Kaiser’s president of Southern California/Hawaii operations to retire

Julie Miller-Phipps, president of Kaiser Permanente Southern California and Hawaii, plans to retire in July of this year, the company announced.

Miller-Phipps has been president of Kaiser Permanente Southern California since 2016, and president of the Hawaii region since 2020. She served as president of Kaiser Permanente Georgia from 2014 to 2016 after her tenure as senior vice president of Southern California’s Orange County service area, where she began her career with Kaiser 45 years ago.

Miller-Phipps’ leadership has driven many innovations and improvements in the care and services offered to Kaiser members. She has championed population-health efforts and has helped develop strong community partnerships to improve economic, social and environmental conditions that impact health and advance health equity.

She also helped to navigate the organization through three years of the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the greatest public health challenges in the nation’s history. Under her leadership, Kaiser Permanente established mass vaccination hubs, expanded testing sites for members and the public and deployed mobile health resources to improve access to care.

During COVID-19 surges in the winters of 2020 and 2021, the health system was able to quadruple its inpatient capacity, enabling the clinical teams to meet the critical demand for care.

During Miller-Phipps’s time leading in Southern California, where Kaiser Permanente serves about 4.8 million members, the region has earned a long list of accolades. They include:

• Miller-Phipps continued the region’s 15-year unbroken record of achieving the Office of the Patient Advocate’s top rating for “quality of medical care” (2008-2022).
• For 11 years in a row, including six under Miller Phipps’ leadership, the region has earned five out of five stars, the highest overall rating for quality and service from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
• Kaiser Permanente Southern California has six hospitals that have earned Magnet status from the American Nurses Credentialing Center Magnet Recognition Program, which sets the standard for nursing excellence.
• Southern California membership increased by nearly 532,000 members from 2016 through 2022.
• During Miller-Phipps’ tenure, Kaiser Permanente opened or developed two hospitals in San Diego: San Diego Medical Center, which opened in April 2017, and the San Marcos Medical Center, which will open in August 2023.
• Since 2016, Kaiser Permanente Southern California has added about 49 facilities to serve members and patients.

Miller-Phipps’s successor has not been announced.

Source: Orange County Register