also supported more children and families in its services areas, managing more than 660,000 patient visits annually and performing more than 17,000 surgeries.
Hospital Executive of the Year Finalists
Robert Cherry, MD
Chief Medical and Quality Officer; Incident
Commander for the COVID-19 Pandemic Response
UCLA Health
Dr. Robert Cherry was appointed to the position of UCLA Health Chief Medical and Quality Officer in 2014 to lead system-wide quality-improvement efforts with the goal of achieving world-class clinical and patient-centered outcomes that set the standard in health care delivery and innovation. He has worked to develop collaborative approaches to quality and value management and improvement for populations, outpatients and inpatients, and he coordinates innovative methods to utilize analytics, informatics and advanced computational techniques to enhance and accelerate UCLA’s goals to raise clinical quality, improve patient experience and provide value to patients. Dr. Cherry is known for his leadership skills and for excelling in a results-oriented environment, as well as for his communication, transparency, collaboration, and teamwork. He has successfully achieved major accomplishments in clinical quality outcomes, process redesign, and patient safety systems.
Lara Khouri
Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy,
and Transformation Officer
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
Over the past seven years, Lara Khouri has made an exceptional impact across the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles organization. In her role as executive vice president and chief strategy and transformation officer, a position she has held since 2020, she is charged with advancing the institution’s vision and driving initiatives that deliver on the growth and operational targets of the Hospital. Khouri has responsibility leading several critical departments essential to the CHLA mission: the Cancer, Neurological, Orthopedic, Cardiac, Behavioral Health, and Fetal & Neonatal Service Lines; Strategic Planning; Health System Development and Integration; Government, Community and Business Relations; Marketing and Communications; Research Operations; the Innovation Studio; and the Global Health Program. Early in the global pandemic crisis, she rallied leaders across the enterprise to contribute to a plan for the delivery of care at levels that represented “Safe Capacity.”
Felipe Osorno
Chief, Office of Performance and Transformation
Keck Medicine of USC
As chief of the Office of Performance and Transformation at Keck Medicine of USC, Felipe Osorno oversees numerous strategies to create a culture of continuous improvement to improve quality, patient experience and reduce cost of care. In addition to his time-consuming and crucial job for the health system, Osorno has led efforts at the health system to create a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion simultaneously while leading a huge community COVID-19 vaccine campaign that make him a standout in the health care field in the greater Los Angeles area. This past year, Osorno has also overseen efforts to launch a Gender Affirming Program for Keck Medicine for the transgender population that has historically been underserved. Osorno is also part of Keck Medicine’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Steering Committee, which is developing a shared and inclusive understanding of diversity and inclusion, as well as creating a road map for change.
Glenn D. Pascual, DHSc, DNP, MSN, RN, FACHE, eMHL, MBA, CPXP, OCN
Director of Nursing
Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles
Dr. Glenn Pascual, the director of nursing at Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles, is an international speaker, international published author, consultant and healthcare leader. He spearheaded the Nursing Professional Practice Council (recruitment and retention, standardized rewards and recognition, policies and procedures, and evidence-based practice) and Care Experience Council comprising of 42 multidisciplinary members including patient advocates that led to KP WLA Magnet designation on May 18, 2022. He also restructured and reclassified positions, processes, and systems to improve the workflow in KP WLA’s Administrative Service Department. Dr. Pascual spearheaded a recruitment program to increase the RN labor pool in the critical care units and partnered with KP SCAL Regional leadership to build agreements with registry agencies to improve staffing.
Trusted Advisor of the Year Finalists
Rahul Chhajed
First Vice President & Senior Director | Healthcare
Matthews Real Estate Investment Services
Michael Moreno
FVP & Senior Director | Healthcare
Matthews Real Estate Investment Services
Rahul Chhajed and Michael Moreno are co-leaders of Matthews’ Healthcare Division. Chhajed has product specialization in various healthcare facilities such as urgent centers, free-standing emergency rooms, and rehabilitation centers, among others. Moreno specializes in dialysis clinics, specialty clinics, and dental facilities, among many others. As leaders of the division, Chhajed and Moreno have tremendous experience in the disposition of both individual assets as well as portfolio transactions. They both exhibit extensive knowledge of the healthcare sector, making them trusted brokers by their clients and peers. They actively seek information on new trends and innovations in the industry, exceeding clients’ expectations on every deal. They bring clients the most up-to-date, well-rounded information that add exceptional value to each transaction with their broad background in multiple sectors.
