Dr. Schwartz is the co–founder and Chief Medical officer of KP OnCall, LLC. Since 1991, he has also served as the Medical Director for American Medical Response, San Diego and is a member of AMR’s national Medical Directors Leadership Council. Dr. Schwartz is Board Certified in both Internal and Emergency Medicine. He received his post–graduate training at Ohio State University and Residency training at UC San Diego and UCLA Harbor.
In addition to practicing Emergency Medicine for over 18 years, Dr. Schwartz has been involved in many areas of health care which include: 12 years experience directing 911 medical call centers, the development and direction of one of the first observation Units in San Diego; medical director for the community rotation of UC San Diego Emergency Medicine; and a clinical teaching position with UC San Diego’s Department of Emergency Medicine.
Dr. Brad Schwartz has emerged as one of the leading physician experts in the field of telephone triage and advice. He has dedicated the last 14 years of his career to telephone medicine and continues to improve the quality of the programs at KP OnCall.
Mr. Lazarus began his professional career in 1984 as one of the first full time employees at Voluntary Hospitals of America. As Manager of Membership for VHA, he helped to build the largest alliance of nonprofit hospitals in the U.S at that time. Mr. Lazarus left the corporate offices of VHA and subsequently worked in the Rocky Mountain and New England regions of the alliance to assist those areas in regional program development.
He joined publicly–traded National Health Enhancement Systems, Inc. in 1989 and ultimately became Senior Vice President over all company products, and later President of the Company’s new medical call center division. As Senior Product Manager for the Company’s medical call center products, Mr. Lazarus built a national network of over 500 call center installations. As President of the Company’s 24 hour national call center service, Mr. Lazarus provided services on an outsourcing basis to such clients as Blue Cross/Blue Shield, PacifiCare, and Johns Hopkins Health System. During this time, Mr. Lazarus emerged as a national expert on medical call centers and was frequently quoted in national journals, faculty at national conferences, and chairman of national call center programs.
When HBO &Company acquired National Health in 1997, Mr. Lazarus moved into his last corporate role as Director of International Business Operations, where he managed international strategic and commercial relations for the HBO &Company Call Center Group. In building an international market for HBO &Company, Mr. Lazarus worked extensively in the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East and Australia.
In 1998, Mr. Lazarus became the founder and Managing Partner for Creative Healthcare, a consultancy and training firm focused on performance improvement, with a concentration in call centers and healthcare delivery systems. While at CHC, Mr. Lazarus launched an online training program in the performance improvement methodologies of Six Sigma and Lean, a program that is available today in partnership with the American Society for Quality. In 2007, he left Creative Healthcare to join KP OnCall.
Throughout Mr. Lazarus’ career at VHA, National Health and Creative Healthcare, he consulted with hundreds of healthcare CEOs and at all levels of health administration. He has spoken at several major healthcare conferences and written articles for all major industry trade publications, including Modern Healthcare, Health Care Strategic Management, Hospital Financial Management (HFM), Pharmaceutical Executive, Computers in Healthcare and Managed Healthcare. In 1997, Managed Healthcare designated Mr. Lazarus their expert in international healthcare activity and in 1999, he joined the Managed Healthcare Editorial Board where literally dozens of his articles have appeared over the years.
Mr. Lazarus is a Fellow in The American College of Healthcare Executives and serves regularly as faculty at the Congress on Health Administration, conducted by ACHE. He received his training in health administration at The University of Michigan, and most recently became certified as a b Six Sigma Blackbelt,b with concentration on service industries. He is on the Relief Task Force for Doctors without Borders, a volunteer for Teach for America and serves on the Board of the Society of Health Leaders, an ACHE affiliate chapter. Previous to this, he served as a charter member of the Board for Social Venture Partners, a charity foundation focused on bringing a venture capital approach to the funding of nonprofit organizations.
Ramona manages KP OnCall's day–to–day call center operations. She works with KP OnCall’s team of nursing and clerical support supervisors and staff to meet the needs of the caller by providing efficient and accurate triage and advice. Ramona coordinates activities with other departments to maintain high service levels and quality standards. She has supported the expansion of the Remote Agent program which allows RN's to work from home within KP Southern California and is active in pursuing the extension of the program outside the service area.
Offering 25 years of nursing experience and 13 years of management experience she joined KP OnCall in 2003. Her management experience in 24/7 hospital environment is an excellent fit into a 24/7 healthcare call center environment. Prior to joining the organization, Ramona managed a variety of hospital units, including a 47 bed medical unit in San Diego. Ramona holds a Masters of Science in Nursing and a Bachelors of Science in Nursing and a Bachelors of Art in Biology from the University of San Diego.
Since 1995, Ms. Kwittken has led the continuous development and oversight of the quality improvement program for KP OnCall, LLC. Through her tenure, KP OnCall, LLC’s quality program has become one of the most dynamic and responsive programs in the country related to nurse triage. Melissa has developed the quality program to encompass the following areas: quality oversight of clinical processes; protocol development, review and revision; policy and procedure development, review and revision; complaint investigation and resolution; outcome studies and focus studies. The integration of these processes has established a solid foundation and framework for the quality services provided by KP OnCall, LLC.
