Department of Family Medicine Retreat and 97 Days and Counting for ccLink

I was so pleased to have been asked to attend our Department of Family Medicine’s retreat today at our Regional Medical Center. It was exciting to see such a great turnout and an excellent opportunity to hear directly from front-line providers.

With the incredible amount of change and transformation underway in our system, it was a chance to connect and share information in an informal setting. We all know Health Care Reform isn’t happening in Washington, D.C. – it’s happening right here in Contra Costa. We together are literally “the boots on the ground” making it a reality. We’re working hard to make sure we have the tools and infrastructure in place to support Health Care Reform, including the growth of primary care. 

In this morning's meeting we talked about some of those tools and infrastructure: Patient-Centered Health Homes, the implementation of our electronic health record, ccLInk, and other efforts to make our transformation work possible. I was joined by our Health Services Director Dr. William Walker, Chief Medical Officer Dr. David Goldstein, Medical Staff President Dr. Ori Tzvieli, Chief Nursing Officer Jaspreet Benepal, Director of Detention, ED and Ambulatory Nursing Anthony Longoria, and ccLink Transition Leader Dr. Troy Kaji.

People had great questions and the retreat highlighted the need for regular communication. I heard you loud and clear that you want more information and will be working with department leadership on how best to do this. This is a challenge for CCRMC and Health Centers and also for a large integrated system like ours (Dr. Walker talks about this in his upcoming April message in the Director’s Report).  Along with other members of our leadership team, I will continue to work to keep you updated via emails, flyers, screensavers and other ways.

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Our ccLink implementation is picking up speed as we rapidly approach our go-live date of July 1. This Wednesday, we’ll conduct our 90-Day readiness assessment with Epic, which means we’ll assess how we are progressing. You also can find news on the EHR implementation in our new ccLink Update newsletter (posted here) which is being distributed electronically and in hard copy, as well as on iSITE. 

Please let me know if you have ideas on how to best get information out. You can send me your ideas directly or via our Communications Officer, Kate Fowlie at kate.fowlie@hsd.cccounty.us or 925-313-6268.

I hope to be able to participate in more staff retreats. Dr. Nancy Palmer, Jose Yasul and the other members of the Department of Family Medicine Leadership Group did an excellent job organizing the event.

There are so many activities underway that some may seem unrelated, but they all are linked and critical to ensuring our Health Care Reform work is successful. We know there are a lot of questions, excitement and anxiety. This is only natural considering what we are striving to accomplish- the transformation of our health system to provide the Right Care, at the Right Place, at the Right Time.

I’ve heard Dr. Walker describe this as the most exciting time in his nearly 38 years with Contra Costa Health Services. I agree. This is an incredible time to be in health care and I am truly honored to be part of a health delivery system that is so uniquely positioned to implement such revolutionary change is how we provide care. Thanks again to Dr. Nancy Palmer and the Department of Family Medicine for inviting me to join you this morning.

More very soon.

Anna