Ara Balkian, MD, MBA, is a nationally recognized leader in pediatric hospital operations, clinical documentation improvement, and utilization management. As Chief Medical Director of Inpatient Operations at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), he oversees inpatient access and transfer, utilization management, care coordination, and directs the Physician Advisor program. He also helped start and continues to lead CHLA’s Clinical Documentation Integrity (CDI) program, achieving a 100% physician response rate  since inception.

Dr. Balkian is the Founder and CEO of Pediatric Resource Group (PRG), the only pediatric focused healthcare consulting firm in the country. His team, composed of dozens of experts from the top children’s hospitals, provides solutions in CDI, physician advisor programs, utilization management (status determination and denials), inpatient care models, hospitalist program assessments, patient flow, and pediatric emergency care optimization.

He has lectured nationally on multiple hospital operational topics and continues to see patients and teach trainees as a pediatric hospitalist.