Tony Padilla

Tony Padilla has dedicated his career to improving the patient experience.  He leads UCLA Health’s efforts in fostering a patient-centered culture through its CICARE philosophy.  Mr. Padilla was instrumental in the implementation of CICARE and its success in raising UCLA’s HCAHPS “hospital rating” scores from the 26th percentile in 2007 to the 97th percentile in 2012.  Mr. Padilla partners with teams of patients, physicians, staff and executives to improve the patient experience at UCLA Health.        

Mr. Padilla is responsible for ensuring that CICARE is incorporated into UCLA’s leadership practices, service training, employee selection and onboarding processes. He partners with the entire UCLA team to ensure that patients are true partners at each juncture of their experience. Mr. Padilla also oversees UCLA’s Patient Advisor Program, Patient Liaison Services, Patient Satisfaction Surveys, Language Assistance, “Front Door” services, UCLA’s Patient and Family Guest House, and a volunteer corp. of over 3,000 individuals.   

Mr. Padilla develops and instructs courses in Patient Advocacy at UCLA Extension and has served on the Executive Board of the Beryl Institute and on the advisory boards of University Healthsystem Consortium, The Picker Institute, Press-Ganey Associates.  He earned his B.A. in Psychology from the University of Southern California and his MBA from Pepperdine University