PHCD News

February 21, 2017
See the 23 North Bay philanthropy awards-winners of 2017

The North Bay Business Journal has selected 23 honorees for its fourth annual Community Philanthropy Awards underwritten by Exchange Bank.

The recipients will be honored at a luncheon March 31 from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Hyatt Vineyard Creek Hotel & Spa in Santa Rosa. The awardees also will be profiled in a special Business Journal section on March 27.

Arrow Benefits Group
Bank of Marin
Exchange Bank
John Jordan Foundation
Kaiser Permanente
Keysight Technologies
Mary’s Pizza Shack
Moss Adams LLP
North Bay Association of Realtors
Pacific Gas and Electric Company
Petaluma Health Care District
Pisenti & Brinker LLP
Redwood Credit Union
Soiland Company
Sonoma Clean Power
Summit State Bank
Terra Firma Global Partners
Touro University California
Trinchero Family Estates
W. Bradley Electric, Inc.
Wine Road
Karissa Kruse, president, Sonoma County Winegrowers
Stacey Biagi, director of social media and public relations, Biagi Bros.

To read more visit this link >>

February 17, 2017
Paladin Healthcare recommended to operate Petaluma Valley Hospital

The Petaluma Health Care District board unanimously approved the selection of Paladin Healthcare as the next operator of Petaluma Valley Hospital on Friday. Now, it’s up to the public to vote on it June 6.

“We are going to need everybody’s help in order to get that vote approved,” said Elece Hempel, president of the health care district board. “We’re just at the base of the hill. We have a long way to go to get this thing done.”

In the next few weeks, PHCD will be hosting a series of forums and public meetings to talk about the board’s choice and address the community, while continuing negotiations on a final agreement with Paladin Healthcare and working to ensure the transition from St. Joseph Health goes smoothly. The district must provide final ballot language by March 10.

To read more visit this link >>

February 17, 2017
Petaluma Valley Hospital chooses Paladin Healthcare to run facility

The Petaluma Health Care District has selected Paladin Healthcare as the recommended long-term lease operator of Petaluma Valley Hospital (PVH), effective Sept. 1, 2017.

Paladin, through its subsidiaries, operates community hospitals in the Greater Los Angeles area and Washington, D.C. This will be its first Northern California location.

PHCD had also considered Pipeline Health, based in Los Angeles, and The KPC Group.

Paladin has guaranteed employment for current PVH staff in good standing for at least six months, with no plans to make material changes to the composition of the staff, and has stated that it will honor all current union agreements.

To read more visit this link >>

February 17, 2017
Paladin selected to run Petaluma Valley Hospital

A southern California healthcare company is in line to become the next operator of the publicly-owned Petaluma Valley Hospital.

The Petaluma Health Care District board last week selected Paladin Healthcare as its top choice from among three companies vying to take over operations from St. Joseph Health. The board must still reach a final agreement with the El Segundo-based healthcare company. District voters will also need to ratify the agreement on the June 6 ballot.

To read more visit this link >>

February 17, 2017
Petaluma Health Care District Moves Forward with Paladin Healthcare as Recommended Operator of Petaluma Valley Hospital

The Petaluma Health Care District (PHCD) has selected Paladin Healthcare (Paladin) as the recommended long-term lease operator of Petaluma Valley Hospital (PVH), effective Sept. 1, 2017. Paladin was selected after PHCD’s Board of Directors carefully considered bids from three parties.

“In evaluating the bids, Paladin provided a thoughtful and thorough proposal that addressed the criteria we identified as important for an operator, demonstrated its strengths as an organization, and articulated a strong vision for PVH. Further, the company presented a well-researched and solid understanding of Southern Sonoma County’s acute care needs, coupled with a proven track record for sustaining or improving community hospital operations and the patient care experience,” said Ramona Faith, PHCD CEO. “Paladin’s proposal includes keeping and restoring core services; ongoing financial investment in operations, service lines and physician services, and our facility; maintaining quality levels; a long-term agreement; and offering our community fair-market-value rent for the hospital facility.”

To read more visit this link >>

February 17, 2017
Petaluma homeless advocates team up with library

Petaluma’s leading homeless services provider has joined forces with the city’s library in an attempt to reach a broader segment of the area’s most vulnerable population.

The evolving partnership between the Petaluma Regional Library and the Committee on the Shelterless provides the nonprofit with an outpost to connect with those who might not otherwise utilize the organization’s services, either because they’re unaware of what’s offered, apprehensive about seeking help, or because they’ve been asked to leave the shelter in the past, COTS Disability Benefits Advocate Barbara Pieper said.

