Hospital Council held our first in-person board meeting of the year at the Kimpton Sawyer Hotel in Sacramento on April 8-9. While we focused on critical issues facing Hospital Council members, such as financial challenges for hospitals and key regional projects, we started our meeting with a presentation and roundtable discussion with Stephen “Shed” Shedletzky on the principles in his book Speak-Up Culture. The underlying principle discussed was that organizations with speak-up cultures are safer, more innovative, more engaged, and better performing than their peers. That discussion set the tone for our meeting to create a safe, speak-up environment for our member hospitals and at our regular board meetings where significant issues are being discussed.
We also had a conversation with Marc Gautreau, MD, MBA, vice chair of the Emergency Medical Services Agency, about the complex issue of ambulance patient offload times (APOT). Across California — including Sacramento, Alameda, and Central California — hospitals have engaged their local emergency medical service agencies to address ongoing challenges to APOT. Hospital Council and our members recognize that collaboration is fundamental to resolving patient care delays and ensuring ambulances remain available for other emergencies. APOT is not just a hospital issue, and our hospital leaders take this issue seriously.
Finally, we had conversations on OneTeam advocacy priorities, including discussions about the Office of Health Care Affordability, 2030 seismic requirements, insurer accountability, and rural health care access. These issues remain front and center of our advocacy strategy and will be part of our section meetings throughout the spring and summer.