Health
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- Written by: Adventist Health
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Adventist Health Clear Lake has opened a new medical office in Lakeport.
The clinic is located at 801 11th Street and offers comprehensive primary care services and cardiopulmonary testing.
The clinic is staffed by a family medicine physician, Dr. David House, and a welcoming team including a licensed vocational nurse, medical assistants and front office staff. It is located just down the street from Safeway near central Lakeport.
The entire clinic underwent a renovation and contains new equipment and furniture.
“By opening this medical office in Lakeport, Adventist Health Clear Lake now serves six towns in Lake County with primary care services,” says Brent Dupper, executive director of outpatient clinics. “The team is excited to welcome new patients and begin building connections with them.”
Services offered at the medical office include sick visits, disease screening, chronic disease management for conditions such as diabetes or hypertension, annual physical exams, immunizations and specialist referrals. Cardiopulmonary testing takes place in dedicated exam rooms by appointment.
Patients can call 707-263-3746 to schedule an appointment. The clinic accepts MediCal, Medicare, Partnership HealthPlan of California and most private insurance plans.
Find the list of all Adventist Health Clear Lake Medical Offices at www.adventisthealthclearlake.org.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Adventist Health Clear Lake celebrates the hospital’s 50th year with the award of three national honors of distinction for quality care.
The California Alliance for Collaborative Nursing, or CALNOC, Performance Excellence Award, the Quest Premier High Value Healthcare Award, and SMARTCARE California Achievement Award.
The CALNOC Performance Excellence Award honored Adventist Health Clear Lake for their exemplary work in reducing hospital acquired conditions and for exceptional performance in the reduction of hospital acquired pressure injuries, injuries from falls and infections. The 2018 award included Best Performance in Preventing Injury Falls.
Premier recognizes top performing hospitals with the Quest Award for High-Value Healthcare for improvements made in Prevention and Treatment for Leading Causes of Mortality, Effective Care and Coordination, Affordability and Patient Safety. Adventist Health Clear Lake was named finalist in the selection ranking number two of nine hundred ninety-eight eligible hospitals in the country.
SMARTCARE California recognizes hospitals that achieve a Cesarean section (C-section) rate of 23.9 percent or lower for low-risk, first-birth deliveries. Adventist Health Clear Lake, one of 240 maternity hospitals in California, received this award for exceeding the Healthy People 2020 goal. This is the second year in a row that AHCL has been honored in this category.
“Building a culture of quality and engagement for patient and employees has resulted in these honors,” said Colleen Assavapisitkul, patient care executive for Adventist Health Clear Lake. “Hiring great leaders, aligning around key strategies, implementing best practices, and creating a culture of safety contribute to achieving these awards. We are constantly reviewing outcomes, paying attention to details, and looking for opportunities to improve.”
Since purchasing the hospital in 1997, AHCL has implemented new services and programs to expand the quality care it provides. Expansion of the Emergency Department and Clinics ensures the continuum of care from in-patient to out-patient services.
The Intensive Outpatient Care Management Program and Live Well Program create a strategic pathway for providing patients individualized care management.
Restoration House and Project Restoration, collaborating with community partners, provide additional resources for patients to receive individualized services, preventive care and education to encourage wellness for a lifetime.
“These awards are the direct result of the collaboration and motivation of nursing and medical staff to effect improvements in the level of care provided to our patients. We are committed to providing quality care that continues to improve each year” said Erin McNabb, director of Quality and Infection Prevention.
This philosophy of improvement and providing excellence are at the heart of patient care at Adventist Health Clear Lake.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Adventist Health Clear Lake’s Philanthropy Council hosted their 50th Anniversary Golden Gala Celebration on Nov. 10 at Boatique Winery.
Presented by Rob and Madi Mount of Boatique, the event celebrated 50 years of Hospital history and launched a new campaign aligned with the city of Clearlake.
Two hundred and twenty five guests, under the theme of “What Together Can Do,” raised $100,000 in community giving.
In the last 50 years, Adventist Health Clear Lake, previously known as Redbud, has continually invested in the community through philanthropic events.
In an effort to continue that investment the Golden Gala focused on raising funds in partnership with the City of Clearlake’s Park Restructuring to provide new safe playground equipment for children.
The equipment is one phase of the park restructuring and the funds raised will cover the cost of purchasing the equipment for Austin Park in Clearlake.
The hospital has been tied to the history of the community of Clear Lake since it was built in 1968.
As guests arrived they had a chance to walk through some of the stories of that 50-year history of both the hospital and Clear Lake.
Honored historian Gene Paleno, author of “Lake County History,” was on hand to share rich stories of the lake history.
“The Doctors Three” – Mark Copper, Marc Shapiro and John Weeks – shared humorous stories of their practices while Conrad Colbrandt, Redbud Healthcare District executive manager, and Jim Robello, Philanthropy Council chair, shared childhood memories of living in Lake County.
David Santos, Adventist Health Clear Lake CEO, launched the event with a moment of silence for the communities of Paradise and Ventura County.
“We have been called to serve the communities of Lake County and that means expanding our reach outside the walls of the hospitals and clinic in to the heart of our community,” said Santos. “Living God’s love means providing a community that is safe where our children and adults can live a healthy life.”
The Gala program, “Honoring the Past, Celebrating the Journey and Inspiring the Future,” led guests through a journey from 1968 into our present success before laying the groundwork for future investments in Lake County.
Pat Pirtle, one of Redbud Hospital’s original nursing assistants, and Willie Sapeta, Lake County Fire Protection District Fire chief, shared stories of their work with the hospital and staff over the last 50 years.
