On Jan. 2, Ike Mmeje, MHSA, president and CEO for USC Arcadia Hospital, announced several updates to the hospital’s executive team, all effective this month.
“USC Arcadia Hospital has been serving the community for more than a century, yet each year represents a new and exciting opportunity to do more and do it better,” Mmeje said in his announcement. “So, we enter 2024 with a renewed sense of strength and determination, confident that these leadership changes, coupled with our many past successes, will further cement our hospital’s reputation as an elite provider of health services.”
Lisa Johnson, DNP, RN, CENP, CPHQ, will serve as the chief quality officer, effective Jan. 29. In this role, Mmeje announced, Johnson will lead oversight and coordination of quality improvement, infection prevention, licensing and accreditation for the hospital in addition to other responsibilities.
With over 27 years of health care experience, Johnson most recently served as an executive administrator of quality and outcomes for Keck Medical Center of USC.
Colleen Wilcoxen, RN, MSN, will transition from her current role as acting chief nursing officer to become the hospital’s chief nursing officer on a permanent basis, effective immediately.
Having joined USC-AH in 2021 as assistant chief nursing officer, Wilcoxen will build on her over 10 years of experience as a nurse executive to “serve as a voice for patient care nurses and empower them to reach new heights of clinical excellence,” Mmeje said.
The announcement also named Robert Begg as the hospital’s new vice president of human resources. On Jan. 8, Begg came to USC-AH from the Oregon-based health system Asante, where he most recently served as vice president of human resources.
Among other responsibilities, Begg will lead HR integration and transformation efforts throughout the hospital, reporting to both Mmeje and Ekta Vyas, PhD, chief human resources officer for Keck Medicine of USC.
Beginning Jan. 29, Jynette Querubin, RN, MSN, will serve as director of transformation and strategic projects for USC-AH. Querubin will lead and oversee transformation projects aligned with the hospital and health system’s strategic goals while also functioning as chief of staff for Mmeje’s office.
Most recently, Querubin worked as the director of the office of performance and transformation for Keck Medical Center. In this role Querubin helped lead several effective projects, including the COVID-19 response across Keck Medical Center and USC Norris Cancer Hospital.
Mmeje also noted that, with the above changes, Robert “Robbie” Shappley, the hospital’s chief operating officer, will have executive responsibility for USC-AH’s cardiovascular service line and their perioperative surgical services.
Lastly, B.S. Chandrasekhar, MD, chief medical officer for USC-AH, will have executive responsibility for clinical research, as well as graduate medical education and medical student training.
— Michael Juliani