Affirming his ongoing commitment to protect children’s health and the role of children’s hospitals in medical care, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles President and CEO Paul S. Viviano has been elected chair of the California Children’s Hospital Association board of trustees.

Viviano, who has been a member of the association’s board since 2015, began his new role in January.

Viviano (photo courtesy of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles)

“Paul Viviano will be a tremendous boon to CCHA in his new role,” said Ann-Louise Kuhns, the association’s president and CEO.

Viviano, who has three decades of experience leading academic medical centers, for-profit health care organizations and nonprofit community hospitals, embraces the CCHA mission that every child should have access to high quality, cost-effective primary, preventive and specialty health care services.

“California’s freestanding children’s hospitals and their community partners are the backbone of our state’s pediatric care, treating everyone from infants to adolescents,” Viviano said. “Every day, our hospital’s physicians, surgeons, researchers, educators and support staff create healthier futures for kids across the state. It is imperative that the public, and our state and federal lawmakers, help our children’s hospitals continue to provide the highest quality and safest patient care.”

Children’s Hospital has been advocating on behalf of California’s eight freestanding pediatric hospitals and their patient families for more than 20 years. The association works with state and national policy makers to address issues impacting the hospitals’ ability to provide the best care possible to California kids, especially those with special and complex medical conditions.

It’s goals for the upcoming year include passage of the California Children’s Hospital Bond Act of 2018, which would enable a much-needed $1.5 billion investment in pediatric hospital infrastructure across the state to improve quality of care, expand access to new and effective treatments for children, and build capacity to train the next generation of pediatricians; and protecting the tremendous gains California has made in expanding health care coverage for children. About 97 percent of children living in California have some form of health insurance, and state-federal partnerships like Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program must be protected to safeguard these gains.

Viviano’s term as board chair runs through 2019.