Strong leadership is vital to Keck Medicine of USC’s strategy to become one of the nation’s great academic medical centers and to develop a comprehensive system of acute care and ambulatory centers. To help consolidate leadership across USC’s medical enterprise, Tom Jackiewicz, MPH, senior vice president and CEO of USC Health, recently announced some upcoming personnel and organizational changes.

Jackiewicz has begun the search for three new executive positions:

• A chief operating officer of USC Health to help integrate inpatient care services and health delivery across the organization. “With focused effort, our health system can do things better, less expensively and with greater quality and sophistication than each entity could achieve on its own,” explained Jackiewicz.

• A CEO of USC Physicians and Ambulatory Care, ideally a physician executive who will build the USC Medical Foundation and ambulatory strategies simultaneously. “These functions need to be under the direction of a single executive leader, and must be designed and guided by involved clinicians,” said Jackiewicz.

• A chief financial officer of USC Health to oversee fiscal operations, such as all-fund financial statements, cross-entity funds flow and revenue cycle, of Keck Hospital of USC, USC Norris Cancer Hospital and USC Verdugo Hills Hospital, as well as USC Care. “With our health system revenues now exceeding $1 billion, we also need strong financial oversight in areas that are system focused,” added Jackiewicz.

Leaving USC are Keith Gran, chief executive officer of USC Care, and Bill Gorenstein, chief financial officer of Keck Medicine of USC.

“I want to personally express my appreciation to Keith and Bill for their service over the past few years,” said Jackiewicz. “They were integral to supporting our growth and development as we began the new era of Keck Medicine of USC.”

Jackiewicz also announced transitional changes to the leadership team during the search for the new executive position candidates.

Robert Allen, MBA, Keck Medical Center chief financial officer, and Christian Lant, a consultant from Grant Thornton who has previously assisted USC, will oversee financial operations and report directly to Jackiewicz. Additionally, Allen will continue to report to Scott Evans, PharmD, MHA, chief executive officer of USC Norris Cancer Hospital and Keck Hospital of USC, for the financial operations of these two hospitals.

In addition, Jackiewicz plans to hire an experienced health care executive to serve as chief of staff in his office to support the organization during the transition.

“Keck Medicine of USC has never been in a better place,” Jackiewicz said. “Organizational changes such as these require a period of transition, which can be both exciting and challenging.  But we are stronger today than ever before in every way — and we look forward to an exciting and successful future.”