Loma Linda University Health president and CEO Richard Hart, MD, DrPH, has been recognized as one of “110 Physician Leaders to Know in 2016” by Becker’s Hospital Review.
A leading industry publication, Becker’s Hospital Review named in its latest issue the top physican leaders of hospitals and health systems across the country.
“All recipients have demonstrated outstanding leadership and clinical expertise throughout their careers, leading initiatives to improve their individual organizations and the health care of the communities they serve,” the magazine said in a statement.
U.S. Rep. Pete Aguilar (CA-31st District) says, “Dr. Richard Hart’s devotion to his work is obvious to all who have met him. He has helped families throughout the Inland Empire in their greatest hours of need. His vision has provided immense opportunity and hope to San Bernardino and our region.”
Roger Hadley, MD, Loma Linda University Health’s executive vice president of medical affairs, and dean of Loma Linda University School of Medicine, says, “Dr. Hart is a true visionary — for our institution, for our community and for our world. We are excited that he has been brought to the forefront as a physician leader to know by Becker’s Hospital Review. Dr. Hart is a remarkable man.”
Hart’s legacy of community and global service
In the late 1960s, as a medical student at Loma Linda University, Hart founded the Social Action Corps (SAC) as an outreach effort of students and staff at Loma Linda University and Loma Linda University Medical Center. Over the course of decades, volunteers offered temporary medical clinics in donated spaces within the community. When Norton Air Force Base closed in 1992, SAC acquired it and converted it into a medical facility.
Now called SAC Health System, it has expanded to include a presence at the new Loma Linda University – San Bernardino campus, a 150,000-square-foot facility in downtown San Bernardino offering an innovative approach to health care, education and health awareness for the region. Primary and specialty care of all types will be provided as well as dental care. Filling out the space will be a large behavioral health area with both private and group counseling rooms, a pharmacy, laboratory and vegetarian cafeteria.
The San Manuel Gateway College occupies the upper floor of Loma Linda University Health – San Bernardino, providing a unique venue for educational opportunities that will offer both vertical and horizontal integration of San Manuel students with Loma Linda students and physicians in their specialty training — three levels of education, with many different health disciplines learning side by side. The facility offers classrooms, laboratories, a simulation lab, an anatomy lab and learning space.
Hart has served Loma Linda University Health since 1972, including serving as chair of the School of Public Health’s department of health sciences; director of the Center for Health Promotion; chair of the School of Medicine’s department of preventive medicine; dean of the School of Public Health; and president (previously chancellor) and CEO of the University.
It is Hart’s bold strategic vision for the future that fuels Vision 2020, a $1.2 billion project with a $360 million philanthropic goal — the largest such endeavor in the history of Loma Linda University Health and the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Vision 2020 includes the design, development and construction of a new Children’s Hospital tower and adult hospital — currently the largest hospital construction project in the state of California; a new Wholeness Institute and research center; and scholarship and educational endowments and programs that will change the approach for health care and education for the future.
Hart is also president of Adventist Health International, a nonprofit organization focused on upgrading and managing mission hospitals by providing governance, consultation and technical assistance to over 43 affiliated Seventh-day Adventist hospitals and 67 clinics throughout Africa, Asia, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. While not directly a part of the Loma Linda University Health system, Adventist Health International continues to work closely with Loma Linda’s Global Health Institute (of which Hart serves as director) in collaborative efforts to provide aid to hospitals in need.
In addition to his numerous leadership and operational responsibilities, Hart also remains a practicing physician, seeing patients one day a week.