Rita Hernandez

• Responsible for administration of the largest surgical group in the Coachella Valley and the only trauma group; January 2022, successfully expanded groups contracted services to St. Francis Medical Center located in Los Angeles, CA.
• Direct surgical groups administration for multiple Level-I and Level-II Trauma Centers.
• Responsible for oversight of the general surgery and surgical critical care administrative offices in partnership with hospital administration.
• Establish and implement goals, objectives, policies, procedures and systems to secure business partnerships with multiple Level-I and Level-II Trauma Centers.
• Project manager for groups expansion to JFK Memorial Hospital (2021) and St. Francis Medical Center (2022).
• Research, recommend and implement new programs for employee recruitment and retention.
• Lead recruitment efforts for surgical critical care teams and facilitate provider credentialing verification for all hospital sites.
• Set priorities and problem-solved workflow issues to maintain rapport with customers and managers.
• Analyze data related to administrative costs and spending trends to prepare budgets for personnel.

• Administered $8M annual budget to manage labor, resources, and building operational costs.
• Allocated daily work assignments for over 50 employees and licensed medical personnel.
• Established and monitored key performance indicators (KPIs) including performing time studies to increase efficiency and lower costs.
• Created high-performing administrative teams including delivering continuous development and career opportunities.
• Evaluated emergent issues and developed effective business solutions.
• Liaison concerning all corporate functions to ensure compliant business operations.
• Managed development of new center including conducting external audits to secure several certifications including Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA), Plasma Protein Therapeutics Association (PPTA), and Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES).
• Managed quality and compliance functions to ensure programs and services were implemented to meet or exceed service level agreements and enhance return on investments.
• Consultant for cross-functional teams to analyze and diagnose various problems; amended business processes, communication strategies and employed cost controls to implement lasting solutions for multiple sites across the U.S.
• Surpassed Internal Quality Audit (IQA) with score of 100%.
• Completed AGES Audit with OUTSTANDING score.

• Coordinated and aligned Center activities with all standard operating procedures (SOPs) and regulatory agency guidelines.
• Launched quality system management program in compliance with FDA, PPTA, and European (EU) guidelines.
• Performed quality assurance, monitored KPIs, and executed corrective action initiatives to address operational vulnerabilities.
• Streamlined quality management system to reduce discrepancies and error rates by 40 percent.
• Served as Lead Auditor for Center to conduct internal/external evaluations to evaluate compliance with ISO and customer requirements.
• Trained and developed cross functional teams on system and operational improvement.
• Investigated product-quality issues to protect the safety, quality and integrity of each human plasma product.
• Defined and implemented processes for increasing the quality of product which resulted in a 25% decrease in defects during the processing cycle.

• Spearheaded process improvements to optimize clinic practices and improve patient services.
• Designated super user and subject matter expert (SME) for management of electronic health records (EHR).
• Provided technical support for patient electronic charting procedures to comply with Affordable Care Act (ACA) regulations.
• Innovated protocols and procedures to improve accuracy and completeness of records and data to achieve patient care and quality benchmarks.
• Collaborated with Senior Leadership to complete record retention projects throughout the practice.

• Authored new and revised existing standard operating procedures to facilitate regulatory processes.
• Set forth recommendations to address emergent business and compliance problems.
• Conducted root cause analysis to identify process vulnerabilities and develop corrective action plans.
• Performed QA audits to evaluate unsuitable donor results and related post-transfusion reports to determine overall blood product quality and safety.
• Made key contributions to secure business partnership with Octapharma Plasma including ISBT 128 implementation and European (EU) Certification.
• Spearheaded opening of new satellite blood donation center in Honolulu, HI.
• Established and maintained a document tracking and distribution mechanism for all Blood Bank of Hawaii regulated and non-regulated documents.
• Traveled throughout Hawaiian Islands to perform blood bank audits with contracted hospitals.
• Implemented process improvements to increase productivity in quality assurance operations.
• Monitored product standards and quality-control programs.

Graduated Magna Cum Laude