On June 18–21, Keck Medicine of USC CEO Tom Jackiewicz spoke with physicians, nurses and staff in a series of town hall–style meetings about the state of the health system, the 2018 fiscal year and what’s to come in the year ahead. The meetings were held at the Soto II building, Healthcare Center 4, Alhambra offices and USC Verdugo Hills Hospital.

Jackiewicz opened the meetings by acknowledging some of the challenges that the Keck Medicine community has faced before turning his focus to the health system’s achievements over the last year.

“Despite a year of challenges, we grew through a crisis,” he said. “The demand for our services is as great as ever and we continue to grow. We’ve ended the fiscal year strong, with revenue growing by 10 percent and reaching almost $1.8 billion.”

He noted that revenues were about $500 million when USC purchased the health system from Tenet Healthcare in 2009 and that the growth since then has been remarkable.

Jackiewicz also highlighted Keck Medicine’s increasing ambulatory presence, including the recent opening of Norris Healthcare Center on the Health Sciences Campus and clinics in Huntington Beach, Koreatown and Palmdale. He spoke about the planned opening of an ambulatory clinic in Arcadia later this year and a planned expansion of Keck Medicine’s services in Las Vegas.

He added that USC student health services now fall under Keck Medicine’s oversight and that under the new leadership of Sarah Van Orman, MD, it will become “one of the best student health systems in the country.”

Jackiewicz credited Keck Medicine’s success to everyone’s extraordinary commitment to patients.

“Each day, the people of Keck Medicine save lives. We receive letters from patients telling us how grateful they are for the care they’ve received from us. And at the end of the day, it’s about the patients and the care that we provide.”

Jackiewicz then opened the meetings to questions from the group. The discussions centered around new IT initiatives to enhance the patient experience, expanding the health system’s primary care base, venturing into value-based health care plans for the public, price transparency and more.

Jackiewicz also hinted at where things are headed.

“In the coming years, we plan to continue to increase the size of our health system. Independent hospitals want to work with us…stay tuned,” he said.

— Erica Rheinschild