To read more visit this link >>

February 16, 2017
Standing up for Petaluma’s immigrants

“Six hundred miles to that Mexican border — they chase us like outlaws, like rustlers, like thieves”

— Woody Guthrie, “Deportee”

When Woody Guthrie wrote his famous protest song lamenting the plight of California’s migrant farmworkers who, under Congressional authorization, were brought here during World War II to solve the problem of severe labor shortages, he could not have foreseen how California’s agricultural economy would one day become entirely dependent upon foreign labor. Today, the growing and harvesting of the state’s crops, including wine grapes, is achieved principally by citizens from Mexico and other Central American countries who are not legally authorized to be here.

To read more visit this link >>

February 6, 2017
Three Operators Vying for Petaluma Valley Hospital

PHCD has received formal bids from three parties – KPC Health Inc., Paladin Healthcare and Pipeline Health – to operate Southern Sonoma County’s community-owned asset, Petaluma Valley Hospital (PVH).

“Since October when negotiations to continue hospital operations ended with St. Joseph Health, we have been fully and actively engaged in identifying viable parties that will continue to operate PVH as a high-quality community hospital that meets the needs of Southern Sonoma County residents,” said Ramona Faith, PHCD CEO. “The potential operators, KPC, Paladin and Pipeline, worked with us to prepare their proposals through site visits, interviews, data collection and analysis, and market research in advance of the bid submission deadline. We have also been coordinating closely with St. Joseph Health to help our bidders obtain the information they need to prepare and submit their bid. We are on an expedited timeline, but we are conducting a thorough process.”

To read more visit this link >>

January 30, 2017
Petaluma Valley Hospital contract gets bidding interest

Three hospital operators have toured Petaluma Valley Hospital in the past two months as a deadline looms for interested companies to submit bids to take over the facility.

Among the companies making site visits are Pipeline Health, a Los Angeles-based management company that owns and operates hospitals and healthcare organizations including four in Southern California and Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, D.C. The company in July signed a deal to manage the struggling Sonoma West Medical Center in Sebastopol.

The other two companies to visit Petaluma’s hospital are El Segundo-based Paladin Healthcare and The KPC Group. Based in Riverside, The KPC Group is part of Strategic Global Management, one of four firms that submitted bids to operate the Petaluma hospital last year.

To read more visit this link >>

January 26, 2017
Early interest in Petaluma hospital contract

Three hospital operators have toured Petaluma Valley Hospital in the past two months as a deadline looms for interested companies to submit bids to take over the facility.

Among the companies making site visits are Pipeline Health, a Los Angeles-based management company that owns and operates hospitals and healthcare organizations including four in Southern California and Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, D.C.The company in July signed a deal to manage the struggling Sonoma West Medical Center in Sebastopol.

Interested companies have until Jan. 31 to submit bids to take over operations at the publicly- owned hospital. So far, no one has submitted a formal bid, said Ramona Faith, CEO of the Petaluma Health Care District, which owns the hospital.

To read more visit this link >>

January 23, 2017
Petaluma Valley Hospital gets ‘stroke-ready’ certification; other North Bay business news

Petaluma Valley Hospital has earned advanced disease-specific care certification for acute stroke-ready hospitals from The Joint Commission, American Heart Association and American Stroke Association. The certification recognizes hospitals equipped to treat stroke patients with timely, evidence-based care prior to transferring them to a primary or comprehensive stroke center.

To read more visit this link >>

December 30, 2016
Election, transportation top Petaluma stories of 2016

National and global events, dominated by the U.S. presidential election, combined to make 2016 a monumental year. In Petaluma, the local election had less of an impact, but certainly became one of the top stories of the year.

The severe drought that captured headlines for four years finally ended in 2016 as significant rainfall soaked the region. Even more significantly, Petaluma’s flood wall project, finally completed at the beginning of the year, did its job and no major flooding was reported.

Operations at Petaluma Valley Hospital, the city’s lone acute care facility, went through a rocky 2016, leaving the future uncertain in the new year. Longtime hospital operator St. Joseph Health abruptly pulled out of talks to continue running the facility, as local health care officials scrambled to find a successor.

To read more visit this link >>

December 19, 2016
Petaluma stakeholders discuss drugs in schools

The introductions advanced through the room one-by-one, a group of around 60 attendees representing leaders in health care, community health, education, nonprofits, law enforcement and other interests that had assembled in Petaluma last week to discuss concerns over drug abuse by the city’s youth.

Next up was Gordon Stinson, a Petaluma father who knew those concerns all too well. “I lost one son to this disease,” said Stinson, whose 23-year-old son Matthew was found dead on the streets of Petaluma in September and was said to have a history of substance abuse problems.