Lara Compton
Member
Mintz
Mintz member Lara Compton is a trusted advisor to clients ranging from traditional health care providers to disrupter digital health platforms as they navigate the practical and regulatory challenges of health care innovation. Her unique depth of knowledge across HIPAA privacy and other regulatory issues governing the use of data, state and federal fraud and abuse laws, business planning and operational issues has led colleagues to describe Compton as the “Swiss Army Knife” of health care problem-solving. Working at the intersection of health care and technology, Compton loves to counsel telemedicine and other digital health clients on business plan strategy and implementation, state-specific telemedicine regulation, corporate practice of medicine, the scope of practice, fee splitting, anti-kickback, reimbursement, and other complex health care regulatory issues. She also advises health care providers on the incorporation of telehealth and other technology infrastructures trending as a result of the pandemic.
Tobias Kennedy
President, Montage Insurance Solutions
CEO, Simpolicy
Tobias Kennedy was promoted to the post of president at Montage Insurance Solutions in 2021 after working his way up the ladder over his 14 years at Montage. He has personally saved Montage clients thousands to millions of dollars on their premiums, bringing forth great plan designs in large part because he holds the Montage core values of serving clients well with “dedication, service, and integrity.” Kennedy attends employee enrollment events and wellness and employee engagement meetings, often bringing the crowd to their knees in joyful laughter due to his fun-loving style as a presenter. He is deeply knowledgeable about the insurance industry, its products and services, technology and beyond. He is an innovative leader that pushes forward to make sure Montage is a leader in its field and is always willing to help or coach his teammates.
Angie Weber
First Vice President
CBRE
With more than 30 years of commercial real estate experience, Angie Weber is a trusted partner whom clients rely on to provide strategic consulting to help them make sound business decisions. She focuses solely on medical real estate and represents many of the industry’s biggest players, including healthcare REITs, large institutional owners and healthcare systems. Weber’s commitment to her clients, her knowledge of the healthcare industry and its unique real estate goals and challenges, and her passion for connecting people has earned her loyal, long-term clients who look to her to help with a variety of real estate and business needs. Weber has played an integral role at some of the region’s most important medical properties and has had great impact on successful transactions involving medical real estate, such as Stockdale Capital Partners’ sale of two medical office properties in Beverly Hills and Santa Monica in a $156 million deal.
Outstanding Health Care Innovator Finalists
Ari Kalechstein, PhD
President and CEO
Executive Mental Health
Ari D. Kalechstein, Ph.D., president and CEO of Executive Mental Health (EMH), brings 25 years of experience as a licensed psychologist in the States of California and Nevada. With the support of his colleagues, Dr. Kalechstein spearheaded the development of a comprehensive suite of services at EMH, which include neuropsychological evaluations, clinical psychological interventions, and forensic mental health evaluations. The mission of EMH clinicians is to provide mental health services for patients from a wide variety of backgrounds who experience an array of mental health difficulties. Over the past 25 years, Dr. Kalechstein has fostered a reputation within the medical community for EMH’s quality of care, ability to forge personal relationships with patients, responsiveness to individual patient needs, and commitment to innovation and best practices when providing clinical care. He has published extensively in peer review journals, including one of the first edited volumes examining the neuropsychological consequences of addiction.
Omkar Kulkarni
Chief Digital Transformation Officer & Chief Innovation Officer
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
Omkar Kulkarni brings doctors, nurses, pharmacists, entrepreneurs, IT leaders, designers, thought leaders and subject matter experts together to create and deploy innovative solutions to complex healthcare problems, ranging from incremental process improvements within a hospital/health system to disruptive and transformative technologies that accelerate the pace of healthcare innovation nationwide. As CHLA’s first chief innovation officer, Kulkarni was responsible for fostering innovation across CHLA’s clinical and research enterprises – including finding successful new methods of care, incubating new medical tools and software, and rallying communities in and out of the hospital to solve problems in the field of pediatrics – all with the goal of enhancing outcomes for children and families. He built CHLA’s Innovation Studio from the ground up, using human-centered design and focuses on digital health solutions to address multiple health-
related issues and processes.
