rick johnson, if you could come forward. >> i'll make this quick for you. >> supervisor safai: thank you. >> it's been an interesting 3.5 hours. >> supervisor safai: i'm sorry it's been so long. >> no, it's okay. good afternoon. my name is rick johnson, and i'm a proud resident of district seven where my husband and i have lived in the midtown terrace neighborhood for the past 29 years. to give you a little bit of background, i enjoyed a long career in human resources, and i developed programs to recruit and maintain employees with disabilities. i've spoken at many conferences over the years and have been awarded numerous awards and commendations for this work. i've also been humbled to serve as president of the midtown terrace association, an association of 820 homes for the past five years and have served on supervisor yee's neighborhood council where i worked with other community leaders in awarding grants for the participateatory process. i worked with supervisor yee's district in always active, providing opportunities for our seniors twice a week. i also service on the police ad

ricks: yeah, great question. these mergers are happening because the system i described, the 50-year-old system, which is really tied to the passage of the great society measures by johnson, which was built and funded all these hospital systems in a real way, i think it is showing signs of fragility. that hospitals are merging, and combining to reduce cost, they are doing it without changing the care delivery model. what am arguing for is a fundamental change in the model. and i think what probably people miss when i speak to health care executives is that consumer expectations have moved dramatically about service delivery in every other part of their lives. but they really have not moved very much in health care. and i think it is time for us to adapt. >> thank you. this question comes from students. i think it is very interesting, because many of them are hoping to be in the field. and that is, what advice would you give to students that have an interest in pursuing a career in pharmaceutical industry? mr. ricks: i'd say that is a great idea. you know, i joined my company for a number of reasons but one of them was the purpose. you can spend your life working in a lot