JOHNESE SPISSO. President of UCLA Health and CEO of UCLA Hospital and Clinic System (Los Angeles)
On the top challenge
"From our perspective, really our efforts have been ensuring access to quality medical care for people in California. I think given some of the unique challenges in our state —the density of the population, the traffic — what we've come to learn at UCLA Health is we really have to take our care out to the community."
On the hospital's response
"Our strategy has really been placing primary care and some specialty care in a variety of locations throughout southern California. We have about 170 clinics in about 90 different locations so we can actually remove barriers to access and allow patients to have prompt access to efficient care. Certainly, when they need the tertiary and quaternary, they can travel to the locations of our hospitals, but we've really tried to keep care in the lowest-cost setting in the most convenient ways for patients. We're continuing that strategy but still challenged in this state, in that one in three people in Los Angeles are on Medicaid. Ensuring access to care for patients who are underinsured is another big opportunity, and [we are] looking at ways to remove barriers particularly for vulnerable populations."