Leadership Team
Alexandria Combs
Alexandria Combs is a healthcare catalyst passionate about defining strategies that create new value by working at the intersection of tough healthcare business challenges with operational limitations in dynamic environments. Leveraging her experience in leadership of academic medical centers, healthcare consulting, and large-scale program growth and development, Alexandria consults on strategy and clinical transformation as well as with start-ups and companies focused on new market segments. She is adept at establishing rapport and credibility with diverse groups ranging from clinical to technical teams. Alexandria has a history of consistently surpassing organizational performance goals by growing clinical business, maintaining strong financial performance, and enhancing the patient experience and employee engagement. Alexandria also has a strong commitment to improving health and health care systems globally, particularly focusing on countries with lean economies. She actively volunteers in medical missions in Africa and Asia, assisting with strategic planning, fundraising, and operational execution of the missions.
Alexandria previously worked for Stanford University Medical Center / Packard Children’s Hospital. Alexandria was Senior Administrative Director, Bass Center for Childhood Cancer & Blood Disease and Complex Care Coordination, serving in a unique three-part role that leveraged expertise in strategic planning, operational improvement, and innovative design. She was the Service Line Administrator for Cancer Center of Excellence, Executive Director of Complex Care Program, and Administrator of the Patient Access & Care Coordination Division. Alexandria previously served as the Administrative Director, Patient Progression & Resource Management with direct responsibility for all indirect patient care departments within Patient Care Services: Administrative Nursing Supervisors, Case Management, Family & Hospitality Services, Interpreter Services, Patient Placement, Transfer Center, Critical Care Transport and Social Services and for processes to support optimization of patient flow across the organization. Alexandria previously worked for Stockamp & Associates Inc., as a senior healthcare consultant, where she was instrumental in developing the Patient Progression service line, which focuses on maximizing bed utilization and increasing effective capacity within healthcare organizations. Through the development of this service line, Alexandria had the opportunity to re-engineer the patient experience at several large academic medical centers. She also served as company advisor for development of case management methodology and supporting technology to drive sustainable solutions that reduce care variation, optimize hospital reimbursement, and improve clinical documentation. Alexandria earned both her masters of Science degree in Health Systems/Industrial Engineering and bachelor’s degree with honors in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech with a certificate in Organizational Psychology. Alexandria was selected as a fellow in the California Health Leadership College, participating in a year-long program dedicated to the development of “Next Generation CEOs”. She also holds a certificate in LEAN performance improvement training from BMGI and Joan Wellman Associates. Alexandria has spoken on a broad spectrum of topics across the healthcare value chain: strategic planning & service line optimization, clinical transformation, patient progression, business continuity, and organizational transformation. She has presented to the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Children’s Hospital Association, IDN Summit & Expo, California Hospital Association, and various Nursing Leadership conferences. Alexandria also has co-authored an extensive reference manual, “Sustaining Business Continuity during Work Stoppage”. |
Rex Fieck
Rex Fieck possesses a unique perspective of the healthcare supply chain industry, and has excelled at developing and pursing continuous process improvement opportunities within all functions of a supply chain. Over his 38 year career, Rex has performed at every level within the complete spectrum of supply chain responsibilities. Rex spent the last 10 years serving as the administrative director of Materials Management at Stanford University Medical Center providing expertise and leadership for the entire supply chain at Stanford Hospital and Clinics and Lucile Packard Childrens Hospital. He oversaw and administered corporate vendor programs, two GPO relationships and their respective programs for both hospitals.
Rex has successfully developed and implemented strategic initiatives that include medical/surgical JIT programs, on-site and off-site vendor supported distribution activities, and the creation of contract administration and value analysis departments. Over a 5-year period, the value analysis program created at Stanford contributed to over $40 million in cost reductions within the non-labor spend. Rex has developed expertise with several ERP systems and was responsible for the successful supply chain implementation of two systems (Lawson & People Soft) within a 14-month period. Rex is skilled in strategic leadership, cultivating strong interpersonal relationships, and the ability to perform in fast-paced environments while demonstrating strong analytic and problem solving talents. He is adept in LEAN Six Sigma process improvement and quality management. Rex received his business education at Mesa College in San Diego and successfully completed health care auditor training from The Profit Recovery Group International, Inc. Additionally, he received executive leadership training and certification from the Stanford Hospital & Clinics Leadership Academy “Empowerment for Accountability” in 2009 and from the Stanford School of Medicine and Stanford Hospital & Clinics in the “Stanford Leadership Development Program” in 2011. Rex has spoken on a broad range of topics concerning the healthcare supply chain: vendor relations, value analysis, JIT programs and the strategic role of a distribution partnership. He has presented to the Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management (AHRMM), IDN Summit & Expo, UHC, as well as at various vendor leadership conferences. |
Laura M. Hill, FACHE
Laura M Hill is a healthcare performance improvement advisor with a passion for streamlining workflow, personalizing the patient experience, and inter-professional collaboration and education. Her healthcare experience includes operational management, business consulting and patient experience program development for non-profit healthcare providers, academic medical centers and regional health systems. Laura partners with her clients in developing comprehensive strategies to define or re-ignite their patient experience programs while pairing this work with clear and visible metrics to measure and sustain the improvements.
