April 15, 2024

Dear Colleagues,

We’re writing to update you on a new organizational structure that will be implemented for imaging operations within UCSF Health. Over the past year, we have worked internally and together with a team from Freed Associates to redesign radiology operations from the ground up. Anticipating continued growth in demand for imaging for the foreseeable future, the over-arching goal for this restructuring has been to develop effective organizational structure that better supports the ever-increasing complexity and expanded scale of operations for imaging and improves our ability to care for our patients.

The reorganization represents a significant investment in our department and our people. We envision many new opportunities for engagement, growth, and advancement of individuals and teams. As the new structure is implemented and refined, we also expect that operations will better accommodate programmatic and regional growth in the department. As the search process for new leaders evolves over the coming weeks and months, expect to hear periodic updates. It is our goal to ensure visibility for the ongoing changes and their impact, and to enhance role clarity for Health operations.

Overall Structure

Led by a Chief Imaging Officer (CIO), our radiology teams will be organized into five divisions as color-coded in this visual and described below. Imaging Operations roles (green) correspond to new organizational units within the broader Health system.

The search committee for the Chief Imaging Officer position has invited candidates for first round interviews in April. We expect recruitment for this position to move quickly for a start date in mid-2024. 

Please also see the horizontal view of this org chart, as it was distributed to Health employees.

Director Roles

Four new director positions are also approved and posted for formal recruitment; we have named interim directors for two of these roles.

1. Imaging Quality & Technology

Jessica Pfannenstiel, MS, RT(R)(CT) will serve as interim Director.

2. Imaging Operations, Adult Hospital

Tosca Bridges, MS, RT(R)(CT)(QM) will serve as interim Director. 

3. Imaging Operations, Benioff Children’s Hospitals (BCH)  

4. Imaging Operations, Ambulatory/Faculty Practice Organization (FPO)

Other interim appointments may be named. The remaining four new leadership job descriptions will soon be sent through the HR/Compensation process:

1. Administration, Business Operations & Access

2. Imaging Operations, Community Hospitals

3. Nursing

4. Quality, Safety & Education

Manager Roles

Will Sylvain, MBA, RT(R)(CT) will become interim CT manager, stepping into Jessica’s previous role. Whitney Higbee will become interim manager of Front Desk Administration. Rudy Boltadano will focus his leadership as the manager of Scheduling. Whitney and Rudy will ensure alignment and partnership across their respective teams. The plan for backfilling Tosca’s previous role as manager for diagnostic radiology is in discussion.  

We are grateful to all of the UCSF Health technologists, nurses, and staff for their commitment to work together to enhance operations and improve imaging care for our patients. A special note of gratitude is also due to Jessica, Tosca, David Sostarich, Dr. Tom Hope, and Dr. Javier Villanueva-Meyer for their insight and help to execute on this important restructuring.

If you have questions about these efforts, please contact us at any time. 



Sincerely,

Matthew R. Wolden, MPH

Vice President, UCSF Health Core Services (interim)

Christopher P. Hess, MD, PhD

Professor and Chair, Department of Radiology & Biomedical Imaging