University of California, Riverside School of Medicine: Optimas Silver Winner for Vision

The University of California at Riverside’s School of Medicine might be new, but its workforce is made up of industry veterans.

California’s first new medical school in almost 50 years has a big job ahead in inland Southern California, where there is fewer than 100 physicians per 100,000 people.

Training the next wave of doctors meant bringing in expensive but experienced administrators, which UC Riverside did through its Retiree Advantage initiative. Instead of recruiting new talent, it pulled from university resources by hiring 11 retirees from other campuses as part-time staff.

This approach cut the cost of full-time benefits by almost 70 percent and also brought seasoned experts in to handle tasks such as developing clinical compliance programs, online training modules and billing and collections functions. The university plans to extend the initiative indefinitely.

For its staffing program, UC Riverside School of Medicine is the silver 2014 Optimas Award winner for Vision.