This World Health Day, the WHO honors the contribution of nurses and midwives, recognizing their vital role in keeping the world healthy. Nurses and other health workers are at the frontlines of COVID-19 response, putting their own health at risk to protect the broader community. Thank you! 
Today and every day, we honor our doctors for their dedication to providing unwavering care. We recognize the long hours they work and sacrifices they make to put the health of their communities first. Thank you to all our physicians for all that you do for us and our loved ones! 
Our BH Provider Spotlight of the Quarter is Dr. Daniel Dea! 🩺 University of Chicago - MD 🥼UCLA-San Fernando Program - Internal Medicine Residency 🩺 UCLA - Pulmonary/Critical Care Fellowship Dr. Daniel Dea has been with Benchmark Hospitalists for the past 7 years. He has practiced Internal Medicine, Pulmonary and Critical Care in Burbank, California for the last 28 years. Dr. Dea says he always felt medicine was the most noble of professions and was the first of his family to become a doctor. As a hospitalist, he likes the excitement and challenge: "it’s never boring and is always presenting new things for me to try to tackle." He recalls once helping a politician who got sick on a plane from sepsis. After the plane made an emergency landing, they were brought to Dr. Dea's hospital and were critically ill. Under his care, they were able to walk out of the hospital fully recovered. More recently, Dr. Dea cared for “Patient Zero” (the first patient) with COVID at his hospital. The patient was very critical, but after a long stay, made a full recovery. There was a big celebration, and news sources interviewed Dr. Dea. "When I care for my patients, I care for them the way I would want myself or my family to be cared for," he says. Outside of work, Dr. Dea enjoys fine dining, fine wine, sports, traveling/sightseeing, and spending quality time with his wife and two sons. 
International Women's Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women - while also marking a call to action for accelerating gender equality. Collectively, we can make change happen. Collectively, we can each help to create a gender equal world. #EachforEqual 
"If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress." - Barack Obama Happy President's Day! 
Happy Valentine’s Day! Not only is today a day of hearts, it’s also a day that recognizes giving hearts. National Donor Day is a time to focus on all types of donation – organ, eye, tissue, blood, platelets and marrow –by participating in blood/marrow drives or donor registration events. It is also a day to recognize our loved ones who have given the gift of donation, have received a donation, are currently waiting or did not receive an organ in time. Link to donor registration page 
Happy Chinese/Lunar New Year! 新年快乐 (xīn nián kuài lè) Wishing you all happiness, prosperity, fortune and good health in the Year of the Ox! 
Our BH Director Spotlight of the Quarter is Dr. Steven Taback, Co-Medical Director of Intensive Care and Co- Medical Director of the Benchmark Intensivist Program at Providence Saint Joseph’s Medical Center (PSJMC)! Dr. Taback’s desire to diagnose and treat disease, while alleviating the anxieties of patients, was borne from an early childhood experience where his temporarily lost my sight from the flu. He has wanted to be a doctor all his life except for a brief period in his teens when he played guitar and wrote songs: "Fortunately, I had the good sense to listen to my recordings and realized I was completely lacking in talent. It's been Medicine ever since." He graduated from Occidental College and Chicago Medical School learning under Max Harry Weil, considered the grandfather of Critical Care. He completed his Internal Medicine Residency and Pulmonary/Critical Care Fellowship at USC and entered private Pulmonary/Critical Care practice in 1992. A local IPA recruited him to provide hospitalist services, and soon expanded to all the IPAs in the region. Hospitalist Medicine is a part of his DNA, having been one of the founding shareholders of his clinical organization. Working as a Benchmark Hospitalist & Intensivist has inspired him to look at these fields with fresh enthusiasm and renewed excitement: “Benchmark afforded me the latitude to exercise creativity in developing these hybrid programs for PSJMC. The experience has been challenging but every bit as rewarding as my early years in Hospitalist Medicine.” Dr. Taback studied martial arts for 18 years, played polo for 10, and when his lead pony retired, bought a motorcycle. He has always enjoyed movies, reading and chess and loves music, from Hendrix to Vivaldi. Most importantly, he has been adopted as the father of 5 amazing children. They, along with his better half Gina have been the greatest and most unexpected gifts of his life. 
Happy Black History Month! In honor of this special month, we would like to recognize all the African American healthcare workers that have revolutionized medicine and the healthcare industry. One of the most notable, Rebecca Crumpler, MD, became the first female African American MD in 1864, treating freed slaves after the Civil War and publishing one of the first medical books written by an African American. 
Today we honor all the incredible woman physicians that provide care to our patients! This national day celebrates Elisabeth Blackwell’s birthday, the first female medical doctor in the U.S! Thank you to all women physicians and the amazing progress made since Blackwell’s time. 
This week we are shifting the focus from our providers to our patients! We are dedicated to constantly enhancing the experience of our patients because they are the number one reason that we do what we do! 
Today, we remember Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. “Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.”