Three years earlier, Stinson’s eldest son Bram, also 23 at the time, hanged himself at Petaluma’s D Street bridge.

To read more visit this link >>

December 14, 2016
Assisted living leader joins health care district board

Petaluma Health Care District (PHCD) Wednesday appointed Becky Monday to its board of directors as a member at large.

Monday is the general manager and administrator of Petaluma’s Springfield Place Assisted Living Community. The district stated that Monday ran uncontested, filling the seat recently vacated by Dr. Robert Ostroff after his term concluded.

“Becky came to us with a sincere interest in the health of our community, an understanding of our community’s health care landscape and our need for long-term wellness support for multi-generational populations. She provides a fresh lens to our board as we continue to work through major decisions – most immediately vetting and recommending a new operator for Petaluma Valley Hospital. The community will benefit from her vast professional and personal experience, and we are thrilled to have her join our Board,” stated CEO Ramona Faith.

To read more visit this link >>

December 5, 2016
New Sutter Health clinic planned for Petaluma

Sutter Health is opening its first medical office in Petaluma, expanding the health care provider’s footprint along the Highway 101 corridor.

The location at the Deer Creek Village shopping center off North McDowell Boulevard will be the company’s first “Sutter Walk-in Care” clinic in Sonoma County, said Lisa Amador, a regional spokeswoman for Sutter. It is the fourth for the company as a whole.

An opening date is not yet known, she said.

To read more visit this link >>

November 22, 2016
Celebrations: Petaluma teens keep mom alive with CPR

Tena Jackson has no memory of the morning she died. The Petaluma educator only knows her two teenage daughters helped bring her back to life, despite their panic and fear.

Jackson, 52, suffered cardiac arrhythmia in April 2015, collapsing in her living room from sudden cardiac arrest. She was face down on the floor, initially with a sporadic pulse.

Her daughters, Emmy and Koko Stephens-Jackson, then 13 and 16, worked together, Emmy on the phone with a 911 operator and Koko performing CPR from her instructions.

To read more visit this link >>

November 21, 2016
Petaluma Health Care District wins Healthiest Companies in the North Bay Award

Employee satisfaction through emphasis on wellness ranks high on the list of goals for the Petaluma Health Care District (PHCD).

“We believe that a healthy work environment is a major contributing factor to staff satisfaction and also enhances teamwork and morale,” said Erin Howseman, executive assistant and board clerk in charge of the wellness program.

“As an organization with a mission to improve the health and well-being of people in the lower half of Sonoma County, we are dedicated to modeling workplace behaviors that result in the same outcomes for our employees.”

To read more visit this link >>

November 16, 2016
North Bay health care leaders detail problems, solutions

What’s working in health care, and what’s not?

Those in the system and those hired to make it better came together to share solutions Nov. 15 in Santa Rosa. The Business Journal’s Health Care Conference included several speakers as well as the presentation of the Healthiest Companies in the North Bay honors.

Ramona Faith, CEO PHCD

Overseeing hospitals isn’t what Petaluma Health Care District is all about, said Ramona Faith, CEO of the more than 65-year-old district. “We are about investing the dollars and resources into the programs and services that benefit our communities’ health.” Care provided by Petaluma Valley Hospital is only a small part of what the district does to keep people healthy. That’s because the environment they live in and how they behave play a much larger role in their health, she said. In addition to leasing out its hospitals, the district, which does not depend on tax revenue for support, has established outreach programs. For example, since 2010, district has funded Mothers Care, an innovative evidence-based screening and treatment program for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders.

To read more visit this link >>

November 13, 2016
Petaluma Health Care District plans new hospital process

The public district that owns Petaluma’s only acute-care hospital is charting a new course after negotiations collapsed with a leading organization to run the facility, setting a new target of June 2017 for a public vote to approve an eventual new operator and contract.

The new timeline gives interested hospital companies until Jan. 31 to submit a final bid, and gives the Petaluma Health Care District, which owns the hospital, until March to chose their front-runner, said Ramona Faith, district CEO. Five operators had signed non-disclosure agreements in order to access in-depth data on the hospital as of Tuesday, an early sign of interest in a possible bid, Faith said.

To read more visit this link >>

November 10, 2016
Petaluma Health Care District models initiatives, programs

Petaluma Health Care District in the past few years has established itself as a major presence in regional health care efforts.

One of 78 such districts in California, it partners with and engages community organizations. It was recognized in 2015 as Health Care District of the Year by the Association of California Healthcare Districts for its community work, and recently received a Jefferson Award, a national recognition system to highlight public service.

Faith said the district is successful because of the way she structured the Community Health Initiative of the Petaluma Area (CHIPA) with a cross-section of community members.

To read more visit this link >>