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Los Angeles public health physician honored with CMA membership award

October 22, 2017
Area(s) of Interest: Physician Leadership 


Mitchell Katz, M.D., director of the Los Angeles County Health Agency, has been named the 2017 recipient of the California Medical Association (CMA) Dev A. GnanaDev, M.D., Membership Award, which recognizes a special or unique effort toward membership recruitment. The award was announced today at CMA’s annual House of Delegates in Anaheim.


The Los Angeles County Health Agency is a newly created agency that combines the Departments of Health Services, Public Health and Mental Health into a single entity to provide more integrated care and programming within Los Angeles.


At head of the new agency, Dr. Katz brought in 768 new members in 2016, making it possible for the California Medical Association (CMA) and the Los Angeles County Medical Association (LACMA) to better engage with Los Angeles county physicians to combat public health issues facing their communities.


Before being tapped to head the Los Angeles County Health Agency, Dr. Katz served as the Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, the second-largest public safety net system in the United States. During this time, he created the ambulatory care network and empaneled over 350,000 patients to a primary care home.


He also moved over 1,000 medically complex patients from hospitals and emergency departments into independent housing, thereby eliminating unnecessary expensive hospital care and giving the patients the dignity of their own homes.


Before he came to Los Angeles, Dr. Katz was the Director and Health Officer of the San Francisco Department of Health for 13 years. He is well known for funding needle exchanges, creating Healthy San Francisco, outlawing the sale of tobacco at pharmacies, and winning ballot measures to rebuild Laguna Honda Hospital and San Francisco General Hospital. 

 

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