California Attorney General Rob Bonta has approved the merger of Rady Children’s Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Orange County, clearing the way for the pair to operate jointly under the name Rady Children’s Health, an organization that, pulling resources in San Diego and Orange counties together, would span a region home to more than 1.3 million children. When the two hospitals jointly announced the pact in December , leaders from both organizations said they would maintain their existing governing boards that would operate under the umbrella of a new “parent” company that pays homage to the hundreds of millions of dollars that Ernest and Evelyn Rady have contributed in San Diego.
For two years after the agreement takes effect, Dr. Patrick Frias, Rady’s CEO, and Kimberly Chavalas Cripe, CHOC’s current president and chief executive, would co-manage Rady Children’s Health. Cripe would then retire after more than three decades with CHOC.
But the merger of these two nonprofit corporations requires approval from the state’s top lawyer and law enforcement official, and that sign-off comes with 24 conditions whose details and specifications fill a 24-page document released in final form by the AG this week. Many of those conditions nail down technical details, requiring continued pursuit of matters — such as hospital licensure and Medi-Cal participation — that both organizations could not reasonably change without significant turmoil. But others, such as s.