Prior to her role as QI Manager, she worked as a Telemedicine Specialist and was involved in the initial development of the clinical protocols. Melissa retains her certification in Telephone Triage Nursing (RN, C) and is a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ). She is also a member of the American Association of Ambulatory Nurses (AAACN) and the California Association for Healthcare Quality (CAHQ). Melissa served on the AAACN Telehealth Nursing Practice (TNP) Standards Task Force the 2007 publication of the AAACN TNP Standards. Prior to joining KP OnCall, Melissa served as an Emergency Department Nurse at Palomar Medical Center in San Diego and as a Lieutenant in the United States Navy. Ms. Kwittken received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Missouri–Columbia, School of Nursing.
Dan Wallis joined KP OnCall as the Director of Technology in 2000. He brings over 15 years of experience managing teams to develop successful technology solutions aligned with organizational goals. The driving force behind many of the call centerbs business process improvements, Dan consistently extends beyond IT to be an integral part of the entire organization.
A talented and engaging speaker, Dan has presented at several national technology conferences and has been recognized for his innovative work. Most recently, as a pioneer in the implementation of a virtual call centers, Dan was recognized by the Telework Coalition at the Call Center 2.0 conference for his work in developing a work at home program in a union environment.
Dan holds a Bachelors of Science in Business/Information systems and a Masters in Business Administration. Additionally, he is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and certified in LEAN methodologies. He is a constant and positive force for change, both strategic and tactical, and infuses his enthusiasm and energy into any work environment.
Diane joined KP OnCall, LLC (formerly OnCall Healthcare Communications) in 1996 and has served in a variety of roles in the organization. Currently, she is serving as an Executive Account Manager.
Her most recent efforts involved the execution of a successful recruitment and training strategy to expand nurse triage and advice services for Kaiser Permanente, Southern California. This resulted in substantial growth of Telemedicine Specialists from under 10 in 1996 to 180 in 2008. In this role she was also responsible for the development, coordination, implementation and oversight of the telemedicine training program at KP OnCall.
Diane’s professional experience prior to coming to KP OnCall is 10 years of emergency nursing in the areas of disaster preparedness, hazardous materials care, and pre–hospital care directing paramedic calls for the County of San Diego. She established a new graduate training program in emergency nursing at UCSD Medical Center, as well as assisted in the instruction and training of paramedics for the UCSD Emergency Medical Training Institute.
Jan was one of the original members of OnCall Healthcare Communications. During her previous five years at OnCall, she facilitated many aspects of the organization including: TMS, trainer, Human Resources, Account Manager, Clinical Operations Manager and Sales representative.
Jan’s experience with OnCall prior to the KP purchase as well as her training and background as a Kaiser Nurse Practitioner provide insight for all of KP OnCall’s relationships. She began her career with Kaiser Permanente, working as a Family Practice NP and eventually worked in Neurology in San Diego under Dr. Art Flippen. Her prior nursing experience of Emergency Department nursing and administration also bring understanding of nurse triage issues. Between her stints with OnCall, Jan worked for the State of California inspecting Health Care Facilities for compliance with Federal and State regulations.
Since leaving On Call she has continued to be active in the Air Force Reserve as a flight nurse and administrator. She served in Desert Storm, Operation Iraqi Freedom and most recently deployed to New Orleans to assist in Hurricane Katrina rescue efforts. Prior to rejoining KP OnCall, she was a Health Facilities inspector for the State of California.
Laura services KP OnCall customers as an account manager. She is also responsible for the development, and on–going training associated with the telemedicine training program.
Laura joined KP OnCall in 1999 as a Telemedicine Specialist. She then served in the role of a Nurse Supervisor and Training Assistant. She continued to develop key advancements within KP OnCall’s systems, such as the development customer specific protocols, the e–learning platform and staff message boards.
Prior to joining KP OnCall, Laura served as an emergency department nurse at a variety of hospitals in San Diego and as a Clinical Nurse Supervisor of Critical Care Ground and Air Transports with a local ambulance company.
Laura is a member of the American Association of Ambulatory Nurses (AAACN) and received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Phoenix.
Vicki joined KP OnCall, LLC as a Telemedicine Specialist in August 2002. Since joining KP OnCall, she has served in a variety of leadership roles within Quality Improvement. Vicki currently serves as the Protocol and Instructions manager and key liaison with Kaiser Permanente’s electronic medical record, KP HealthConnect.
Vicki has been instrumental in the development and integration of KP OnCall’s protocols into KP HealthConnect. She is responsible for the direct improvement and oversight of the protocols both at KP OnCall and in KP HealthConnect. Additionally, as the Nurse Clinical Systems Project Manager, Vicki provides leadership and project management on many new initiatives to improve KP OnCall’s quality and clinical systems.
Vicki began her nursing career with Kaiser Permanente in March 1998 as a Medical–Surgical Nurse extern at the San Diego Medical Center. Her nursing expertise is varied in such areas as: Medical–Surgical, High Risk OB and Labor and Delivery.
Vicki is a member of the American Academy of Ambulatory Nursing (AAACN) and the California Association for HealthCare Quality (CAHQ). She holds a Bachelors of Science in Nursing from San Diego State University’s School of Nursing.