Smitha Ravipudi, MPH, has been named CEO of USC Care Medical Group, administrators announced recently. Ravipudi will transition from her current role as chief operating officer for USC Care effective immediately, according to an Aug. 12 memo sent by Rod Hanners, COO of Keck Medicine of USC and CEO of Keck Medical Center of USC, and David Peng, president of USC Care and chair of dermatology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

“An experienced health care leader, Smitha embodies the values, talents and vision to lead USC Care Medical Group well into the future,” Hanners and Peng wrote in the memo.

USC Care is a critical asset and strategic business unit for the health system. It functions to coordinate the clinical operations, manage the finance and revenue cycle and govern the medical group’s clinical practice at Keck Medicine. Given the rapidly shifting trends both in the marketplace and health care industry, the medical group sought the appointment of a CEO in order to deliver even greater impact to the health system and the communities it serves. This position will have a unique opportunity to help design the future of USC Care, leveraging existing qualities such as the strength of the physician and clinical staff, and continued development of a robust infrastructure and governance, the memo stated.

Reporting directly to Hanners, the chief operating officer for Keck Medicine, Ravipudi will oversee all aspects of the medical group and serve as the general manager and chief executive of the corporation of USC Care. She will work closely with Peng, the USC Care president, along with the clinical chairs to achieve adoption of the highest clinical standards and implement innovative practices that will improve both physician and consumer experience. Together with the USC Care leadership team, Ravipudi will create programs that seamlessly streamline care coordination, set quality benchmarks, optimize business processes, pursue continued revenue enhancement and improve clinical outcomes across the clinical practice. Her efforts also will include assessing operations and maximizing efficiency within the workforce.

Ravipudi joined Keck Medicine in 2016 as USC Care’s chief operating officer. Under her leadership, USC Care continued to grow in volume and size, bringing care into new communities while optimizing clinical assets at the main Health Sciences Campus. She and her team successfully opened Norris Healthcare Center (HC3) and managed dramatic regional expansion efforts with the opening of the Huntington Beach Multispecialty Clinic, several specialty practices at USC Verdugo Hills Hospital, and the Arcadia Multispecialty Center, Keck Medicine’s largest outpatient satellite facility. She also has been a key player in the health system’s efforts to integrate the services of USC Student Health and key physician practices into Keck Medicine. Ravipudi led the development of a multiyear plan to optimize the electronic medical record and, in close partnership with IT, helped launch new functionality including, but not limited to, the Health Information Exchange, OpenNotes in myUSCchart, the eClipboard, and online scheduling. She and her team managed USC Care’s successful attestation for the Merit Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), resulting in roughly $800,000 in positive payments and nearly $5 million in penalty avoidance.

Ravipudi joined Keck Medicine from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, where she was vice president of ambulatory and access operations. She holds a master’s degree in public health from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Science degree in human communication sciences from Northwestern University. She and her husband Rahul are proud parents of three boys, which she undoubtedly claims as her greatest accomplishment to date, the memo stated.