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HOME > ABOUT > PRESS > NEW HEALTH CLINIC OPENING IN SEBASTOPOL
Article published - March 28, 2008
Credit: SONOMA WEST TIMES
New health clinic opening in Sebastopol
by David Abbott - Sonoma West Staff Writer
Another piece of the health care network puzzle in Sonoma County is taking shape, as West County Health Centers Inc. (WCHC) has opened an “interim clinic” of the Russian River Health Center in Sebastopol.
The clinic’s Medical Director Dr. Jason Cunningham has been working to get the facility up and running with a combination of technological innovation and a “medical home” approach to local health care.
“Our approach is patient-centered and proactive with preventative aspects,” Cunningham said. “It’s a collaborative approach: the idea of a team taking care of individuals.”
The four-room facility is designed around that approach. The rooms have been organized to be as comfortable as possible, with circular tables in the corners and soft lighting to create a less stressful atmosphere for the patient. A single “team member” takes patients through the process so that there is a continuity of care that allows for the development of relationships between patient and provider.
“It’s a ‘coffee table’ experience and very empowering for the patient,” Cunningham said. “We print out a summary of treatment and go over it with the patient so that we are sure they know what’s happening and that their information is correct.”
Cunningham has been working on the project since Palm Drive Hospital officials put the idea forth in order to help to ease an ER overload, but since the initial approach, the hospital has been in the process of creating its own stand alone clinic in order to attract physicians. The hospital has donated equipment, but has not given financial support, in the hope that eventually the WCHC clinic will work with its own clinic to offer more comprehensive health care.
“The new clinic should be very beneficial,” said Dan Smith, Palm Drive’s chief of business and strategic development. “The two clinics are very compatible, and this represents the first steps in a more coordinated effort to address countywide problems.”
Smith also believes that the move signals that the hospital “realizes it needs to reach out to the community” and has been “pretty introverted in the past.”
The new facility is located at 6800 Palm Avenue in building C-2, and is serving as a test site for WCHC’s new electronic health records system, which is set to go online in Occidental and Guerneville in June.
During the process of licensing, the clinic is only allowed to be open 20 hours per week for patient care. Most of its patients so far have come from Cunningham’s practice in Occidental. He hopes to be open full time within the next 6-12 months, though and to have all of the WCHC clinics fully connected by June.
“We feel the way we’re doing it is the way of the future,” Cunningham said. “We’ve decided not to wait to do it.”
He also believes that there is a “moral responsibility to do what’s right” in a system that is failing.
“We’re trying to transform the health care system,” he said. “It’s a lot less risky when you see someone else’s success.”
Cunningham has done his best to recruit colleagues who share his vision of what health care can be. Nurse Practitioner Jennifer Shipp recently went to work for the WCHC after leaving “a beautiful job” at the Memorial home care program.
Her former job gave her plenty of independence and the opportunity to work with one group of people, but after an interview with Cunningham, she found that she wanted to be a part of his vision.
“Here I get to expand the scope of my practice to a broader range of people,” she said. “I get to stay connected from the heart and work with people with the same values.”
“I wanted to be on the front end of change,” she added.
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