2004 Tribute Award Recipient: C. Duane Dauner
CALIFORNIA HEALTHCARE ASSOCIATION LEADER HONORED AT
PARTNERS IN CARE FOUNDATION'S 2004 VISION AND EXCELLENCE
IN HEALTHCARE LEADERSHIP TRIBUTE DINNER
C. Duane Dauner Named Tribute Dinner's
MATHIES AWARD Recipient
In recognition of his leadership, vision and influence of healthcare policy, Partners in Care Foundation (Partners) named C. Duane Dauner, President and CEO of the California Healthcare Association (CHA), as the recipient of the organization's 2004 Mathies Award. Mr. Dauner received the award at Partners' fifth annual Vision and Excellence in Healthcare Leadership Tribute Dinner held on April 16, 2004 at The California Club, Los Angeles.
Initiated and named in honor of Partners' first award winners, Dr. Allen & Weta Mathies, the Mathies Award is given each year in recognition of a courageous and creative leader in the executive healthcare community whose dedication and accomplishments are a model for others to emulate in changing the shape of healthcare. "With our health care system at a crisis point, especially in greater Los Angeles," notes Robert W. Lundy, J.D., Chair of Partners' Board of Directors, "the Mathies Award calls attention to the need for leaders who step forward to affect positive change in improving health care services. Mr. Dauner exemplifies how individuals do make the difference."
As President and CEO of the CHA, C. Duane Dauner leads the nation's largest state healthcare association. The CHA provides statewide representation and advocacy for more than 500 hospitals, health systems and healthcare organizations. Under Mr. Dauner's leadership, the CHA has created and supported major legislation to increase the ability of California's hospitals and healthcare systems to provide care, especially in vulnerable communities.
"For his 38 years of dedicated service (the last 18 in California) to improving health care, C. Duane Dauner's influential role in leading healthcare organizations has been instrumental in shaping the direction of health care in the state and nationwide," said W. June Simmons, President/CEO of Partners. "Mr. Dauner's unique ability to develop consensus and lead diverse interests exemplifies thoughtful, intelligent and collaborative leadership for healthcare organizations to benefit those they serve. He embodies the true spirit and meaning of Partners in Care Foundation's Mathies Award."
Since assuming the chief executive position of the CHA in 1985, Mr. Dauner has been instrumental in leading the mission of the organization: to provide an optimally healthy society in which every Californian has equitable access to affordable, high-quality medically necessary healthcare; and to increase coverage for the unemployed while preserving the survival and integrity of California's hospitals and their ability to deliver services to the benefit of those they serve.
Mr. Dauner's vision of service to the healthcare community has been dedicated to resolving the three areas of healthcare that he terms the "Achilles heel" of health care: 1) the crisis of uninsured patients; 2) the lack of aligned incentives among hospitals, providers, and third-party payers; and 3) chronic and significant underpayments by state and federal governments.
In the course of these 20 years, Mr. Dauner led the CHA staff and membership in several key areas of legislative advocacy and sponsorship to bring about:
- Malpractice insurance reform for California hospitals which saved hundreds of millions of dollars;
- Ballot initiative for tobacco tax to be dedicated to health education and programs;
- Healthcare policy resulting in legislation establishing the principle of "community benefit" and;
- Guidelines and standards for hospitals' inpatient and outpatients services demonstrating service to their respective communities.
Most recently, CHA's outstanding accomplishment was as co-sponsor of the provisions in the Medicare reform act (S. 1/H.R. 1) that provided over $1 billion in direct benefit to California hospitals. As Mr. Dauner notes, "The funding for emergency services to the undocumented immigrants in California supports the integrity of California's hospitals and healthcare systems in their mission to render care to all patients."
Heartened by the increasing public awareness of healthcare issues, Mr. Dauner notes public discussion at the grassroots level is a much more potent force for change than the "top-down" approach of previous decades. This greater public support provides opportunities to initiate, develop, and build consensus among all the diverse interests to address California's pressing issues in health care.
Mr. Dauner's association with hospitals began in 1966 when he became director of research at the Kansas Health Facilities Information Service. He then served as vice president of the Kansas Hospital Association. Then he served and as president and chief executive officer of the Missouri Hospital Association. After several academic appointments, he assumed leadership of the California Association of Hospitals and Health Systems in 1985, which became the CHA in 1996. Author of The Health Care Solution, his book on healthcare reform, and numerous articles in industry publications, he is a nationally known authoritative source on health issues.
A native of Isabel, Kansas, Mr. Dauner attended Pepperdine University in California and Wichita State University in Kansas, where he received bachelor's and master's degrees. He taught mathematics and logic at Wichita State University and, following postgraduate study at the University of Nebraska, became an assistant professor at Washburn University of Topeka, Kansas.
Mr. Dauner has served on the boards of numerous professional, business and political organizations. He also is a past chair of Californians Allied for Patient Protection (CAPP), a coalition of providers and health liability insurers organized to preserve the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act of 1975 (MICRA). He lectures for several university graduate programs in health care administration.
Mr. Dauner has been active in national hospital and healthcare issues, having served on numerous American Hospital Association (AHA) and American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) committees and as a member of the AHA Board of Trustees and the Hospital Research and Educational Trust Board of Trustees (HRET), an affiliate of AHA. He is a Fellow of ACHE and member of the ACHE Leadership Planning Advisory Committee, earning ACHE's highest honor, the Gold Medal Award in 2002.
In 2006, Mr. Dauner received the UCLA Health Services Alumni Association Leader of Today award and was the recipient of the Health Care Executives of Southern California Lifetime Achievement award. Mr. Dauner has served on the boards of numerous professional, business and political organizations and lectures for several university graduate programs in health care administration.
Previous Mathies Award honorees are: Robert E. Tranquada, M.D., for leadership in initiating and developing community-based healthcare organizations; James E. Ludlam, J.D., as pioneer in healthcare policy and law; Yoshi Honkawa, as mentor and advocate in public and government healthcare policy; and Dr. Allen & Weta Mathies, leaders and community activists in several healthcare and social services organizations. James C. Lester, Little Company of Mary Healthcare Systems (past CEO), and Mahvash Yazdi, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Edison International and Southern California Edison, are the Tribute Dinner Co-Chairs with distinguished healthcare leaders serving on the Tribute, Dinner and Honorary Committees. The California Club has been made available courtesy of Club members James E. Ludlam, J.D., and Gerald Sullivan.
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Partners in Care Foundation (Partners) works to change the shape of healthcare and social services so they work better for everyone. Partners is unique as a both a think-tank and a proving ground. Partners tests, measures, refines and replicates many innovative programs and services through the organization's direct services. The goal is to bring efficient health and social services to people and their communities.
Innovative initiatives and research projects in its areas of interest include Aging Well, End-of-Life, Access to Care, Education and Advocacy serve as national models of care. Partners has two direct service non-profit affiliates. Partners' Visiting Nurse Community Services provides practical solutions to families in crisis as well as support for two adult day health care centers in the Antelope and Santa Clarita Valleys. The Care-A-Van mobile health clinic serves uninsured and under insured individuals and families in remote areas of the Antelope Valley. Partners' affiliated Hospice of Pasadena, a counseling and volunteer hospice, provides individual and family counseling and adult, children and teen support groups.
Partially funded by the United Way of Greater Los Angeles, Partners in Care Foundation continues and expands its legacy of innovation by bringing together healthcare organizations, funders and community-based organizations to support initiatives and developing new models of care which are reshaping health care services to meet the challenging healthcare needs of the 21st century.
