Sondra Vazirani

Biography

Sondra Vazirani, M.D., M.P.H., is Chief Quality Officer at VA Long Beach Healthcare System and Health Sciences Clinical Professor (Medicine) at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine. She received her M.D. from the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center and her M.P.H. in Health Services from UCLA School of Public Health. Vazirani completed her Internal Medicine residency at UCLA School of Medicine and is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine. She is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians.

Vazirani has held numerous leadership positions throughout her career in the Veterans Health Administration and academic medicine. She served as Medical Director of the Clinical Procedure Center at VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System from 2018 to 2023, overseeing patient safety, efficiency, and accreditation for six procedural disciplines. She founded and directed the GOPRO Medical/Surgical Co-management service from 2017 to 2019, creating policies and teaching curricula for medical care of surgical inpatients. From 2004 to 2019, she served as Director of the Preoperative Clinic and Director of Preoperative Medicine at VA Greater Los Angeles, and as Medical Director of the Inpatient Medicine Consult Service from 2003 to 2019. She has also held multiple committee leadership roles, including chairing the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee, Utilization Management and Patient Flow Committee, and Medical Records Committee.

Vazirani's research has focused on perioperative medicine, hospital processes, and care delivery models. She was co-investigator on a NIH-funded study examining care management by nurse practitioner/hospitalist teams, which resulted in multiple publications in journals including the American Journal of Critical Care, Medical Decision Making, and the Journal of Nursing Administration. Her work on implementing a hospitalist-run preoperative clinic was published in the Journal of Hospital Medicine. She has authored or co-authored over 20 peer-reviewed research papers and numerous non-peer-reviewed articles. Vazirani has been an active educator, serving as instructor for health policy courses at UCLA School of Medicine for over a decade and delivering lectures on perioperative medicine, medical complications of pregnancy, and health care delivery at multiple institutions.

Education

• M.P.H. in Health Services, UCLA School of Public Health, 1998
• M.D., University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, 1994
• B.S. in Biology with Honors, Brown University, 1990

Distinctions

• VHA Systems Redesign Champion Award for Inpatient Services, 2009
• Fellow of the American College of Physicians (FACP), 2011
• Physician Champion Award, Spirit of Planetree Award, 2012
• STAR Award, Patient-Centered Care, GLA, 2011
• Award of Excellence, VAGLAHS, 2006
• Employee of the Month, VHAGLAHS, 2006