Ben Hill, master of ceremonies, presented the accomplishments of the hospital and clinics in the last 20 years. Throughout the evening, guests were treated with stunning aerialist performances, Celtic harp music and a Chef Nicholas catered meal.
Shelly Trumbo, Adventist Health Community integration executive, and Russ Perdock, Adventist Health Clear Lake Community integration director, presented “Activate”, a campaign to bring new safe playground equipment to Austin Park in Clearlake. Providing a safe place for children to be active and invest in their health through playground activity is an investment in their future health.
Following the presentation guests were treated to a vocal performance by Trumbo and Mary Swehla singing Carrie Underwood's “Change.” The song's message is that each of us can do something to change the world.
“The Adventist Health Clear Lake Golden Gala was such a special event, watching our hospital join with our city to focus on promoting health through activity,” said Perdock. “The ability to raise enough to fund the purchase of playground equipment in one night is something to be celebrated.”
The evening ended with a paddle raise auction by Generosity Auctions that raised $41,450 in addition to the event sponsor pledges, bringing the evening’s total to $100,000.
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- Written by: Cici Winiger
WILLITS, Calif. – It’s a Friday morning at Blosser Lane Elementary School.
Instead of the usual scene of children sitting around, waiting for the bell to ring, over 100 students are running and walking laps around the basketball court, all the while laughing and having fun.
Students are indeed off to a healthy start by earning their “miles” thanks to a new before-school program called “Morning Mile” sponsored by Adventist Health Howard Memorial.
A running/walking program originating in Florida, Morning Mile is designed to help tackle childhood obesity by giving kids the opportunity to be active every day. The challenge of course being, how to motivate today’s youth to step away from the TV and go for an early morning walk.
But it’s easier than we think. “Music, socializing, and a little bit of competition, something to show for their effort, and to get moving, that’s all they want,” said Tiffany Klee, physical education teacher, who spearheaded the effort, along with Tina Tyler-O’Shea, Senior Program Specialist with the Mendocino County Health and Human Services Agency.
It was Tyler-O’Shea who came up with the idea of starting a morning exercise program. “I was at another school and saw the program for the first time. I saw how much the kids loved it and the teachers and parents too. I just thought, ‘We have to do this in Willits. We have to do this at every school!’”
She approached Blosser Lane Principal Nancy Runberg. “Anything to help us get students moving is a good thing. It really warms my heart to see so many kids, staff and community members participating. The other day, I saw kids rushing as the bus pulled up and they were so excited to get their laps in. It’s really a wonderful program. Besides the health benefits, it also allows them to release all that energy and get them ready to learn. It’s a win-win for both teachers and students, that’s for sure.”
Adventist Health Howard Memorial donated funds to get the program running. Jason Wells, president said, it’s exactly the kind of programs that the hospital is excited to support.
“Childhood obesity is a growing problem and anything we can do to help address it, is a step in the right direction. And this ties perfectly with our mission of inspiring health in our communities. While we love taking care of kids when they’re sick, we would rather keep them healthy and well. Starting healthy habits while they’re young can set them up for a great future and better health outcomes for the community as whole. We hope more schools get on board and we will be happy to support them in any way we can,” he explained.
The statistics on childhood obesity – with nearly one in five school-age children in the U.S. being considered obese is pretty grim. In Mendocino County, 45 percent of children are obese.
But there’s also hope: obesity is a preventable and curable disease and programs like the Morning Mile is a step towards prevention, especially right where the children spends time the most – in schools.
It’s not just students who participate in the program. Parents, teachers and even principal Runberg are having fun and walking as they funnel along the loop around the basketball court measured for distance. Six laps around the loop is exactly a mile and students aim to get more than that.
“They love the challenge. And it’s not even about the competition. It’s just about challenging themselves and getting better every day,” O’Shea explained.
Each lap earns the prize of a straw, to be recorded and tracked for more incentives. Every participant receives a necklace, and a charm for every five miles.
Organizers hope to arrange classroom challenges and rewards for milestones to keep inspiring the students.
Kaiden Oliver, fifth grader, says he loves running, as he shows off the charms he’s earned around his neck. “I did 15 laps today! Tomorrow, I’ll be even better!”
After he’s done, he gets back in the starting line and encourages his friends to keep going, giving them high-fives along the way.
Kaiden’s mother, Amy Buckingham, says the program has been a blessing for Kaiden “He has a lot of energy. With this new program, he has an outlet for all that energy and he’s ready to learn and to pay attention to his studies.”
“As a mom and a nurse, this program excites me. Running and exercise has been proven to offer many health benefits, including strengthening your lungs, relieving stress, improving your immune system and preventing high blood pressure. Instilling those good healthy habits while they are young will set them up for success so they can be healthy adults in the future,” she adds.
Jeff Kia Schwebs, grandfather of Kai, a fourth-grader, agreed. “This is awesome. We ran four miles today! “
As a grandparent, he said it’s the sort of activity he would like to see the community promote more of and was happy to see teachers and staff moving right alongside the kids.
“With so much focus on video games, and TV, kids don’t really play and socialize anymore. I’m glad we’re bringing it back, especially before school starts. It’s a great way to start their day,” Schwebs said.
Angie, fifth grader, said she loves it. “It’s so much fun and I’m losing weight already.”
Before school starts, the kids hand in their straws to be tallied. The results have been impressive so far. In the first few weeks, 137 students and 38 staff and visitors have walked/ran 3,180 laps or 530 miles. One fifth grader managed more than 15 miles on the first week.
To find out more about the national program, go to www.morningmile.com. Those wishing to support the program or schools who would like to start the program should contact Tina Tyler O’Shea at 707-456-3827 or Cici Winiger at Adventist Health Howard Memorial.
Cici Winiger is communications and community outreach manager for Adventist Health Howard Memorial.
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