A Message from Virginia Garcia's CEO, Gil Muñoz
April, 2010
Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center has so much of which to be proud. Despite the challenges we face during the recession, we continue to expand and improve our services to the most vulnerable in our communities.
With the help of federal stimulus dollars, we’ve been able to hire 10 new providers in our clinics, which will enable us to provide more than 12,000 new patients with a primary care home. Even with this increase in capacity, the need for primary care access is still overwhelming and many are left without a medical home. We need your support to continue to strengthen our capacity to deliver care to the communities we serve.
(Pictured at left, Gil Muñoz.)
Thanks to federal, foundation and corporate grants, we have invested in electronic health records (EHR) to improve the quality of care we deliver. In March, we completed the transition to EHR system-wide with implementation at VG McMinnville. Other grants are allowing us to expand our dental services to reach targeted populations like pregnant women and those with diabetes; and we will continue to integrate behavioral health into the care we provide at each of our clinics.
Recently I had the opportunity to be part of a delegation to visit Group Health in Seattle to observe how they are implementing the Lean model of continuous quality improvement. Lean was developed by Toyota as a system to improve production, but is being used more and more by health care providers looking for ways to deliver care more efficiently.
Currently, we’re testing the Lean model on several small projects including managing incoming calls and ‘no shows’ to see where and how we can improve our system. This ties in directly with the strategic goals of Virginia Garcia to create a sustainable community clinic that serves its population in the best ways possible. It’s exciting!
I know I speak for our many dedicated community partners in expressing our disappointment in not being awarded the federal capital grant to rebuild the Cornelius clinic. But there is a silver lining -- we have laid the foundation, done the work and are in a good position to apply for grants in the future. Again, thanks for all your hard work and support.