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UCLA Medical Center CEO David Feinberg steers hospital focus to patient care

David Feinberg earned more than $100,000 from a pair of donors while serving as president of the UCLA Health System.
(Daily Bruin file photo)

This article is part of the Daily Bruin’s Graduation Issue 2011 coverage. To view the entire package of articles, columns and multimedia, please visit:

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By Devin Kelly

June 6, 2011 1:29 a.m.

Walking through the well-lit lobby of the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, David Feinberg greets just about everyone he sees.

The chief executive officer of the UCLA Medical Center and the University of California’s highest-paid employee keeps up the chatter in the elevator on his way to lead by example his now-famous patient-centered approach to university health care.

Keeping the personable Feinberg at the helm of the medical system was labeled “essential” by UCLA in a September report to the UC Board of Regents. His salary, which was comparable to other UC medical system leaders at the time of his promotion in 2007, has roughly doubled to $1.3 million, paid out of clinical revenues. In September, the UC Board of Regents approved a request for annual retention bonuses worth a quarter of a million dollars each.

Private donors have created an endowment fund to cover the cost of retaining Feinberg in the face of competing job offers, raising nearly $7 million to date.

The compensation boosts have drawn fire from critics. Negative headlines were compounded in January when 36 highly paid UC executives, including Feinberg, signed a letter to the regents demanding increased retirement benefits promised more than a decade ago.

But in the hospital setting, Feinberg tries to blend in. On a recent Tuesday morning, he wraps through the 24-bed pediatric intensive care unit, talking over the sound of infant shrieks.

He enters one of the units near the exit of the ward and extends his hand to Amy Tajanlangit of Huntington Beach, who is preparing to leave after a weeklong stay. Her baby son, Romeo Jaden, has gotten heart surgery.

Feinberg speaks to her quietly, just above hearing level. He asks about the care and whether a follow-up appointment has been set up.

Tajanlangit says the bathroom is too far down the hallway for a parent spending the night. She is also disappointed in the nurse, who seemed inexperienced. The sheer expense of staying in the Intensive Care Unit made that more disappointing, Tajanlangit says.

Feinberg climbs over a pile of bags on the floor ““ “That’s a lot of equipment for a little guy,” he says with a smile ““ to show her a cabinet where a portable bathroom is located. He writes his cellphone number on the back of his card and tells Tajanlangit to call him if she needs anything.

He walks the halls for one to two hours every day, talking to patients, he said.

A willingness to lead by example, fused with personality and an inside knowledge of the UCLA system, has made Feinberg invaluable, colleagues said. Feinberg arrived at UCLA as a resident in clinical psychiatry in 1990. He has yet to leave.

“He didn’t just land from Mars in his job,” said Thomas Strouse, a professor of clinical psychiatry, medical director of the Resnick Psychiatric Hospital and longtime colleague. “He worked his way up through the system.”

Feinberg is credited with incentivizing a stronger focus on patient satisfaction, which has traditionally fallen by the wayside in a university hospital setting also devoting attention to teaching and research. In the past, patients felt more like specimens than people, said third-year medical student Jessica Rexach.

In the fall of 2009, UCLA for the first time was ranked No. 1 in patient satisfaction out of 72 University Hospital Consortium members in the category, said chief marketing officer Barbara Anason.

UCLA ranked at or below national averages on a similar survey on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website. Only two areas far surpassed the others: overall hospital quality and whether the patient would recommend the facility to friends.

Driving up a positive response to the second question is the focal point of Feinberg’s approach. The emphasis on patient satisfaction has a profitable side to it, as well.

“I guess I get accused often of being a marketer,” Feinberg said of his “tell-your-friends” line. “But I believe in it.”

UCLA does not necessarily stand out in this respect. Trends in quality improvement and patient-focused approaches have been seen across the board in all health systems over the past decade, said Dylan Roby, a professor with the UCLA School of Public Health and UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. Academic medical centers have been playing catch-up to private enterprises.

“It’s not new, but (Feinberg) made a concerted effort to make (patient care and quality improvement) a priority,” said Fawzy Fawzy, senior associate dean for academic affairs in the David Geffen School of Medicine.

Other factors have contributed to recent financial success as well. After the hospital’s financial health deteriorated in the economic recession of the early 2000s, the medical system brought in outside consultants to straighten out operations, said Shane White, a professor in the School of Dentistry and chair of the UC-wide Faculty Welfare Committee.

UCLA has also benefited from rising insurance rates and the closure of several local hospitals, White said.

But White noted that the revenue generated by the hospital subsidizes the rest of campus. A financial hiccup could mean losses in the tens of millions of dollars borne by the rest of the campus, he said, which underscores the importance of having a strong leader.

Yet Feinberg said he doesn’t like receiving the credit for being a physician champion.

“We’re in show-off mode right now, but it isn’t who we are,” he said.

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