Emergency and Public Health

About Emergency and Public Health

Our emergency and public health initiative focuses on readiness and engagement to help ensure every hospital maximizes preparedness for health and medical emergencies. By providing linkages to emergency medical services, public health agencies and services like ReddiNet®, our emergency communications network, HASC is building an integrated emergency response system to enhance your capacity to prepare for and respond to emergencies.

In the Spotlight: Regina Chinsio-Kwong, DO

Known familiarly as Dr. CK, Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong holds a doctor of osteopathy degree from Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona. She currently serves as deputy health officer at OC Health Care Agency. In a podcast supplement to this interview, Dr. CK shared more about her career path and sense of mission for pandemic communications. “We have a role in standing our ground (against misinformation) […]

President’s Message from George W. Greene

After experiencing the lowest levels of COVID-19 since last year, hospitalizations in Southern California have swelled by close to 280 percent in the last month. The rapidly rising numbers, the spread of the infectious Delta variant, and unvaccinated populations are concerning as they signal continued increases in hospitalizations over the coming weeks. Fortunately, CDPH has extended […]

Blood Banks, Hospitals Issue Donor Call

The American Red Cross, and other organizations that distribute blood products, are again reporting critical shortages following another low-supply situation in June. This one, however, is worse and may constitute the worst blood supply shortage in a decade. “Some hospitals may have to delay elective surgeries and other medical procedures if the situation worsens,” UC Health said in a press release last […]

Advancing Health Equity: Pathways for Hospitals to Improve Health Virtual Workshop

Session Description  This intensive one-day workshop offered by the Hospital Association of Southern California (HASC), and presented by Communities Lifting Communities and the Public Health Alliance of Southern California, provides an in-depth overview of the role hospitals can play in advancing health equity across their organizations and in the communities they serve. The workshop will cover […]

ReddiNet Celebrates 50 Years of Service

HASC’s ReddiNet® Emergency Medical Communications Service celebrates its 50th anniversary this year – a birthday marked by innovation connected to the region’s coordinated response to COVID-19.  As part of the observance, ReddiNet is sharing a 1971 training film based on HASC’s work developing the original system, which functioned via radio phones based at hospitals. The film’s credits note former HASC President/CEO Steven W. Gamble’s key role […]

#ThisIsOurShot — to Boost Vaccine Trust

The more quickly a majority of people receive their vaccines, the sooner life in California and the U.S. will feel normal — with an open economy and kids in school. #ThisIsOurShot is the No. 1 digital vaccine trust-building campaign in the country, engaging more than 25,000 health care heroes and generating more than 250 million digital impressions since December. This week, HASC, CHA […]

In the Spotlight: Aizita Magaña

Aizita Magaña plays a lead role in the region’s fight against COVID-19 this month. As director of planning and public partnerships with the L.A. County Department of Public Health’s Vaccine Preventable Disease Control Program, she shapes communications around one of Southern California’s most critical vaccination efforts of the past century. Magaña is a public health professional with a passion for […]

In the Spotlight: Michael Marelli

Mike Marelli is vice president, business customer service for Southern California Edison, the wide-ranging utility that provides service to 14 million people across 50,000 square miles and 12 counties.  Marelli oversees SCE’s relationships with its major industrial, commercial government and health care customers. Hospitals are an important customer category — they are the most energy-intensive health care facility type, utilizing close […]

In the Spotlight: Stanley K. Frencher, Jr., MD

Dr. Stanley Frencher, Jr. is medical director of surgical outcomes and quality at Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital and lead physician, urology at Martin Luther King, Jr. Outpatient Center. He is also assistant professor-in-residence at UCLA’s Department of Urology — and an active medical researcher with close to two dozen articles in peer-reviewed journals.  This interview […]

In the Spotlight: Susan Taylor

Susan Taylor is President/CEO at College Hospital Costa Mesa, a 122-bed privately-owned facility. Of that total, 104 are locked, LPS-designated psychiatric care beds. Early this year, College Hospital became the latest of a handful of Southern California locations to open a Crisis Stabilization Unit. Across the region, only about half a dozen county-funded units are open. More are needed — to care for […]