Sara Litvak
CEO
Behavioral Health Center of Excellence
As CEO of Behavioral Health Center of Excellence, Sara Litvak is dedicated to realizing the organization’s mission of ensuring and encouraging safe, effective, equitable, patient-centered healthcare. Over the last seven years, BHCOE has dedicated itself to transforming care for people with autism and related developmental disabilities through a relentless focus on serving as a resource for the autism community on how best to improve quality of care, safety, well-being, and life for patients and families. While her organization’s reach is national impacting over 50,000 individuals with autism, her local footprint in Los Angeles has touched thousands of children’s lives. She founded BHCOE after serving as a consultant for numerous state and governmental entities and insurance companies designing quality assurance processes to ensure that ABA organizations provide clinically sound services. Litvak has also published articles and book chapters on ethics, diversity, equity, and inclusion; quality assurance; outcome measurement; and value-based care.
David Osborne, PhD
Chief Technical Officer
Arcutis Biotherapeutics
David Osborne, PhD, is a co-founder of Arcutis Biotherapeutics, an innovative pharmaceutical company poised to transform the treatment of common immune-mediated dermatological diseases through novel topical therapies. Dr. Osborne is the company’s chief technical officer and one of the world’s leading experts in the topical, transdermal, transmucosal, and subcutaneous delivery of active pharmaceutical ingredients through creams, gels, and ointments. During his career to date, he has issued 29 U.S. patents. He is a named inventor on four FDA-approved topical products and led the development of Eligard, Clobex Spray, MetroGel 1%, and 15 generic topical products. He has 58 publications, primarily in the areas of surfactants, formulations, and skin delivery, and he has edited two books on topical drug development. He and his co-founders created Arcutis Biotherapeutics in 2016, spurred by their recognition that medical dermatology was in urgent need of therapeutic innovations.
Top Hospital or Medical Center of the Year Finalists
Keck Medical Center of USC
Keck Medical Center of USC, which consists of Keck Hospital of USC, a 401-bed acute care hospital, and 60-bed USC Norris Cancer Hospital, as well as other Keck Medicine patient care areas on the Health Sciences Campus, is a tertiary/quaternary medical center focused on treating critically ill surgical patients. The medical center has the highest acute care patient volume in the entire country. The research-based medical center offers hundreds of groundbreaking clinical trials, as well as surgical innovations that provide patients with the most leading-edge therapies available. Keck Medicine’s USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, which has existed for almost 50 years, is one of the eight original comprehensive cancer centers designated by the National Cancer Institute and has renewed this distinction every year. During the pandemic, besides offering vaccines to staff, patients and the community, the medical center’s quality and safety remained its foundational strengths.
UCLA Health
For more than 60 years, UCLA Health hospitals have provided the best in health care and the latest in medical technology to the people of Los Angeles and throughout the world. Its four hospitals on two Southern California campuses include Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center; UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center; UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital; and Stewart and Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA. Each year, UCLA Health sees more than 670,000 unique patients, has more than 73,000 emergency department visits and 36,000 hospital stays. In addition, UCLA’s hospitals have been the busiest transplant centers in the nation, performing more than 18,800 procedures since 1988, when shared data collection began. The hospitals’ comprehensive preparation also made them leaders in the COVID-19 response, with their clinical labs being among the first in the country to develop in-house testing for COVID-19, significantly reducing the time to get results.
Top COVID-19 Research Organization Finalists
Kaiser Permanente Department of Research & Evaluation
Since March 2020, scientists, clinicians, and staff from Kaiser Permanente Southern California have been on the leading edge of research on COVID-19. Findings from research on COVID-19 vaccines have had global implications. Kaiser Permanente Southern California first delved into COVID-19 vaccine research in the summer of 2020, when investigators opened a clinical trial for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at the Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center. Since then, the Los Angeles Medical Center has been the site for multiple clinical trials, including the Pfizer-BioNTech booster in the summer of 2021 and ongoing pediatric clinical trials for both the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines. After the new mRNA vaccines were granted emergency use authorization in December 2020, Kaiser Permanente researchers began to study their safety and effectiveness. For example, the Vaccine Safety Datalink is a collaboration between CDC’s Immunization Safety Office and nine health care organizations, the largest being Kaiser Permanente Southern California.
