Children’s hospitals are facing mounting pressures, from workforce challenges to financial uncertainty, while still being asked to deliver the highest standard of family centered care. In this episode, we explore what leadership looks like inside that reality.
Paul Viviano draws parallels between leadership in healthcare and team sports, emphasizing alignment, perseverance, and shared purpose. He speaks openly about the strain on pediatric systems, the role of Medicaid in children’s health, and why advocacy and collaboration are essential to protecting access and equity.
Kyle Horne offers a complementary perspective, showing how small but intentional interventions can make a profound difference. Through Literally Healing, CHLA provides children with books that meet them where they are emotionally and developmentally. From therapeutic libraries reviewed by clinicians to simple moments of laughter during storytime, Kyle illustrates how literacy can restore a sense of normalcy and hope.
This episode is a reminder that progress in pediatric healthcare depends not only on policy and funding, but also on empathy, imagination, and a commitment to the whole child.
Key Topics Discussed:
- Leadership under pressure in pediatric health systems
- Medicaid’s role in children’s healthcare access
- Workforce shortages and reimbursement challenges
- Research funding and sustainability in pediatrics
- Equity and disparities in access to care
- Literacy as a therapeutic and emotional support tool
- Creating hope for children and families in hospital settings
About Paul Viviano:
As a chief executive who has led for-profit and nonprofit health care organizations, Paul Viviano has been exposed to a multitude of models of health care delivery. What he has come to believe is that children’s hospitals work for children—and that they are the best places to provide the comprehensive, compassionate and family-centered care that they need. In particular, children’s hospitals are uniquely qualified to care for 1/5 of the nation’s children who have special health care needs.
Paul is a committed leader who serves as an advocate for the precious funding that supports the care children need at the community, state and national level. Currently he advocates on behalf of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, ranked “best” in California by U.S. News & World Report, chair of the California Children’s Hospital Association board based in Sacramento, CA, and as a member of the Public Policy Committee of the Children’s Hospital Association based in Washington, D.C.
About Kyle Horne:
With over 15 years leading an international public health arts organization and nine years of experience at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), Kyle is a passionate and creative leader who applies public health strategy to develop and grow innovative programs that enhance the quality of life for patients, families, and communities. He has successfully increased funding, gifting, and staffing for a literacy program in clinical services, as well as developed a digital therapeutic library and a hospital-wide staff wellness program. He also founded the hospital’s sustainability committee and its first staffed position, where he now leads the efforts to improve the environmental impact and social determinants of health within the organization.
Kyle is also the founder and Executive Director of Together! ACT Now, a nonprofit that aims to end the spread of HIV in rural Malawi through theatre, education, and access. For over 15 years, he has been using his skills in storytelling, public speaking, theatre, writing, and producing to educate and empower over 115,000 Malawians on HIV prevention and testing, and to support 210 team members across eleven community groups.
He holds a Master of Public Health from UCLA Fielding School of Public Health (Health Policy & Management), where he was awarded the Levin-Gordon Executive MPH Leadership Fellowship, and a BA (Hons) from The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama; University of London. He is a certified nonprofit professional and a speaking professional who strives to make a positive difference in the world through his work.
