MemorialCare names new COOs at Long Beach campus

John Gregory | | Health Exec | Management

The five-hospital MemorialCare Health System has announced a shuffle among its chief operating officers at its flagship Long Beach Memorial campus, with Ikenna Mmeje, MHSA, taking over as COO of Long Beach Memorial while his predecessor Tamra Kaplan, PharmD, will take the same role at the hospital’s Miller Children’s and Women’s Hospital Long Beach.

Kaplan has been with MemorialCare since 1989, spending the last nine years as Long Beach Memorial COO. For Mmeje, his hiring will be a return to MemorialCare, where he served as an administrative resident in 2006. His roles since then included administrative director of clinical and research services at Sutter Health’s Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland and most recently as CEO of the Doctors Hospital of Manteca, Calif.

"Ike and Tamra are outstanding, patient-focused leaders committed to engaging and encouraging employees, physicians and volunteers to reach the highest level of service and care," Long Beach Memorial and Miller’s CEO John Bishop said in a statement.

The two hospitals Kaplan and Mmeje will be operating sit next to each other on a 56-acre campus. Long Beach Memorial has been ranked among the best in California and the Los Angeles metro area by U.S. News and World Report.

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John Gregory, Senior Writer

John joined TriMed in 2016, focusing on healthcare policy and regulation. After graduating from Columbia College Chicago, he worked at FM News Chicago and Rivet News Radio, and worked on the state government and politics beat for the Illinois Radio Network. Outside of work, you may find him adding to his never-ending graphic novel collection.

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