Laura was previously with Stanford University Medical Center. As the Patient Experience Director, Laura created and launched the institution’s Service Excellence department integrating patient satisfaction survey development and data analytics, design and strategy for reporting of physician level scores, patient experience curriculum for all clinical and administrative staff, and inclusion of the Patient Advisory Council with the design for process improvement programs. Laura partnered with leadership across clinical operations, human resources and university leadership to create the hospital’s Leadership Development program culminating in practicum projects for the participants focusing on patient experience and employee engagement endeavors. Laura is Lean certified and led Lean programs and performance improvement trainings across inpatient, outpatient and business support areas. While at Stanford, Laura also served as Director for Procurement overseeing the Purchasing, Materials Management Information System, Value Analysis and Contracts Administration teams for the hospitals. Prior to Stanford, Laura worked within the internal Management Consulting team for the Northern and Southern California Regions of Kaiser Permanente. Project highlights included hospital pharmacy inventory management, staff modeling in preparation for state mandated Nurse staffing ratios, and strategic work planning for a two-phase transition of a large main operation room suite to a new location without interruption in patient care. Additionally Laura is a Fellow with the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) and is currently an Officer for the Board of Directors for the California Association of Healthcare Leaders (CAHL), the Northern and Central California chapter for ACHE. Laura graduated from Stanford University with a BS in Industrial Engineering as well as a BA in Psychology. She holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management and an MPH from the Yale School of Public Health. |
Steve Alexander, MD
Steven R. Alexander M.D. was appointed Professor of Pediatrics and Chief, Division of Pediatric Nephrology at Stanford School of Medicine and Nephrology Clinical Services Chief at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford (LPCH Stanford) in 1997. Prior to coming to Stanford, he was on the faculties at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and the Oregon Health and Sciences University. He trained in pediatrics and pediatric nephrology at Baylor College of Medicine.
Beginning in 2001, Dr. Alexander directed Stanford School of Medicine’s first Clinical Trials Office, and since 2008 he has served as Medical Director of the Spectrum Office of Compliance, Training and Operations, Stanford’s Center for Clinical and Translational Education and Research (NIH-NCATS-CTSA). He was recently named Medical Director of the Patient Access Service Center (PASC) at LPCH Stanford which is charged with implementing enterprise-wide out-patient scheduling as a component of the current LPCH Ambulatory Redesign initiative. He is a founding member of the LPCH Information Systems Physician Advisory Group and of the Epic Transformation Physician-Experience Committee. Dr. Alexander has been an active clinical investigator for over 30 years. He was co-founder of the International Pediatric Transplant Association and the North American Pediatric Renal Trials and Collaborative Studies (NAPRTCS), for which he serves as Secretary of the Board of Directors. He has authored and co-authored over 120 peer-reviewed papers and over 50 book chapters and has co-edited four textbooks. His recent research has focused on the treatment of end-stage renal disease with dialysis and kidney transplantation and the development of continuous renal replacement therapies for acute kidney injury in children. He has been a major contributor to the development of pediatric renal patient registries and collaborative studies including the NAPRTCS, the Prospective Pediatric Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy Registry, the Chronic Kidney Disease in Children (CKid) study, and the International Pediatric Peritonitis Registry. He is co-founder and co-director of the Spectrum Intensive Course in Clinical Research: Study Design and Performance, a week-long immersion experience for new clinical investigators who receive intensive mentoring in all aspects of study design, along with career development and life-work balance. Dr. Alexander is board certified in pediatrics and pediatric nephrology and maintains an active clinical practice. He has been consistently named to national, regional and local Best Doctors lists for many years. He has received Housestaff Teaching Awards from the Pediatrics residents at Baylor College of Medicine (1978), Oregon Health and Sciences University (1986) and Stanford University (2003 and 2006). Most recently he was named to an endowed faculty position as the first Bernard Newcomb Distinguished Packard Fellow. |