Kaiser Taps Head of New York City Hospital System

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Kaiser Permanente is drawing from the nation’s largest public hospital system for the new chief of its Southern California operations.


Dr. Benjamin K. Chu, president of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corp., was named Wednesday as president of the region, which has 11 major medical centers, 47,000 employees and 3,600 doctors.


“We are thrilled to welcome Ben Chu to our organization,” said Kaiser Senior Vice President Leslie A. Margolin, who led the search for Chu, in a prepared release.


Chu was cited by Kaiser for various improvements of New York City’s mammoth public hospital system in the two years he was there, including reforming ambulatory care, implementing new clinical information systems and carrying out a $1.2 billion capital rebuilding program.


The New York City system is roughly the same size as Kaiser Permanente’s Southern California region, with 11 hospitals, 40,000 employees and 7,000 contracted physicians.


As president of the region, Chu will face many of the same challenges that he faced in New York, including overseeing a massive capital building program and moving to computerized record systems to improve care.


“I am extremely excited about the prospects of joining the Kaiser Permanente family in Southern California,” said Chu, in the release.


An internist by training, Chu will assume his new duties in mid-February.


Kaiser Permanente refused to release his salary, though it will have to do so next year when it files its non-profit tax form with the government.

“It’s a competitive business, and we don’t release that unless we have to,” said spokesman Jim Anderson.

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