The culture at Children’s Hospital of Orange County is based on what Chief Operating Officer Debra Mathias calls “the honor of taking care of people’s children.”
When people tour the Orange hospital for babies, children and teens, they often ask how executives and others deal with the daily heartbreak of young lives stricken by illness.
“I put it a different way,” said Maria Minon, vice president of medical affairs and chief medical officer. “I love it here because I see the kids smiling. The phenomenal thing is that most kids get better.”
CHOC’s executive team includes hospital veterans, doctors, nurses, healthcare company executives and others.
Chief Executive Kim Cripe, who took over in 1997, handpicked the team.
Executives have bought into Cripe’s goal of transforming CHOC from a community pediatric hospital into one of national recognition.
The hospital has sought to boost its profile by taking part in clinical trials, adding advanced care programs and living within its means.
“People’s children’s lives are in our hands,” said Cripe, who came from Louisville, Ky.-based health insurer Humana Inc. “It’s absolutely fundamental that CHOC is running and running well.”
As at other hospitals here, women lead CHOC’s senior and executive managerial ranks.
People who work at a children’s hospital tend to be “very empathetic,” Cripe said. That applies to everyone at CHOC, she said, regardless of gender.
“If you don’t have a tear when you see a mother cry because they lost a child, (you’ve) lost the compassion to be here,” Minon said.
Turnaroundk
CHOC’s executives have faced a number of challenges.
For a time in the late 1990s, Orange-based hospital operator St. Joseph Health System—which had a hand in starting CHOC in 1964—took over running the hospital amid losses of $1 million a month.
Cripe, Chief Financial Officer Kerri Ruppert Schiller and others led a turnaround that resulted in CHOC’s board regaining control.
The executive team now is in the middle of a major expansion: a $562 million project that includes a patient tower that’s rising amid the skyline of hospitals and office buildings in Orange.
CHOC’s South Tower is set to take patients in 2013.
The executive team runs a hospital with some $375 million in yearly patient revenue, 2,330 workers and 264 licensed beds. A not-for-profit corporation owns CHOC.
The hospital serves children throughout the county at its Orange campus and a satellite facility at St. Joseph’s Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo.
Some 60% of patients are covered by low-paying government insurance programs.
The executives work with businesses and other donors to build up CHOC’s $22.5 million endowment, according to Mathias. CHOC’s fund is about 5% to 10% of a typical large children’s hospital endowment.
The hospital is working with its directors and others to draw more support. A $125 million fundraising effort is in the works, Cripe said.
The team holds regular meetings and has “a very formal decision-making and communication process,” said Mathias, one of the newer members who joined in 2006.
Meetings “help us really understand what big messages we need to carry across the organization and where and when we make major decisions,” she said.
Like executives anywhere, CHOC’s team relies on BlackBerrys, voicemail and e-mail.
The hospital has a clearly defined No. 2 in Mathias, who previously served as chief operating officer of The Children’s Hospital in Denver.
“I knew I wanted to hire someone who had been a chief operating officer in a leading children’s hospital,” Cripe said of Mathias.
Cripe isn’t a micromanager and lets executives run their respective departments, according to executives. She’s hands-on when needed, they said.
“Kim has always been very supportive for me to bring her ideas,” Minon said.
Cripe and other executives point to up-and-comers at CHOC. They include Rita Jew, executive director of pharmaceutical services; Jason Fischer, director of business applications and revenue cycle; and nurse executives Melanie Patterson and Linda Glenn.
There also are doctors Jason Knight and Tony Soliman. Knight directs CHOC’s medical transport team. Soliman runs a unit for babies who weigh only a pound or so at birth.
Executives have four retreats a year and take part in other activities, including an evening out at a restaurant where they prepare a meal alongside chefs, Mathias said.
Outside work, Cripe, a married mother of three sons, said she enjoys outdoor family activities, such as horseback riding, hiking and walking. She also enjoys gardening.
Schiller enjoys running, travel and reading, including murder mysteries, and spa trips with her four sisters. She’s married with two stepchildren.
Minon, a native of Argentina, is a reader and traveler, mixing trips to Paris with more “challenging trips” to New Guinea.
Mathias’ life beyond CHOC includes being a “full-time soccer mom” to her two teen daughters. She’s a traveler who’s been to Kodiak, Alaska, and has an upcoming visit to Tucson with her daughters to meet up with five friends from her grade school days.
THE TEAM
• Kim Cripe, 55, president, chief executive since 1997. With CHOC since 1991; started as EVP, chief operating officer. Came from Humana. Undergraduate studies, USC, University of South Florida. Master’s, Golden Gate University. Married, three sons.
• Debra Mathias, 56, EVP, chief operating officer since 2006. Previously SVP, COO of The Children’s Hospital, Denver. Bachelor’s, University of Arizona. Master’s, University of Colorado. Married, twin daughters.
• Kerri Ruppert Schiller, 51, SVP, chief financial officer. With CHOC since 1998. Previously with Comprehensive Care, Maxicare Health Plans. Bachelor’s, Cal State Fullerton. Married, two stepchildren.
• Maria Minon, 60, VP, medical affairs, chief medical officer. With CHOC since 1998. Earlier with Orange Coast Managed Care Services, private pediatric practice. Undergraduate, medical degrees, UC Irvine. Widowed.
• Dana Bledsoe, 46, VP, patient care services, chief nursing officer. With CHOC since 2004. Earlier was director of nursing special care areas at Texas Children’s Hospital. Nursing degree, Loretto Height College, Denver. Master’s, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. MBA, University of Colorado. Married, two children.
• Mark Headland, 58, VP, chief information officer. With CHOC since 2001. Previously with Perot Systems Consulting. Bachelor’s, Redlands University. Married, two children, three grandchildren.
• Jan Lansing, 57, VP, marketing, communications. With CHOC since 1998. Before was group account director at ad agency DGWB. Bachelor’s, University of Oregon. Married, two grown children.
• Matthew Niedzwiecki, 47, VP, ancillary, support services. With CHOC since 2009. Came from Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego. MBA, Wayne State University. Married, one child.
• Nick Anas, 60, pediatrician in chief. Joined in 1984. Medical director of pediatric ICU since 1991. Medical degree, West Virginia University. Trained at University of Rochester, Southwestern Medical School, Dallas. Married, children.
• Feizal Waffarn, 67, chairman, department of pediatrics, UCI School of Medicine, since 2001. Serves on team as part of CHOC-UCI partnership. Medical degree, Madras University Medical College, India. Trained at USC, Henry Ford Hospital in Michigan. Widowed with children.
• Marcia Folli, 50, VP, chief nursing officer, CHOC Children’s at Mission. With CHOC since 2004. Previously with CHOC’s main campus, UCI Medical Center. Bachelor’s, Mount Saint Mary’s College. Master’s, Chapman University. Married, adult son.
• Beth Rowett, 65, VP, quality, safety. With CHOC since 2004. Previously vice president at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital. Bachelor’s, Eckerd College in Florida. Master’s from University of Chicago, University of LaVerne. Married, three sons, one daughter, four grandchildren.0