Keck Hospital of USC
Keck Hospital of USC performs some 300 liver and kidney transplants each year and provides ongoing care to thousands of post-transplant patients on an outpatient basis. During the peak of the COVID-19 surge in Los Angeles, Keck Medicine of USC physicians realized they needed to research, develop and implement a new protocol to monitor and manage the care of liver and kidney transplant recipients who developed COVID-19, including monoclonal antibody therapy for eligible patients. As a result of these efforts, the number of hospitalizations and deaths for patients managed with the new protocol dropped by 18%. For those who received the drug therapy, the number of hospitalizations were halved, and deaths reduced to zero. In addition, early in the pandemic, Keck Medicine physicians realized that COVID-19 was much more lethal for transplant recipients than the general population and established special protocols to identify and treat such patients.
Community Clinic of the Year Finalists
Los Angeles Cancer Network
The mission of Los Angeles Cancer Network is to provide unparalleled care to every patient that comes through its doors. The Network’s physicians are world-class, dedicated and experienced oncologists that come from all different backgrounds. With over 14 languages spoken within the provider team, LACN is truly representing the diversity of the region it serves. The Los Angeles Cancer Network is made up of a team that not only cares for patients, but cares about them. They demonstrate time and time again that they are willing to “jump through hoops” for each patient to make sure they receive needed care and support. The entire staff at LACN knows each patient by his or her name and treats them all like family. It’s a priority to the physicians and staff to educate the patients and their families and ultimately give them a choice and voice in their treatment.
Venice Family Clinic
2022 marks Venice Family Clinic’s 52nd year providing comprehensive, high-quality primary health care to people in need. From its humble beginnings in 1970 as an all-volunteer operation working after business hours in a borrowed dental office, the clinic has grown to provide more than 166,000 patient visits each year. It provides patients with a variety of services and programs. Since its recent merger with South Bay Family Health Care, Venice Family Clinic has grown to 17 locations in Venice, Santa Monica, Mar Vista, Inglewood, Culver City, Redondo Beach, Carson, Gardena and Hawthorne. The clinic also has two mobile clinics and an expansive street medicine program providing care for people experiencing homelessness. Collectively, these locations and programs serve more than 45,000 patients across LA County. In addition, Venice Family Clinic continues to innovate its programs, add new offerings and increase support for patients.
Educational or Institutional Program of the Year Finalists
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
For more than ten years, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) has committed to developing the next generation of health care leaders to develop the future workforce in the healthcare industry – one that is reflective of its patient population and the diversity of the Los Angeles community and inclusive of students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Since 2013, that effort has been led by the Office of Community Affairs at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, which has collaborated with local high schools, colleges and universities, workforce investment boards, youth development organizations and citywide initiatives such as the Mayor’s Hire LA’s Youth program. These efforts have provided thousands of young and unemployed individuals in the community an opportunity to participate in internship, mentorship, and work experience programs. Two career development programs have emerged reflecting CHLA’s expanding community commitment – Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Careers in Health and Mentorship Program (CHAMP) and Project Search.
Kaiser Permanente
With high demand for COVID-19 testing during the omicron variant surge and amid a shortage of test supplies, Kaiser Permanente in Southern California quickly established a test kit assembly center at its Pasadena regional headquarters. A labor pool of about 20 Kaiser Permanente volunteers manually produced nearly 100,000 test kits in approximately three weeks for hospitals in five counties across Southern California. On one peak production day, 16,000 kits were produced. COVID-19 PCR testing kits require time to produce, but do not require specialized skills. Rather than having medical centers assemble testing kits locally with limited labor resources, the plan centralized production with non-clinical employees from a regional labor pool. In this way, both supply and labor resources were used effectively during the winter surge, saving valuable time and enabling frontline health workers to dedicate themselves to providing high-quality care for members and patients.
Outstanding Community Outreach Finalists
Cedars-Sinai
The COVID-19 pandemic incited a pervasiveness of misinformation about vaccines, medical research and the disease itself. Lack of clear language about COVID-19 vaccines left people confused and hesitant to get vaccinated, particularly those in communities of color. Cedars-Sinai’s Doses of Hope campaign aimed to communicate accurate and understandable vaccine facts based on the latest scientific evidence. The campaign was informed by clinicians and community leaders who are considered significantly trustworthy and credible in minority communities. Forming and strengthening bonds with community partners who served as authentic, relevant messengers to communities of color was crucial to the success and impact of the campaign. While some materials – largely those presenting specific medical content – were created in final form, others could be edited by partners to reflect their own unique voice and audience. All materials and organizations aligned for one common purpose: to encourage vaccination.
