Established in 2000, the Office of the Patient Advocate is an independent state office in conjunction with the Department of Managed Health Care. The OPA was created to represent the interests of health plan members to get the care they deserve and to promote transparency and quality health care by publishing an annual Quality of Care Report Card.
The Palo Alto Medical Foundation is one of only a few medical groups in California that rated four out of four stars in both categories.
“Our physicians and staff are committed to providing all of our patients with superb medical care and service. The four-star rankings are truly gratifying,” said Richard Slavin, M.D., chief executive officer of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation. “Measurement of performance and outcomes is critical to continuous improvement in our organization. Our focus is our mission: To enhance the well-being of the residents of our communities through compassion, excellence and innovation in health care services, education and research.”
For this statewide assessment, 17 quality measures are evaluated across a range of important health conditions, including preventive care and wellness, for rating on national standards of care.
The second rating was for patient satisfaction, collected via the Patient Assessment Survey (PAS), which assesses the patients’ experiences of care, and their service with the doctor and medical group.
On Valentine’s Day, some people got chocolate, others received flowers. But the DPR Construction workers building PAMF’s new Sunnyvale Center got a heartwarming surprise when a group of students from St. Martin’s Elementary School (next door to the site) delivered a creative collection of handmade Valentines for the crew.
“It was totally unexpected and was just a beautiful moment,” said Joseph Yau, DPR project manager. “Our team did a little storytelling about the PAMF project, and every student went away with a lollipop.”
MyLifeStages.org is one of the few places online where you’ll find Northern California practicing physicians answering questions, blogging and talking about the very topics that matter most to you.
What is MyLifeStages? It’s Sutter Health’s wellness portal that connects women and their families with Sutter-affiliated doctors for health information, tools, expert tips and more, all for free. Serving more than 360,000 visitors in 2011, this site is loaded with its interactive features and health resources designed to support women on their journey toward good health at every stage of life.
Pictured from l to r: left to right: George Mendoza, SMSC; Mark Riley, PAMF Santa Cruz; Jordan Turetsky, Healthy Kids; Rama Khalsa, Santa Cruz Health Services Agency/Healthy Kids.
For the last six years, doctors and staff at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation Santa Cruz and Sutter Maternity & Surgery Center (SMSC) have participated in an annual golf tournament to raise money for Healthy Kids of Santa Cruz County, a local organization that improves the health and well-being of low-income Santa Cruz County children by providing them with health insurance. This fall, the tournament raised $6,500, which our doctors and staff donated directly to Healthy Kids of Santa Cruz County. Since 2004, Healthy Kids has enrolled over 17,000 local children into coverage programs.
George Mendoza, an anesthesia technologist at SMSC, and the driving force and organizer of this fundraising effort, explained, “The event is not only an opportunity to get to know many of our colleagues, it also raises money for an excellent cause.”
Rendering of new PAMF Sunnyvale Center being built at Old San Francisco Road.
A life defined by “conscience, compassion and competence” has been honored in an extraordinary way. Mike and Linda Markkula of Woodside, California, have donated $600,000 to the Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF) in honor of their friend Fr. Paul L. Locatelli. Their gift is also a challenge gift to inspire others to donate toward the construction of PAMF’s new Cancer Center in Sunnyvale, located at 301 Old San Francisco Road, and to name the entire center after Paul Locatelli, S.J.
At PAMF we’re not just satisfied with offering top quality care, we’re also continually striving to improve our services to make it as easy and convenient as possible for you to access and receive the care you need. In this blog post, you’ll learn about some of the new service features we will be offering you soon.
Starting December 1, 2011 You Will Be Able To:
Directly schedule your appointments online to see your primary care doctor.
Submit online appointment requests for specialty physicians.
Pay bills and co-payments and check your account balance quickly and easily online.
Go to any PAMF laboratory or imaging facility for services that is convenient for you.
