Hector P. Rodriguez, PhD, MPH
Dr. Hector P. Rodriguez is Associate Professor in the Department of Health Services in the UCLA School of Public Health and Associate Director of the UCLA Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Equity. His research focuses on modifying organizational factors that impact the quality of patient care and the effectiveness of public health systems.
After earning his MPH from UC Berkeley, Dr. Rodriguez worked as a health care management consultant and learned firsthand how team and organizational factors contributed to the quality of patient care. Committed to his belief that significant quality improvements can be made by improving implementation and management strategies, he decided to pursue a doctorate degree in order to ultimately influence policy change. Since receiving his PhD from Harvard in health policy and medical sociology, Dr. Rodriguez has worked toward further understanding the influences that affect quality of care and the health care experience of the patient. He believes this work has great potential for implementing patient care improvements that ultimately will improve patient care outcomes.
Dr. Rodriguez and his colleagues at the VA Center for Healthcare Provider Behavior recently received a $7 million grant to examine the effectiveness of a team-based approach (the "Patient Centered Medical Home") to primary care in the Veterans Affairs Health Care system. In addition, Dr. Rodriguez serves as the Principal Investigator for a new $3 million study funded by AHRQ that compares the effectiveness of delivery system innovations in community clinics and health centers. The project will develop the regional data infrastructure so that safety net clinics can conduct comparative effectiveness research to improve the care of patients with chronic conditions. Dr. Rodriguez states, "We want to look at team effectiveness and the relationship between doctors, the medical team and the patient and how consequential team work is to implement health improvements."
In 2009, Dr. Rodriguez was a recipient of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundations New Connections award to examine systematic patient reporting biases based on patients' race/ethnicity, education and primary language and the impact these biases have on the comparison of individual physicians. For example, Dr. Rodriguez found that when comparing reports of Whites and Asians, Asian patients are less likely to report the most positive care experiences. Clarifying the underlying reasons patients from diverse raial and ethnic backgrounds report worse care experiences can provide valuable information for reducing disparities in care quality.
Rodriguez has also examined the effect of financial incentives on patients' experiences of care. In a recent study, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, he and his team evaluated the impact of a statewide pay-for-performance (P4P) program on patient care experiences. In the study of twenty-five medical groups across California, patient care experiences significantly improved when financial incentives were provided for a patient-centered work environment. In contrast, when incentives emphasized productivity and efficiency goals, patient satisfaction suffered. These findings are critical for understanding the unintended consequences of financial incentives so that P4P programs achieve their intended goals.
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