Change a mind: Our greatest weapon against stigma is our voice

Love this! From bringchange2mind.org who have partnered with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) in walking together to raise awareness and eliminate the stigma surrounding mental illness.

You can find more information about NAMI in Contra Costa County here. Our local walk will be held on Saturday May 22 in San Francisco at Golden Gate Park. Will CCCRMC or the Healthcare Partnership have a team to sponsor?
Yes, it's a challenge!

Getting your message across

I've heard it said that "safety" has become an overused term and may no longer grab peoples attention. Sadly, I'm afraid there may be some truth to that perception. Below is a video Anthony Longoria, Director of CCRMC Emergency and Detention Nursing Operations, played at his talk on Team Building yesterday at the CCRMC Improvement Academy.

How do you build a team with engaged members in two minutes? Here's how a clever employee of Southwest Airlines did it. I did read more about this and it is reported that some passengers confessed they had never really listened to the safety instructions until they took this flight!

21st century tools for health leadership at University of California, Berkeley

I'm looking forward to the 2010 Leadership Conference at the University of California, Berkeley this week. Kate Fowlie and I will be speaking about the use of new media to move an organization into the future. In other words, it's a talk about blogging, tweeting and facebook!

Cancer Care at Contra Costa: A place where quality leads and no one is left out.

You should be proud. You have worked smarter and it shows! Congratulations to all for your committment to quality and in making health possible for all.

http://cbs5.com/health/contra.costa.cancer.2.1621068.html

NPR talks NUMMI, GM and TPS

NUMMI

The Future Waits No More-Behavioral Health Gets Lean

“Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it.”
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

It was a wonderful report-out today. I would like to thank everyone for your efforts. I am deeply moved and grateful for your willingness to contribute your skill, spirit and dedication to redesign our behavioral health service. The silence and darkness that has surrounded our behavioral health system is no more. You have brought us from silence to voice, from darkness to dawn. I look ahead with great excitement and anticipation. I encourage everyone to go and see (Genchi Genbutsu, 現地現物) the amazing work done by the team this week posted in the hospital lobby.

Keep an eye out for visible change in our behavioral health services, because it has arrived!

I want to share reflections from Teresa Pasquini. She is an amazing change agent and partner in our journey to excellence.
Here is her post-

On March 17th, a Behavioral Health Collaborative convened at Contra Costa Regional Center to begin a journey back to the future and on to a new frontier. This team effort was the dream of many Contra Costa County Community members who strive to change the way we treat one of our most vulnerable populations.

Born out of a vision of hope and the Healthcare Partnership, we brought together consumers, family members, law enforcement officers, ambulance drivers, nursing staff, medical staff, and administrative support to learn and teach about how to impact a Behavioral Health redesign at Contra Costa Regional Medical Center. We needed change agents to bring improved care and supports to all of our Community partners. That day was a gut level sharing of lived experiences that framed the work performed during the Behavioral Health Value Stream Mapping Event this week.

With stop watches and clip board in hand, this team of ambulance drivers, law enforcement, consumers, family members, nurses, therapists, psychiatrists, and clerks entered the ER and the CSU with the eyes focused on patient care only. We watched voluntary and involuntary consumers enter the ER, triage, medically clear, and move to the CSU. We watched what a consumer experiences as they enter the Crisis Stabilization unit from beginning, middle and end.

We watched the charge nurses and RNs scurry from one end of the unit to the next, the therapists arming the phones in search for beds, consoling and advising family members, and brainstorming with their colleagues on ways to get the services necessary for the patient as soon as possible. We timed the Psychiatrists assessment and consultation process to determine medical necessity to continue treatment and observed disposition orders given.

And we saw waiting, a lot of waiting. It was our job to find ways to reduce all non value time that was creating waste, duplicating efforts, and restricting patient care. After the Time Observations, data collection, and calculations were complete, we had our current state mapped.

Next, during our brainstorming session, we threw out old attitudes, debated and challenged the obstacles that exist in the current state, and made suggestions for building an ideal future state. We had become an amazing community team with open hearts and minds. We were told to think Big and Blow up the Box. Our ideas reflected our diversity of experiences and perspectives. No idea was excluded or judged.

The Report Out today in our hospital lobby demonstrated the power and magic that can occur when we lay down the tools that don’t work and pick up new tools that will help us bring improvement to the quality of care we provide our consumers. It was an awesome showing of humanity and social justice in motion.

Today the community celebrated the beginning of a one year Behavioral Health Improvement Process that will save lives. As the result of the Value Stream Mapping, more consumers and families are going to experience more value added care. The staff is going to feel more satisfied with their ability to provide care to their patients, and the community is going to move one step closer to healing. A community driven, consumer and family centered, collaborative process helped us dispel myths and rumors about the “mysterious” world of psychiatric care at Contra Costa Regional Medical Center.

A community team went to the Gemba (work place) and saw what the care of our psychiatric patients currently is at CCRMC. It really wasn’t mysterious; it was good medical care that is being provided in a system that needs improvement. On May 10, 2010 a new community team will convene to begin a rapid quality improvement event (Kaizen) that will take us one step closer to the future.

A week ago my son was a patient in the CSU. He has been there many times in the past ten years, but this time was different because of the consumer and family centered improvement efforts. He was only held for a couple of hours, this time. When discharged he told me that he was treated well. When I told him that I was coming to work at the hospital with a team of people who were going to make this process more accessible, accountable, and appropriate, he said, “Mom, my case manager told me that you believe in miracles.” That made him smile and proud of me. I love seeing my son smile. I don’t know about miracles, but I do believe in this process and I know that change is here.

Teresa Pasquini

Contra Costa Regional Medical Center Honored for Cancer Care

Congratulations to all-

Contra Costa Regional Medical Center Honored for Cancer Care

Contra Costa Regional Medical Center’s (CCRMC) Cancer Program is one of only three California hospitals to receive the 2009 Outstanding Achievement Award from the American College of Surgeons’ Commission on Cancer.

The Chicago-based Commission on Cancer recognizes accredited cancer programs that “strive for excellence in providing quality care to cancer patients.”

CCRMC Cancer Program Medical Director Dr. Sharon Hiner said the recognition reflects the program’s commitment to quality.

“This is a great honor and it recognizes that we are a state-of-the-art facility. Not everyone knows that public hospitals like ours provide such excellent care,” Dr. Hiner said. “As the county health system, our mission is to serve the underserved and we believe our patients deserve the best care possible. This award shows that we are doing just that.”

For 41-year-old breast cancer patient Janet Morris the cancer program has been a godsend. She discovered a lump shortly after she had lost her job and health insurance last year.

“I was a little scared about going to a county hospital, but now I feel it was the most lucky thing to happen to me because I got such wonderful care,” said Morris, who lives in Richmond. “I felt very welcome. They are so caring, competent and loving.”
Not only is Morris receiving top notch care at CCRMC, she also is participating in clinical trials that give her access to some of the best new cancer drugs.

CCRMC’s cancer program was accredited in 1987 and is part of the Contra Costa Health Services county health system. “We are able to enroll more patients into clinical trials than some university hospitals, which means patients have access to cutting edge treatments. Over the past year, the cancer program has seen a 30 percent increase in patients likely due to more awareness about the program and a jump in the number of people losing their health insurance", Dr. Hiner said.

The CCRMC Cancer Program also recently issued its 2010 Annual Report. The annual report includes an in-depth look at breast cancer treatment at CCRMC. For the Commission on Cancer’s full award list, visit their site here.