The full value of a merger can only be realized if effort is made to build and leverage organizational synergies beyond the transactional deal. Integrating an entire hospital full of new departments, facilities and thousands of employees into a health system is no easy feat. But over the last two years Keck Medicine of USC has done just that. The USC Arcadia Hospital full workforce integration project, including an employer identification number transition, took thousands of hours of planning, hundreds of employees, and dozens of committees all tasked with completing a different piece of the integration puzzle.

“None of this is a product of luck, but the result of the incredible talents, hard work and ingenuity of our team members. With the completion of this workforce integration, the future looks brighter than ever for our hospital,” said Ikenna “Ike” Mmeje, chief executive officer for USC Arcadia Hospital.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, the organization hosted a special recognition event. On February 26, over 70 attendees gathered at the Langham ballroom in Pasadena to honor the key personnel involved in the workforce integration process. With the January 1, 2025 milestone officially transitioning all USC Arcadia Hospital employees to Keck Medicine, health system leadership gathered and thanked the individuals that made this workforce integration possible. “The future is full of limitless possibilities, and our organization is proud to stand side-by-side with our USC Arcadia Hospital colleagues as we progress forward,” said Ekta Vyas, PhD, chief human resources officer for Keck Medicine.

Rod Hanners, chief executive officer for Keck Medicine, spoke to attendees about the impressive collaboration between the University and the health system’s entities. “This was an incredibly complex initiative full of multiple workstreams involving people processes and technology,” Hanners said. “Despite the challenges, all those involved never lost sight of our goals and your efforts have made our medical enterprise stronger than ever.”

Led by Keck Medicine’s HR team, in close collaboration with its University partners including the Finance and IT departments, the scope of the project required unprecedented cooperation across multiple disciplines and included over 100 unique contributors comprising 11 designated work lanes. The contributors included the System Integrations team, the Worker Data Conversion and History team, Contingent Workers team, Communication and Organizational Change Management team, Time off and Leave of Absence team, the Learning Management team, the Benefits, Compensation and Job Architecture team, the Data Archive team, and the Payroll and Tax teams.

“Today marks not just a technical milestone, but a transformative achievement in our journey of bringing USC Arcadia Hospital fully into the Keck Medicine community,” Vyas said. “Although this journey has at times been complex, the rewards have far outweighed the challenges. Through dedicated leadership and collaboration, we’ve transformed these challenges into opportunities.”

During the program, Vice President of Human Resources at USC Arcadia Hospital, Robert Begg, also spoke about the hard work of employees who stepped up into a “Change Champion” role. Begg said, “Our Change Champions network played a vital role, serving as bridges between teams and helping to maintain alignment across the organization.”

Methodist Hospital of Southern California was founded in 1903 and in July 2022 the hospital began integrating into the Keck Medicine health system, taking on the name of USC Arcadia Hospital.  The hospital has continued to grow and has had a major impact on the Arcadia community. By 2011, the hospital that had started out as a five-bed, two-story house on Hewitt Street in downtown Los Angeles added 120 medical surgical beds, 20 CCU beds, and an expanded emergency department with 28 beds and an additional 18-bed observation unit. The hospital now has 348 total licensed beds. Also, the hospital delivers more than 1,800 babies annually and typically has more than 16,000 patient admissions each year.

As the event concluded, Vyas instructed every attendee to open a small gift that had been placed on their tables. She said, “Please take home this plaque that commemorates this outstanding achievement and marks the continuation of our growing partnerships and collaboration. This workforce integration represents our commitment to excellence in health care delivery and our dedication to our employees.”

— Madison Laster