Sheryl Vacca
Experience:
8/2000 – Current
Deloitte and Touche LLP, Director (non-equity partner), Los Angeles, CA
West Coast Practice Leader, Life Science and Health Care Regulatory Practice
National Lead for Life Science and Health Care Internal Audit
Ms. Vacca has led engagements with life science and health care organizations (representative
list below) related to the regulatory compliance continuum from development and
implementation of comprehensive corporate compliance programs to individual focused areas
of compliance program elements, ie: auditing and monitoring programs, gap assessments in
compliance efforts, implementing compliance risk assessments, conducting compliance
program effectiveness reviews. Compliance investigations and litigation support are also
areas of focus, including assisting organizations with implementing corporate integrity
agreements or serving as the IRO (Independent Review Organization) for an organization.
Identifying and mitigating risks around regulatory requirements, responding to risk areas
including self disclosure, writing plans of correction, and implementing systems in response to
plans of correction are also areas of focus. Clinical research and quality improvement areas
have also been a focus of our engagements.
Sheryl has been involved in developing the Health Care Internal Audit strategy and client
development in Health Care Internal Audit for Deloitte. Engagements led by Sheryl in internal
audit have included health systems, pharmaceutical and health plans (from the representative
list below). Internal audit engagements included completely outsourcing the internal audit
function or co-sourcing internal audit where Deloitte offered assistance with various aspects of
the internal audit function including risk assessments, development of the auditing and
monitoring plan, revisions in compliance and internal audit structure, Quality Assessment
Reviews according to IIA Standards, Sarbanes Oxley 404 controls readiness engagements,
and/or subject matter specialists for specific requested audits.
Executive sponsors of the above engagements would include Governing Boards, Committees
of the Board, ie: Audit and Compliance, Finance and Executive Senior Management (CEO,
CFO, COO, EVP Internal Audit, Risk and/or Compliance). Reporting and communicating
engagement related activities and findings to the Board and/or Senior Management is routine
in these engagements.
Engagement revenues managed on an annual basis average 4-5 million dollars with size of
engagements varying from $50,000 to $2.6 million. Clients vary in size and type of
organization including large systems ie: CHW, Tenet, Health South, PacifiCare, EDS, Centura,
Kindred, Amgen, St Barnabas Health System to smaller size systems or individual
organizations such as hospitals and pharmaceutical, law firms (Jones Day, Davis Wright
Tremaine, etc), Allergan, Zimmer, USC Physician Group, Genentech, City of Hope, St Joseph
Health System, Varian Medical, Presbyterian Health System, Huntington Hospital, various
county agencies in California. Other clients have also been served in a consulting role but not
under Sheryl’s direct supervision, ie Sutter Health, Kaiser, Wellpoint, merger and acquisition
clients, etc.
1/1995 – 8/2000
Sutter Health, Sacramento, CA
Vice President, Internal Audit/Corporate Compliance Officer
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Vacca Biography (cont)
Sheryl developed and implemented an enterprise wide, comprehensive compliance program
for Sutter Health, which, at that time, was a large health care system in Northern California,
Oregon and Hawaii, which consisted of 38,000 employees and health care organizations
(approximately 52) of varying sizes with full continuum of health care programs. Sheryl also
was responsible for the enterprise wide internal audit function which Sheryl reorganized under
to focus on strategic and value add services to the organization vs. traditional financial
focused reviews. One of Sheryl’s achievements while at Sutter Health was in developing
compliance and internal audit functions which became integral to the business units and their
day to day operations (demonstrated by the day to day requests from business operations of
these functions).
Additionally, Sheryl developed governing board education, policies and procedures and board
member recruitment for each of the organizations (52) as well as the parent organization.
Sheryl was responsible for the governing board conference held annually.
1/1992 – 12/1994
Sutter Health, Sacramento, CA
Assistant Administrator Patient Care Services
Responsible for inpatient, outpatient and ancillary patient care services and operations
provided at Sutter Davis Hospital. While in this position successfully helped to design and
develop a new facility, relocated the services to that facility and developed additional patient
care services to meet the community needs in the new building.
1/1987 – 1/1991
Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital
Critical Care Patient Care Administrator
Responsible for patient care services and operations in critical care which included Intensive
Care (18 beds), Heart Center - Cardiac Telemetry Unit (16 beds) and Step down Telemetry
Units (24 beds).
1987 – 1995
Captain, USAR, Nurse Corps
Active Duty during Desert Storm
Oversight included unit deployment readiness for clinical team. Additionally, development of
standard systems and procedures for patient care services, quality standards and internal
controls for monitoring were part of Sheryl’s responsibilities. Sheryl also functioned as the
Mash Training Officer.
Previous work experience to 1987 is available upon request but generally included positions
related to patient care services as Administrator of Specialty Services (8 units), Critical Care
Management and Critical Care Clinical Nurse Specialist.
Achievements and Professional Recognition:
Medal of Honor, Achievement Awards in USAR
HCCA (Health Care Compliance Association) Pinnacle Award for contributions to the
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Vacca Biography (cont)
compliance profession
Past President of Health Care Compliance Association
Facilitated development of “Evaluating and Improving a Compliance Program-A Resource for
Board Members, Executives and Compliance Officers”, HCCA publication
Sheryl is a nationally recognized expert in the field of Regulatory Compliance and Auditing and
Monitoring. She has spoken on a national basis to diverse audiences such as ABA, AHLA,
HCCA, IIA, AHIA, AHIMA, AACN, ACHE, MGMA, CA County Counsel Roundtable, County Privacy
and Compliance Officers Forum, Blue Cross/Blue Shield Compliance Officers Conference, Kaiser
Compliance Officers Conference, etc. and has been a resource to various industries on these
topics, ie: telecom, energy, utilities.
Sheryl is also a member of the Editorial Board for Corporate Compliance Officer, published by
Opus Communications, Part B Insider, published by St Anthony and the Journal of Health Care
Compliance, published by Aspen Publishers. In addition, Sheryl has published several articles
in different aspects of compliance and auditing and monitoring.
Education:
M.S. Texas Woman’s University, Dallas, TX, 1984
B.S., Eastern Washington State University, Spokane, WA, 1978
USAR, Officer Advanced and Basic Training
Professional Licensure and Associations:
Registered Nurse, State of Washington, 1978 to Present
Registered Nurse, State of California, 1987 to Present
CHC (Certification in Health Care Compliance) – Health Care Compliance Board
President, Health Care Compliance Association, 2003
Board Member, Health Care Compliance Association 1998-present
Chairperson, Health Care Finance Management Association, National Technical Advisory Council,
1999 to 2000
Member, American Health Information Management Association
Member, American College of Health Care Executives
Member, Privacy Officer’s Association
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