Gary Passama

Gary Passama retired as president and CEO of NorthBay Healthcare on March 31, 2017. An active blogger since 2010, here’s a collection of his work.

Songs of 2016

December 27, 2016
 

As I look back at NorthBay Healthcare’s 2016, two songs made famous by Frank Sinatra play in my head.  One is “It Was a Very Good Year,” and indeed it was. We accomplished three major goals in 2016 which will change NorthBay Healthcare in lasting ways. 

First, we were named one of 50 organizations in the world to meet the standards for membership in the Mayo Clinic Care Network. It was a two-year process and we got to know the Mayo Clinic better. They then judged us a good fit.

Physicians in our medical group immediately had enhanced access to the expertise of Mayo Clinic. It has resulted in changing public perception of NorthBay Healthcare. We know Mayo Clinic has other plans for the network over the next few years and we look forward to hearing those plans.

A second goal attained was opening the 110,000-square foot-Wellness Center on our NorthBay VacaValley Hospital campus. We relocated NorthBay Cancer Center there in a state-of-the-art facility.

We also opened in the Wellness Center Solano County’s only medical fitness center which continues to exceed its membership projections and receive accolades for the comprehensive nature of its programs and facility, which includes four indoor pools. VacaValley Wellness Center allows us to vastly expand our outpatient services.

A third goal was achieved in just the past few weeks. We opened a new Welcome Pavilion at NorthBay Medical Center. It is a precursor to a new wing made possible by a $210 million bond issue which successfully went to market just two weeks ago. The new wing will replace our surgery suites and expand our bed count. This is very important as both of our hospitals are frequently completely full.

It was a very good year in other ways. We did well financially in a very difficult health care environment, one which will only become more challenging. We continue to work diligently to maintain and increase the quality of our care. Our ownership position in Western Health Advantage health plan and California Health Insurance Company, a risk retention and management company, allows NorthBay Healthcare to reap the benefits of “bigness” without losing the advantage of being an independent, locally based health care system.

Now 2017 beckons. It will bring its own challenges.

For me retirement is coming and my role will diminish, which gets me to that second Frank Sinatra song – “The Best Is Yet to Come,” As the lyrics say, “And won’t that be fine.”

And it will be.

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