Jorge Gutierrez, MD
Pediatric Critical Care
“Being a Children’s Hospital isn’t about having your own building — it’s a state of mind. It means that any place in the hospital a child goes for care is going to be child friendly.”
Dr. Gutierrez hit the ground running in 2005, when he joined TPMG as a pediatric intensivist. In 2012, he led his team across the finish line, with certification by both California Children’s Services and the Children’s Hospital Association (CHA). The CHA designation makes KP Oakland the only children’s hospital in Kaiser Permanente.
During his first two years, he developed critical care transport services from referring hospitals; provided training for pediatric hospitalists and other staff; and changed the model of care in the Pediatric ICU (PICU) to feature multidisciplinary family-centered rounds.
When he became Chief of Inpatient Pediatrics and Medical Director of the PICU in 2007, Dr. Gutierrez began work on other innovations, including a cooling program in the Neonatal ICU to combat encephalopathy; Pediatric Rapid Response Teams that eliminated cardiac arrests outside the PICU; and a dedicated Pediatric Operating Room, where at least 80% of all pediatric surgeries are now performed.
“My goal since medical school has been to serve the children of the community I grew up in,” says Dr. Gutierrez. “And I’ve always loved helping my patients who were critically ill in our ICU. But I realized that if I was willing to take on some administrative responsibilities, I could work with our team to help a lot more children.”
Indeed, Dr. Gutierrez’ efforts are helping a lot of children in Oakland and beyond. He provides intensive, skills-based training for pediatric hospitalists around the region, and has established a Pediatric Hospital Fellowship program.