HONOLULU — The state’s largest integrated health-care system recently announced a new leadership team to continue the Kaiser Permanente mission of providing high-quality care and services to members, patients and the Hawai‘i community.
Greg Christian, president, Hawai‘i market, Kaiser Permanente, Health Plan and Hospitals, and John Yang, MD, president and medical director, Hawai‘i Permanente Medical Group, are taking on new roles with direct responsibility for Kaiser Permanente Hawai‘i operations.
Christian brings over 38 years of health-care leadership experience, with a strong background in health-care delivery, operations, finance and people development. Prior to his new role, Christian served as senior vice president and area manager for Kaiser Permanente’s San Bernardino County Service Area in California, leading the opening and directing operations of two state-of-the-art hospitals: Kaiser Permanente Ontario and Fontana medical centers.
He led the service area to several quality and service awards, delivering high-quality, affordable care and coverage to over 636,000 Southern California members. Christian graduated from Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California, with a bachelor’s degree in business and economics, and received his master’s degree in business administration with an emphasis on health-care management from American InterContinental University in Schaumberg, Illinois.
Yang has been a Permanente physician with Southern California Permanente Medical Group since 2001 and the physician director for primary-care operations for SCPMG in Orange County since 2015.
He was accountable for and led high performance in all aspects of care delivery and operations provided by 360 primary-care physicians providing care to 580,000 Kaiser Permanente members in 17 primary-care medical offices and three urgent-care locations.
He is a family-medicine physician by training, and received his medical degree from Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University in Chicago. Yang completed his residency in family medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine/Providence Hospital in Washington, DC, and was a fellow in medical informatics and faculty development.
He was named Family Physician of the Year for Kaiser Permanente Orange County and also received the Parke-Davis Resident Teacher of the Year award.
Kaiser Permanente has been a part of the islands’ health-care infrastructure for more than 60 years. This leadership change and a closer working relationship with Kaiser Permanente Southern California will help to ensure long-term sustainability for many years to come.
