California Health Care Personnel Update for February 2008

The California division of the American Cancer Society has named Pati Poblete as media director for its government relations office. She is the former deputy editorial page editor for the Hawaii Advertiser (Sacramento Bee, 2/4).

Gary Irish, president and CEO of Simi Valley Hospital, will resign on March 8, according to a statement released by leaders of Adventist Health, the hospital's parent company.

Truman Esmond, COO of the hospital, will assume Irish's duties on an interim basis while an executive search for a permanent replacement takes place (Kisken, Ventura County Star, 2/29).

The UC-Davis Health System has named Susan DeMarois as assistant director for government and community relations. DeMarois has been the acting assistant director of the office for the past year (Sacramento Bee, 2/4).

Dale Bredesen, founding CEO of the Buck Institute for Age Research, is stepping down from his administrative duties.

Bredesen, who was CEO for 10 years, will continue to run the institute's primary laboratories focused on Alzheimer's disease research (Leuty, San Francisco Business Times, 2/25).

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) has appointed Helen Najar (R), a realtor, to the Commission on Emergency Medical Services. The position does not require Senate confirmation, and Najar will not receive compensation (Office of the Governor release, 2/7).

Schwarzenegger has appointed Candice Traeger as chair of the Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board, where she has served since 2004. The position requires Senate confirmation.

Traeger, who declined to state a party affiliation, will receive an annual salary of $115,910 (Office of the Governor release, 2/14).

Schwarzenegger has made two appointments to the Physician Assistant Committee for the Medical Board of California. The positions do not require Senate confirmation and offer compensation of $100 per diem. The appointments include:

• Rosslynn Byous of Rancho Cucamonga, who has been director of the Primary Care Physician Assistant Program at the USC Keck School of Medicine since 2006; Byous declined to state a party affiliation; and
• Reginald Low (R) of Sacramento, who has been professor and chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at the UC-Davis School of Medicine since 2000.

Schwarzenegger has appointed nine members to the Public Health Advisory Committee. None of the positions requires Senate confirmation or offers compensation.

The appointments include:

• Dolores Apodaca (D) of Northridge, who has held various nursing positions in the Los Angeles Unified School District since 1985;
• Rodney Borger (R) of Yorba Linda, who has been chair of the department of emergency medicine at the Arrowhead Regional Medical Center since 2002;
• Robin Cox (R) of Fairfield, who has been public information officer at the Solano County Health and Social Services Department since 1996;
• Cynthia Gomez (D) of Redwood City, who has served as director of the Health Equity Initiative at San Francisco State University since 2006 and had held numerous positions at UC-San Francisco;
• Susan Harrington (R) of Riverside, who has served as director of public health at the Riverside County Department of Public Health since 2003;
• Ruth Mulnard (R) of Tustin, who has held numerous position in nursing science and clinical research programs at UC-Irvine since 1991;
• Stephen Shortell (D) of Berkeley, who has served as a professor of health policy and management, and organizational behavior at UC-Berkeley since 1998;
• Ellen Wu, of Oakland, who has been the executive director of the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network since 2001; Wu declined to state a party affiliation; and
• Antronette Yancey (D) of Los Angeles, who has been a faculty member of the UCLA School of Public Health since 1990 (Office of the Governor release, 2/14).

CMS has named David Sayen as regional administrator for a multi-state region based in San Francisco. He replaces Charlotte Yeh, who will return to her duties as head of CMS' Boston-based New England region.

Sayen has been an associate regional administer in the region since 1999 (Rauber, San Francisco Business Times, 2/5).

Kaiser Permanente has promoted Gregory Adams as the head of its Northern California hospital and health plan operations, the San Francisco Business Times reports.

Adams, former associate regional president and COO for Kaiser's Northern California hospital and health plan, replaces Mary Ann Thode (Rauber, San Francisco Business Times, 2/18).

John Grgurina has been selected as the CEO for the San Francisco Health Plan. Grgurina, a former senior health policy consultant with the Institute for Health Policy Solutions, will succeed Jean Fraser (Rauber, San Francisco Business Times, 2/6).