As we implement these new service features, we will make every effort to make our changes without impacting your visit. We appreciate your patience and understanding if some things take a little longer than usual. Remember that from Dec. 1 as a My Health Online member, you’ll be able to schedule your appointments directly online without having to pick up the phone.
My Health Online Service Features:
You have access to many convenient features through our online service My Health Online. In addition to the new features described above, as a My Health Online member you currently can:
Communicate electronically with your health care team
View test results
Request prescription renewals
Receive automatic reminders when you are due for immunizations and health maintenance screening tests
Enjoy on-the-go access to My Health Online from your iPhone or Android smartphone with the new MyChart app
All these services, and more, are offered at no charge. If you are not yet enrolled in My Health Online, sign up today!
My Health Online is not just a convenient way to manage your own health online, it’s also an easy way to manage your child’s medical needs. My Health Online’s Proxy Access Program gives you full access to the health records of your children younger than 12. From anywhere in the world, you can:
View and print vaccination records
Complete questionnaires that track your child’s development
Review medication instructions and other information that can help you better manage your child’s medical needs
Paul Tang, M.D., PAMF's chief innovation and technology officer
As baby boomers age, America has to find better ways to ensure that everyone has access to excellent health care – whenever and wherever they need it, says Paul Tang, M.D., the Palo Alto Medical Foundation’s (PAMF) chief innovation and technology officer.
He is heading up an exciting new project that looks at how relationships can be forged in communities to improve the quality of life and health of Americans. The focus goes beyond treating injury or illness at the doctor’s office or hospital. It includes keeping people healthy, happy and independent at home as they age.
“To reform America’s health care system, we must rethink everything,” he says. “That includes reinventing our role in sustaining the health of our communities. We’re out to create a partnership with our communities around health, not just health care.”
Pictured from left to right are: Deanna Ciano, Tamara Vargas-Maionchi, Wendy Valdovinos, Hope Herring and Helen Benavidez. Not pictured: Belen Salazar.
Congratulations to the six outstanding nurses who received this year’s PAMF Palo Alto Division Clinical Excellence Awards! Each year since 2005, exemplary nurses are chosen by their peers to receive this award. The winners are picked because of the excellent and compassionate care they provide for our patients and also to recognize that they are outstanding colleagues and leaders. This year’s winners, honored at a luncheon in September, are: [Read more...]
More than 900 PAMF employees, doctors, their families and friends enjoyed watching the San Jose Giants take on the High Desert Mavericks on Saturday, August 20 during PAMF’s annual summertime event.
For Josie Dayrit, a patient services representative in the Mountain View Center’s Family Medicine Department, PAMF Day with the SJ Giants is a special highlight – she has sung the national anthem before the game for the last five years.
“It’s always a great experience singing the anthem,” says Dayrit. “I enjoy getting together with family and co-workers and meeting employees from other sites. I just have a ball! I’m blessed to work for such a great organization.”
Watch the video of Dayrit singing the anthem, as filmed by one of her co-workers:
PAMF's Nancy Hidaka and Community Services Agency volunteer
Thanks to the Palo Alto Medical Foundation’s Second Annual Summer Food Drive, several local families won’t go hungry this summer. This year’s food drive ran from June 1 to 30, and employees, doctors and patients contributed a total of 1,530 pounds of food (worth almost $2,300) to help feed local low-income kids and their families.
Welcome! This blog is designed as a forum for engaging patients, their families and the community in conversations about health care, and to help promote health education and wellness with articles and tips from our doctors and staff from different departments. We welcome your comments and insight, however, please remember that this blog does not address specific patient medical issues or provide personalized medical advice. If you have a specific medical question, please contact your doctor directly.Thank you for visiting our blog.
The Palo Alto Medical Foundation has been rated four out of four stars by the California Office of the Patient Advocate (OPA) in a statewide assessment of all medical groups. Medical groups were ranked in two categories: meeting national standards of care, and patient ratings.