Heal One World
Heal One World has made an incredible difference in many lives with free health treatments and wellness classes. Heal One World has a team of over 150 volunteers giving classes and treatments. During the pandemic, they never stopped, pivoting to online classes and hosting over eight classes each day. Heal One World’s partnership with the Venice Family Clinic and Saban Clinics is exposing even more individuals in need to the healing techniques that are evidence based yet non-invasive. They provide yoga teachers for the clinic as well as to numerous health fairs and events throughout Los Angeles. Executive director Skye Kelly also started the Awareness Film Festival which is on its 13th year and has shown over 2000 films that are opening eyes to different issues that our world and community are facing. All proceeds from the event go to the non-profit.
Top Safety Net Provider Finalists
Adventist Health White Memorial
Adventist Health White Memorial put together a community outreach effort to encourage the community to get vaccinated and stay protected against COVID-19. As COVID began to spread, Adventist Health White Memorial’s community outreach efforts went beyond social media messaging and digital ads. There was a commitment to partner-up with stakeholders including city officials, schools, community centers and faith-based organizations to provide vaccination clinics and education in Boyle Heights and beyond. With regard to education, White Memorial partnered up with “promotores” to go door-to-door proving door hangers, flyers and speaking to members of the community to answers questions about COVID-19 and vaccines. The hospital also rolled out Project IntelliCare, implementing the Malcolm Baldrige business framework, HIPAA compliance and Joint Commission preparation.
Pacific Clinics
Pacific Clinics is a nonprofit provider of
behavioral health services and support. It provides innovative, trauma-informed, and culturally sensitive services to meet diverse and unique needs, with dedicated employees who offer services in 22 languages. In addition, the organization provides a full range of mental health and substance use disorder services, social services, meals, housing, employment support, continuing adult education and early childhood education programs. Pacific Clinics’ work remains more vital than ever in the COVID-19 era when mental health needs have grown and services can be more challenging to access. Pacific Clinics is committed to offering hope and healing at over 50 local sites, including its Hollygrove campus, at homes and schools, through telehealth and in the community.
Best Homecare Program Finalists
24 Hour Home Care
24 Hour Home Care has always embraced change as an opportunity, even in times of uncertainty. Providing reputable in-home care for over 13 years, the organization serves some of the most vulnerable populations: seniors and individuals with disabilities. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to present challenges to its team that require agility and creativity to overcome. One of the most significant challenges 24 Hour Home Care is solving is addressing the industry’s caregiver shortage. Through the launch of a caregiver-centric pricing model, 24 Hour Home Care has led the way for providing fair compensation by paying above-market pay rates, offering comprehensive benefits, signature specialty trainings, and professional growth opportunities. In return, it remains the employer of choice for its caregivers and by supporting them, is providing better care for its clients. Through innovation, strategy, and resiliency, it is leading the way for what quality care means.
Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente in Southern California’s COVID-19 Home Monitoring Program is a two-year Kaiser Permanente telehealth program that has allowed nearly 22,000 Southern California COVID-19 patients to recover at home. The program, formally known as COVID Home Monitoring (CHM), elevated the potential of home-based clinical care and allowed for after-hours alert management and escalations to physicians. Patients in the CHM program were provided with a special care kit and had access to a care team 24/7. Each care kit included a thermometer, pulse oximeter, and a phone-based or computer-based application that enabled doctors to monitor patients’ daily vital signs and health conditions and, if necessary, intervene immediately. Launched in April 2020, shortly after the start of the pandemic, this innovative Kaiser Permanente program helped reduce strains on hospital capacity due to COVID-19 surges and permitted affected patients with manageable symptoms to heal in the comfort of their own homes.
Top Telehealth Program Finalists
Executive Mental Health
In early March 2020, and because of COVID-19, thousands of skilled nursing facilities across the nation closed their doors to outside medical staff, including visits from the team of specialists Executive Mental Health (EMH), a geropsychology and neuropsychology practice based in Los Angeles. EMH quickly transitioned to a TeleHealth care model. This adaptation ensured that EMH clinicians would continue to serve those medically and mentally ill individuals who were most likely to be affected by the shelter-in-place policies. Notably, as of March, 2020, EMH was providing no remote care, had not purchased any equipment to offer this service, and had not conceptualized the logistics of TeleHealth; yet, in just three weeks, the team had set up the system protocol and launched it to over 100 partner facilities. Today EMH offers this free service to all its facilities and has completed close to 40,000 telehealth sessions.
