MemorialCare Health System Names Wendy Dorchester, PhD Chief Administrative Officer of Seaside Health Plan

ORANGE and LOS ANGELES Counties, Calif., Jan. 20, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Wendy Dorchester, PhD, a long-time executive with MemorialCare Health System who helped in the development and licensure of Seaside Health Plan, was named Seaside's Chief Administrative Officer. 

Part of MemorialCare Health System, Seaside Health Plan opened Sept. 1, 2013 in Long Beach, Calif. Its mission is to serve individuals and families enrolled in Medicare, Medi-Cal, Dual Eligibles and Commercial plans who are members of partner health plans and choose Seaside as their participating network. Seaside was also selected to be part of the California Children Services (CCS) demonstration project that addresses the needs of children with certain diseases and ongoing medical conditions. Seaside supports its members by providing convenient access to high quality, evidence-based medicine, superior value, exceptional service and a network of integrated providers, including more than 225 primary care physicians and specialists, exceptional hospitals and convenient and modern full-service health centers. 

Prior to her new leadership at Seaside Health Plan, Dorchester served in a number of executive positions at Long Beach Memorial, Miller Children's Hospital Long Beach and Community Hospital Long Beach that include the roles of Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President and where she continues as Chief Planning Officer. She has led several important initiatives over the years. These include the acquisition of Community Hospital, licensure of Miller Children's Hospital, preparation of the master facilities plan for the 54-acre Long Beach Memorial/Miller Children's campus, acquisition of certain Universal Care assets that led to the creation of Seaside Health Plan and development of a new medical residency program, among others. Dorchester began her career at Long Beach Memorial as a statistician.

She holds a PhD from University of California Irvine (UCI) that focused on applied statistics, a Master's Degree in Public Health and Biostatistics from University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and a Bachelor's of Science in Information and Computer Science and Biology from UCI.

The not-for-profit Seaside Health Plan is named after Long Beach's first hospital which opened in 1907 and is today Long Beach Memorial, which together with Miller Children's Hospital Long Beach, comprises the West's second largest hospital campus.  Seaside currently contracts with Health Net, L.A. Care Health Plan, Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield of California and Care 1st Health Plan.

"Wendy's leadership furthers our role in population health management, medical homes, accountable care, information technology, best-practice medicine and other health care reform elements," says Barry Arbuckle, PhD, MemorialCare Health System president and CEO. "This expands our ability to partner more directly with health plans, employers, hospitals, physicians and providers to better serve patients and local communities."

MemorialCare Health System is a not-for-profit integrated delivery system with more than 200 care sites and 16,000 employees and affiliated physicians. MemorialCare includes six top hospitals – Long Beach Memorial, Miller Children's Hospital Long Beach, Community Hospital Long Beach, Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center in Fountain Valley and Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in Laguna Hills and San Clemente; MemorialCare Medical Group, the Independent Practice Association (IPA) – Greater Newport Physicians; Seaside Health Plan; MemorialCare HealthExpress retail clinics; ambulatory surgery centers; imaging centers; and numerous outpatient health centers throughout the Southland. MemorialCare is recognized nationally for pioneering efforts and innovation in best-practice, high quality medicine; successful recruitment of exceptional clinicians; employee engagement; leadership development; and a comprehensive electronic medical records system that ensures clinicians and community members seamless, real-time access to health records.

For information on Seaside Health Plan, call 1-855-367-7747 or visit seasidehealthplan.org. To learn more about MemorialCare Health System, go to memorialcare.org.

SOURCE MemorialCare