California Health Care Personnel News Update for October 2010
Cal eConnect
Cal eConnect -- a not-for-profit organization that promotes the state's health information exchange efforts â" recently announced several executive appointments, Healthcare Informatics reports.
The group announced that:
- Mark Elson has been appointed chief policy and business development officer;
- David Lenhart has been named chief technology officer; and
- Yolanda Richardson has been named chief operating and financial officer (Healthcare Informatics, 10/4).
California Medical Association
On Oct. 3, James Hinsdale was named president of the California Medical Association, Payers & Providers reports.
Hinsdale is the director of trauma at Marin General Hospital. He also serves as executive director of trauma at Regional Medical Center in San Jose and holds a faculty position at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
Hinsdale is replacing departing CMA president Brennan Cassidy, who is among six delegates named to CMA's executive committee (Payers & Providers, 10/7).
CalPERS
Beginning Nov. 22, Kathleen Billingsley will join the CalPERS as the assistant executive officer for health benefits, Modern Healthcare reports.
Billingsley has served as the deputy director of the California Department of Public Health for the past four years. Before working for DPH, she served for 11 years as senior vice president of Electronic Healthcare Systems in Birmingham, Ala.
In her new role, Billingsley will work with CalPERS on policy guidance, health plan design and health plan negotiations (Vesely, Modern Healthcare, 10/27).
Healthcare Foundation of Northern Sonoma County, Healdsburg
Linda Bertauche has been elected to the board of directors for the Healthcare Foundation of Northern Sonoma County, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reports.
Bertauche is the senior vice president and COO of Summit State Bank. She previously served as senior vice president of operations at the National Bank of the Redwoods (Santa Rosa Press Democrat, 10/10).
Institute of Medicine
On Oct. 11, UC-San Francisco announced that UCSF Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann and three faculty members were among the 65 newly elected members of the Institute of Medicine, the San Francisco Business Journal reports.
The new IOM members from UCSF include:
- Desmond-Hellman;
- Elena Fuentes-Afflick, chief of pediatrics at San Francisco General Hospital and professor of pediatrics, epidemiology and biostatistics at UCSF;
- Neil Risch, professor of human genetics and director of the UCSF Institute for Human Genetics; and
- Kevan Shokat, investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor and chair of the UCSF Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology (Rauber, San Francisco Business Journal, 10/11).
Los Angeles County Department of Health Services
On Oct. 19, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors appointed Mitchell Katz director of the county's Department of Health Services, the AP/San Francisco Chronicle reports. Katz currently serves as director of San Francisco's Department of Public Health.
In his new role, Katz will replace Bruce Chernoff, who resigned in 2008, and John Schunhoff, who has served as interim director of Los Angeles County's health services department (AP/San Francisco Chronicle, 10/19). Katz will receive an annual salary of $355,000 when he starts his new position on Jan. 3, 2011 (County of Los Angeles release, 10/19).
Palo Alto Medical Foundation
On Oct. 20, Sutter Health officials announced that they had named Richard Slavin CEO of Palo Alto Medical Foundation, effective immediately, the San Francisco Business Times reports. Slavin replaces the previous CEO David Druker, who in July died after a long illness.
Since 2000, Slavin has served as president of PAMF's Camino Division. He also has served as a regional executive vice president for Sutter Health since last year (Rauber, San Francisco Business Times, 10/20).
San Francisco Department of Public Health
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom (D) has selected Barbara Garcia to serve as the next director of the city's Department of Public Health, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Garcia has served as deputy director for the Department of Public Health since 1999. She will replace Mitchell Katz, who is leaving the department in January for a position as director of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (Knight et al., San Francisco Chronicle, 10/7).
Garcia is expected to appoint a director with a medical degree to make decisions about quarantines and isolations. In the past, Katz filled both roles (Knight, San Francisco Chronicle, 10/14).
Sutter Health, Sacramento
In January, Peter Jacobi will join the board of directors for Sutter Health, the Sacramento Bee reports.
Jacobi has worked in the apparel industry for nearly 30 years and served as COO of Levi Strauss before retiring in 1999. He currently serves as a member of the board of directors for the Sutter Health West Bay Region (Glover, Sacramento Bee, 10/20).
UC-Davis
On Oct. 18, UC-Davis named Harris Lewin vice chancellor of research, the Sacramento Bee reports. Lewin will lead the university's research office, which oversees scientific studies, technology transfer and other areas.
Lewin is a UC-Davis alumnus who has worked at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign for 26 years. Â If the UC Board of Regents approves his appointment, Lewin is expected to begin his new position on March 30 with a $370,000 annual base salary (Rosenhall, Sacramento Bee, 10/19).
West Coast University
West Coast University Provost and Chief Academic Officer Jeb Egbert recently announced the appointment of Dianne Moore as associate provost for nursing education and regulatory affairs.Â
In assuming her new role, Moore will vacate her previous position as dean of the university's College of Nursing. West Coast University has yet to name a successor for the College of Nursing dean position, Moore said (West Coast University release, 10/22).
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