Welcoming the New Year: Building on a solid foundation in 2015

Every January 1, I look forward to sending a New Year message to all of you who make up our team here at CCRMC, Health Centers and Detention Health. It’s an exciting time as we welcome a new year and all that it will bring. I want to give special thanks to those among us who serve our community on holidays, after hours and on weekends – those whose commitment to our mission has them assisting those in need.

This past year we strengthened our foundation with our patient, family, and community partnerships, we saw the continued development and optimization of our electronic health record as well as improvement work throughout the health care delivery system, and we collaborated with other Contra Costa Health Services divisions. In the coming weeks, we will release our 2015-2020 Strategic Plan that builds on these accomplishments and reflects our commitment to compassionate, high quality care, partnerships and new ways of thinking about health in our community.

Our focus will continue to be on delivering the highest quality care to all and expanding our patient and family partnerships. We are still seeing the far-reaching and overwhelmingly positive effects of the replacement of our Visitors Policy with a Welcoming Policy. This cultural shift reflects our shared belief that hospitals should be places where families and loved-ones are welcomed, recognized and included as essential to partners in health care.

2015 is the fifth year of our Delivery System Reform Incentive Payments (DSRIP) program to expand access to care and enhance quality. This vital program has provided essential support of the redesign of our health delivery system to meet the needs of our community. The work that you have been doing has set a course toward health for all. This is the promise of health reform and your efforts are making a difference.

Our ongoing partnership with the Behavioral Health division to integrate physical and behavioral health care continues to improve how we provide patient-centered care that treats the whole person. We are set to expand this integration with additional services launching at our Miller Wellness Center this month and the new Antioch Health Center planned to open later this year. Integration efforts like these support our efforts to improve access to care and how we provide that care. 

In our West County Health Center, we have implemented the Health Leads program, which helps to address critical issues facing our patients such as food, shelter and housing to support health in the broadest sense of the word. We will continue to build on partnerships within our Health Services Department and beyond, as we did with Public Health and Emergency Medical Services during our extensive Ebola Virus Disease preparedness efforts. Being part of an integrated health system allows us to better care for, respond to and protect our community.

As we welcome the year with the ambitious goal of creating optimal health for all, we move forward together—patients and their families with staff, community groups with CCRMC, health plans with doctors, and countless other essential allies. In every situation, sustainability, efficiency, and the delivery of value requires that individuals and groups unite. The bold promise of health reform can only be achieved by fundamentally transforming how we work, recognizing that an interdependent approach is essential to make the best use of our collective skills, knowledge, and experience. I, for one, am happy that this year brings a new opportunity to work with all of you.

My sincere best wishes to you in the year to come.

Anna