FEATURED NEWSMAKER M. Kevin Ariani, MD, Cardiologist, is the newly elected president of the medical staff of Northridge Hospital Medical Center. Ariani, a resident of Tarzana, joined the medical staff of the 411-bed, nonprofit hospital in 1995. He has served as chairman of the Department of Medicine, the Medical Staff Treasurer and chairman of the Critical Care Committee. He is currently the Medical Director of Northridge Hospital’s Cardiac Research and Medical Director of the Intensive Care Unit. Q: What does this job entail? We have at least 600 or so medical staff, probably more than that I don’t have the book in front of me, so the work entails going over the relationships between our medical staff and the administration, assuring that our medical staff provide the best medical care to patients of the San Fernando Valley and the community in general, and having a good working environment between physicians and other allied staff such as nurses, technologists, technicians, and therapists to assure that there are good working relationships among our staff. Q: What do you hope to accomplish in this new role? I’d like to have an improved image and quality for the hospital, that’s number one, and improved physician and patient satisfaction with the hospital. We are a great medical center but we provide a lot of services that are not well utilized and one of my main goals is to improve utilization of hospital resources for the community to its maximum. We are a not-for-profit hospital so I believe there are still areas that we can service everyone better. Q: What challenges do you see ahead? The main challenge that I see ahead is accommodating to the new changes in payment assignments in the Medicare system from what they were before. Medicare has already cut about 21 percent for physicians around the board as well as cut reimbursements to the hospitals and that’s going to be a challenge for every hospital in the country. – Andrea Alegria