Ajit Itty, MD
Chief medical officer, HonorHealth Scottsdale Osborn and Thompson Peak, and Tempe medical centers
Q: How many years have you been with HonorHealth?
A: I began as an emergency medicine provider at HonorHealth on May 26, 2011. I transitioned into administration approximately two and a half years ago.
Q: What inspired you to pursue medicine and eventually hospital leadership?
A: I’ve always loved the blend of science and the intricacies of human physiology, paired with the opportunity to help people as a healer. I moved into hospital administration at HonorHealth because I enjoy fostering a collaborative environment among providers and team members.
Q: What are your top one to two or areas of focus for East Valley HonorHealth physicians and APPs this year?
A: My focus is on increasing patient volumes, which goes hand in hand with enhancing our reputation within the community, EMS and among physicians. HonorHealth is a highly matrixed organization — we can’t do everything everywhere — but we strive to ensure that whatever clinical needs our patients have, we can provide those resources somewhere in our system, from trauma to comprehensive stroke to NICU capabilities.
Q: What’s one tangible way you actively support HonorHealth physicians and APPs in delivering excellent care?
A: I help physicians navigate our complex hospital system and clearly communicate the organization’s quality and safety priorities.
Q: What accomplishment(s) are you most proud of from the past year at your campus?
A: HonorHealth Tempe Medical Center has a disproportionately busy Emergency Department given the hospital’s relatively small size. Over the past year, we’ve improved the resources available to support patients who walk through our doors.
Q: What’s one thing people might be surprised to learn about you or how you spend your time outside of work?
A: I grew up in multiple apartments around HonorHealth Tempe Medical Center and even visited the Emergency Department for stitches in fourth grade. It’s been a privilege to return to the city where I have some of my earliest memories.
Q: What’s the best piece of career advice you’ve received?
A: "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" isn’t just a great book, it’s some of the best career advice I’ve ever received. A few favorite principles: “Play fair; clean up your own mess and when you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.”
Kevan Pickrel, MD
Chief medical officer, HonorHealth John C. Lincoln, Sonoran Crossing, Florence and Four Peaks medical centers
Q: How many years have you been with HonorHealth?
A: The answer here depends on how you want to look at it. I re-re-joined HonorHealth in December 2023. I spent almost 10 years at John C. Lincoln as a full-time hospitalist and left in 2011 and re-joined what is now HonorHealth in 2019 before leaving in 2022.
Q: What inspired you to pursue medicine and eventually hospital leadership?
A: There is no one answer or a neat childhood story. I was never a doctor for Halloween. Medicine is science, art, literature, people, culture, bad coffee and potlucks, vocabulary, community, service, emotion, long nights and long days. Nothing I would ever start, but nothing I would ever leave. I found leadership because it gave me a voice to help shape and protect the work I love for the communities I care about.
Q: What are your top one to two priorities or areas of focus for East Valley HonorHealth physicians and APPs this year?
A: Developing physician and APP culture and emphasizing communication at all levels of care.
Q: What’s one tangible way you actively support HonorHealth physicians and APPs in delivering excellent care?
A: So much has gone on here, seeing ‘one’ in the question made me laugh; we’ve all done so much! One, I hope physicians, APPs, nurses, EVS and everybody that helps provide patient care feel every day I am here is access. Access to voice opinion, to offer suggestions, to provide solutions, even just to my office to decompress.
Q: What accomplishment(s) are you most proud of from the past year at your campus?
A: The simple fact that ‘I’ really didn’t have to do anything. So many people came together here from other campuses, other systems, and many who stayed through it all to share a vision and become the team that is making that happen. I couldn’t be prouder to have been in the rooms and halls with everyone here.
Q: What’s one thing people might be surprised to learn about you or how you spend your time outside of work?
A: My family is my greatest adventure. I have two granddaughters, and I have had the chance to be a dragon, a pool toy, a snack maker, a storyteller, a dance routine partner and so much more.
Q: What’s the best piece of career advice you’ve received?
A: The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is now. It relates to everything from personal growth to tackling an issue at the hospital.