Sunita Mutha, MD

Professor of Clinical Medicine
Medicine
+1 415 353-7999

Sunita Mutha, MD, FACP directs Healthforce Center at UCSF. In addition, she is a professor of medicine in the division of general internal medicine and associate dean for academic affairs in the UCSF School of Dentistry. As director of Healthforce Center, Dr. Mutha leads the organization’s efforts to increase workforce knowledge, develop leadership capacity, and nurture networks across silos to advance health equity.

Dr. Mutha’s scholarly work has focused on overcoming language barriers in health, cultural competence training for clinicians, and improvement interventions to reduce disparities in care. She has served on national committees including the Joint Commission’s Expert Advisory Panel guiding the development of hospital standards for culturally competent patient-centered care and the National Quality Forum’s Cultural Competence Steering Committee. Dr. Mutha serves on an expert advisory committee to develop a scorecard to measure the implementation of high-quality primary care and inform national and state policy.

Dr. Mutha is a member of the board of directors of Insure the Uninsured Project, a nonprofit that promotes innovative and workable policy solutions that expand health care access and improve the health of all Californians. She also serves as the national advisory board chair for Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies (IHPS) at UCSF. She previously served on the board of directors for Brown and Toland Medical Group, a comprehensive, multi-specialty independent practice association in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Publications: 

Language Access Systems Improvement initiative: impact on professional interpreter utilisation, a natural experiment.

BMJ open

Karliner LS, Gregorich SE, Mutha S, Kaplan C, Livaudais-Toman J, Pathak S, Garcia ME, Diamond L

Language-Concordant Care: a Qualitative Study Examining Implementation of Physician Non-English Language Proficiency Assessment.

Journal of general internal medicine

Garcia ME, Williams M, Mutha S, Diamond LC, Jih J, Handley MA, Pathak S, Karliner LS

Be Kind. Use Systems. Improve Care.

Health services research

Fraze TK, Mutha S

Patient Perspectives on the Quality of Professional Interpretation: Results from LASI Study.

Journal of general internal medicine

Pathak S, Gregorich SE, Diamond LC, Mutha S, Seto E, Livaudais-Toman J, Karliner L

Hospital discharge preparedness for patients with limited English proficiency: A mixed methods study of bedside interpreter-phones.

Patient education and counseling

Lee JS, Nápoles A, Mutha S, Pérez-Stable EJ, Gregorich SE, Livaudais-Toman J, Karliner LS

From the perspective of CEOs: what motivates hospitals to embrace cultural competence?

Journal of healthcare management / American College of Healthcare Executives

Wilson-Stronks A, Mutha S

Achieving quality in health care through language access services: lessons from a California public hospital.

American journal of medical quality : the official journal of the American College of Medical Quality

Karliner LS, Mutha S

Evaluation of a train-the-trainer program for cultural competence.

American journal of pharmaceutical education

Assemi M, Mutha S, Hudmon KS

The need for more research on language barriers in health care: a proposed research agenda.

The Milbank quarterly

Jacobs E, Chen AH, Karliner LS, Agger-Gupta N, Mutha S

A one-stop health care request.

American family physician

Ogrinc G, Mutha S

A framework for teaching medical students and residents about practice-based learning and improvement, synthesized from a literature review.

Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges

Ogrinc G, Headrick LA, Mutha S, Coleman MT, O'Donnell J, Miles PV

Evidence for longitudinal ambulatory care rotations: a review of the literature.

Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges

Ogrinc G, Mutha S, Irby DM

Provider-patient roles in chronic disease management.

Journal of allied health

Stubblefield C, Mutha S

Improved compliance with universal precautions in the operating room following an educational intervention.

Infection control and hospital epidemiology

Kim LE, Jeffe DB, Evanoff BA, Mutha S, Freeman B, Fraser J

Medical practice 2010: how we get there.

The Western journal of medicine

Mutha S, Norman G, O'Neil E

Academic health centers: a future of struggles and new identities.

The Western journal of medicine

Mutha S, Bellack JP, O'Neil EH

Compliance with Universal Precautions among emergency department personnel: implications for prevention programs.

American journal of infection control

Kim LE, Evanoff BA, Parks RL, Jeffe DB, Mutha S, Haase C, Fraser VJ

Healthcare workers' perceptions of occupational exposure.

Infection control and hospital epidemiology

Mutha S, Jeffe DB, Kim LE, L'Ecuyer PB, Evanoff BA, Fraser VJ

Compliance with universal precautions among emergency department personnel caring for trauma patients.

Annals of emergency medicine

Evanoff B, Kim L, Mutha S, Jeffe D, Haase C, Andereck D, Fraser V

Use of personal protective equipment and operating room behaviors in four surgical subspecialties: personal protective equipment and behaviors in surgery.

Infection control and hospital epidemiology

Akduman D, Kim LE, Parks RL, L'Ecuyer PB, Mutha S, Jeffe DB, Evanoff BA, Fraser VJ

Role models--guiding the future of medicine.

The New England journal of medicine

Skeff KM, Mutha S

Does Clinical Experience Affect Medical Students' Knowledge, Attitudes, and Compliance With Universal Precautions?.

Infection control and hospital epidemiology

Donna B. Jeffe, Sunita Mutha, Lynn E. Kim, Bradley A. Evanoff, Paul B. L'Ecuyer, Victoria J. Fraser

Does clinical experience affect medical students' knowledge, attitudes, and compliance with universal precautions?

Infection control and hospital epidemiology

Jeffe DB, Mutha S, Kim LE, Evanoff BA, L'Ecuyer PB, Fraser VJ

Healthcare Workers' Attitudes and Compliance With Universal Precautions Gender, Occupation, and Specialty Differences.

Infection control and hospital epidemiology

Donna B. Jeffe, Sunita Mutha, Paul B. L'Ecuyer, Lynn E. Kim, Renee B. Singal, Bradley A. Evanoff, Victoria J. Fraser

Healthcare workers' attitudes and compliance with universal precautions: gender, occupation, and specialty differences.

Infection control and hospital epidemiology

Jeffe DB, Mutha S, L'Ecuyer PB, Kim LE, Singal RB, Evanoff BA, Fraser VJ

Insights into medical students' career choices based on third- and fourth-year students' focus-group discussions.

Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges

Mutha S, Takayama JI, O'Neil EH

Prognosis and outcomes of patients with community-acquired pneumonia. A meta-analysis.

JAMA

Fine MJ, Smith MA, Carson CA, Mutha SS, Sankey SS, Weissfeld LA, Kapoor WN

Enhancing faculty mentoring of medical students.

Teaching and learning in medicine

Karen Seal, Sunita Mutha

Salary inequities and health care costs.

Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges

Mutha S, McMurray JE

Enhancing professionalism.

Annals of internal medicine

Seifer SD, O'Neil EH, Mutha S

Admission, recruitment, and retention: finding and keeping the generalist-oriented student. SGIM Task Force on Career Choice in Primary Care and Internal Medicine.

Journal of general internal medicine

Linzer M, Slavin T, Mutha S, Takayama JI, Branda L, VanEyck S, McMurray JE, Rabinowitz HK