ModiHealth
ModiHealth offers the first global integrative telemedicine solution for those looking to optimize whole body wellness and wellbeing. ModiHealth seeks to create a healthier world, helping users transform their health and wellbeing by using technology to make whole person health easily accessible, understandable, and actionable to all. By aggregating lifestyle, wellness, mental health, and medical care under one virtual roof, ModiHealth’s vision aims to change the dynamic of how people receive the care and resources they need to get and stay healthy. ModiHealth’s technology platform is an integrative whole person care approach that may well change how doctors and practitioners practice medicine and wellness care. With the combination of resources, virtual care, and the use of machine learning AI for health data tracking and analytics that are accessible, sharable, and most importantly, actionable, users can get and stay healthy.
Outstanding Collaboration Finalists
Bioness / Bioventus and American Medical Rehabilitation Providers Association
Bioness, a Bioventus Rehab Company, prides itself on always putting patients and the healthcare community first, partnering with organizations who have the same goals and objectives in mind to reach more patients and healthcare providers to overall educate, advocate and provide access to advanced technologies to patients is what the team thrives on. These goals led to Bioness/Bioventus’ collaboration with the American Medical Rehabilitation Providers Association (AMRPA). This collaboration has led to the accomplishment of many educational and outreach programs and more recently scholarship programs to advance medical professionals through the AMRPA Medical Rehabilitation Management Certification in which Bioventus helps provide an additional donation for the applicants. This program supports new leaders and promotes consistency and professionalism within the rehabilitation industry. This is a great example of organizations coming together through strong collaboration, aligned goals and a vision to educate and advocate on matters that can improve the community.
Keck Medicine of USC and The TransLatin@ Coalition
The transgender population has historically been underserved by hospitals and health systems, and it remains difficult for transgender, non-binary, and gender-diverse patients to find comprehensive and affirming health care services. 70% of transgender people report experiencing health care discrimination, including refusal of care. To deliver expert, compassionate care for all, Keck Medicine of USC entered into a strategic collaboration with the TransLatin@ Coalition, the largest trans-led nonprofit organization in Los Angeles that advocates for the needs of transgender, gender non-conforming and intersex immigrants across the country. The collaboration will streamline the development of health care services that address the varied needs of the transgender, non-binary and gender-diverse community through a social, economic and racial justice lens. It also further establishes a strong community foundation with the LGBTQ+ community as Keck Medicine develops specialized services for patients to access comprehensive, affirming primary care, and chronic disease management and gender-affirming surgical care.
Best New Product or Service Finalists
GoodRx
The American healthcare system is complicated, confusing, and hard to navigate. The first place consumers often go for information is online, which is flooded with different sources of information. GoodRx recognized the need for a new and improved way of delivering health information online and launched GoodRx Health in September 2021. GoodRx Health is an online resource that takes a different approach to answering vital health questions. With a dedicated editorial team of over 50 people, including leading doctors, pharmacists, and healthcare experts, GoodRx Health takes the “literature review” concept to the general public by poring over existing research and capturing the latest state of clinical and scientific knowledge in clear, succinct language. GoodRx Health’s team of media veterans knew from decades in the industry there was a better way to present healthcare content. GoodRx Health focuses on creating the best answer and resource for any given query.
Sanitas Health
Sanitas’ Natural Language Processing and machine learning algorithms evaluate free text to help predict patients who may be at risk of self-harm or psychological distress, enabling care teams or other caretakers to intervene faster. For example, health providers can evaluate patients’ mental health based on what they post on social media sites or to online blogs and message boards. Given the widespread adoption of social media and mobile devices, health care providers have a wealth of new data to work with. Feeding patient-generated text into NLP and machine learning algorithms, caregivers can create predictive models that signal when a patient is experiencing deep depression, undergoing an anxiety attack or other issues. Sanitas works at the intersection of the safety net. It is currently crafting long term pilots with LAC-USC (County Hospital) to address the mental health needs of Los Angeles’ most vulnerable Medicaid populations.
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