February 13, 2025

Leadership Message: Thank you, Farewell, and the Future is Bright at UC Davis Health

(SACRAMENTO)

Dear Colleagues,

As many of you know, these are my final days at UC Davis Health, and I will retire after more than six years of service to you, our patients, and our Northern California communities.

I am departing with fond memories and relationships that will endure. It has been a privilege to lead this amazing organization. I am deeply proud of all that we have accomplished together. As I look back on my time here, I’d like to extend my deepest gratitude to our chairs, doctors, nurses, residents, employees, and all of our supporters on the main campus and throughout Northern California.

I am so excited to watch from afar as UC Davis Health continues down the incredible path we are on. We already know you are in great hands with Mike Condrin as interim chief executive officer, Bruce Hall as interim vice chancellor of human health sciences, Susan Murin as permanent dean of the School of Medicine, and the rest of our fantastic leadership team. They absolutely bring world-class experiences and mindsets that will continue to drive UC Davis Health’s strategic goals forward in patient care, education and research throughout the region.

Strategically positioned for future success

Putting patients first and foremost has been our mantra as we deliver “tomorrow’s health care today.” I urge everyone to continue this patient-centric approach while harnessing the very best of the innovative technology that is arising all around us in accelerated and fascinating ways.

Following this path, UC Davis Health has already risen in key national rankings of patient care in the last several years while also becoming a trusted community partner and cultivating game-changing advances along the way. Consider some of our key accomplishments:

We’ve enhanced patient-centric care; AI and digital health advancements; expanding access to care and treating more patients:
- We have increased the number of patients by more than 60%, by launching a transformational change of the health system’s facilities to better care for even more patients. We’ve launched 44-plus AI projects; tapped into AI to reduce morbidity and mortality from sepsis and to reduce workload burden on physicians by 12%. With AI, we have driven down sepsis cases to some of the best outcomes in the country, with a 10x improvement in sepsis-related mortality. UC Davis Health is now in the Top 2% in U.S. for best sepsis outcomes.
We’ve advanced diversity, equity, and inclusion – expanding the number of students in both medical and nursing schools – and we’ve reconnected closer to our key neighbor communities through adopting an Anchor Institution Mission:
- We have diversified our faculty (doubling the number of URM faculty since my arrival) and achieved the highest amount ever of NIH funding for the UC Davis School of Medicine. We have also steadily increased the number of students graduating from the Schools of Medicine (3rd most diverse in the country) and Nursing, graduating the largest number of Hispanic students in the nation.
We’ve weathered the pandemic, the following financial storms, and are working to enhance our workplace culture.
- Revenue growth has increased to about $5.5 billion from $2.8 billion in 2018 when I arrived. The California Tower will be a game-changer when it opens in 2030, continuing our commitment to education, research, patient care and community health. We’re doubling the square footage of the health system in less than 8 years, from 3.6 million square feet to 7 million by 2030, through $7.5 billion in capital spending, including the largest outpatient surgery facility under construction in the U.S. All of this allows us to hire even more health care professionals and to care for more patients. This will all continue to build upon what we’ve already accomplished as a nationally ranked model workplace and “dream employer” (Forbes, among many others).

Change is our new ‘normal’

The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said, “The only constant in life is change.” Change is inherent to our field, whether we like it or not (and we actually do like it, as we need it). At UC Davis Health, this is in your hands now, each and every one of you – and, I believe you’re up for the challenge. Walking the halls of our hospital, clinics and facilities, I always saw enthusiasm, dedication and a deep commitment to our patients in the faces of the people I met.

After I retire from UC Davis Health, I am returning to where I grew up, where I will serve as the president and CEO of Westchester Medical Center Health Network – a nine-hospital health system near Valhalla, New York. I will always keep tabs on your wonderful – and expected – progress ahead.

Thank you for allowing me to share in this journey with you for this part of UC Davis Health’s history. I take comfort in knowing that we will never truly be apart, because I will be cheering from afar – for all of you – in the years ahead, with all of my heart.