For the past 20 years I have been working on a new model for hospitals called the Healing Hospital™ One reason I came to Sonoma was because I saw a community open to healing in all its forms and ready to embrace this exciting model. Over the past six years, we have...
From the SVH CEO
The New SVH Strategic Plan
We just completed the annual update to SVH’s three-year rolling strategic plan. It’s an important document that reinforces our mission and values, and identifies near-term objectives. This plan was developed by a committee of board members, physicians and hospital...
Celebrating 70 Years of Community Spirit
I know I say it often, but it bears repeating that Sonoma Valley Hospital is a community hospital in the truest sense of the term. Community spirit has been part of our DNA for 70 years. It was evident in the creation of the Sonoma Valley Health Care District in 1946...
Sonoma Valley Hospital Is A Model For Safety and Quality
(This is a guest blog by Jane Hirsch, Sonoma Valley Health Care District Board Chair.)Two years ago Consumer Reports named SVH one of the safest hospitals in the country, and over the past several years the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has...
Today’s Community Hospital Requires Creativity and Nimbleness
Community hospitals face two seemingly contradictory realities today. The first is to operate with an ever-increasing level of efficiency in response to the financial pressures brought about by health care reform and government mandates to reduce inpatient care. The...
Survey Shows How Much Our Community Values Its Hospital
Many believe that how a community hospital is perceived largely depends on the community’s answers to four questions:Is quality of care high?Is the care safely delivered?Is the hospital financially sustainable?Are patients satisfied?In the past five years, we’ve seen...
The New Community Hospital
The past several years have been challenging ones for small hospitals as disruptive trends in health care have forced community hospitals to rethink their role to remain viable. I believe we’ve made remarkable progress here in Sonoma, using our small size to nimbly...
Why Population Health Is A Strategic Priority
Each year, we update our strategic plan not only to chart our progress and create a vision to share with our community, but also because it causes us to carefully consider our role in the shifting landscape that is health care today.In creating the Hospital’s 2016...
Five Years Later, A New SVH
As 2015 began, we paused to take a look at the past five years. Since coming to this wonderful hospital in 2010, I have been fortunate to see so much great progress. It is a gratifying and amazing experience to describe how our staff, physicians, board, stakeholders...
SVH 2014: A YEAR TO REMEMBER
I can honestly say that 2014 was the most challenging year in my career.When I did my residency for my MHA in 1991, I remember being told that the “good old days” when insurance payments covered the cost for most patients using the hospital were over. There were many...