As I presented our yearly review to Community’s Board of Trustees last month, I was filled with a sense of immense pride and gratitude.

Despite tremendous, ongoing challenges, our team never lost sight of our mission to deliver efficient, high-quality care, achieve clinical quality milestones, and grow and strengthen our health system. That is because of each and every team member, their dedication to those we care for and the teamwork it took to make it all happen.

Join me in taking a few moments to reflect on all that the Community team has accomplished together with a few of the many milestones worth celebrating.
 

Managing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic

We’ve now passed the 600-day mark of the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s more than 600 days of operating in crisis mode at work; 600 days of uncertainty in our personal lives. But I have also seen 600 days of incredible comradery, ingenuity and acclimating to new circumstances. I am humbled and honored to be a part of this organization and that has everything to do with our team’s courage and perseverance.

We know that the last 600 days have been exhausting for our team as they swiftly responded to flex and adapt to record-breaking inpatient volumes.

Here are some statistics that highlight just how much they’ve accomplished:

• We cared for more than 8,500 COVID-19-positive patients — 50% more COVID-19 patients than all of San Francisco County’s hospitals combined.

• At our highest expanded capacity, we cared for 270 patients in additional surge-space beds. For context, the average size of a U.S. hospital is 150 beds. And, at one point, our Home Health Services team cared for more than 900 patients during home visits.

• Our Human Resources team onboarded more than 1,900 new team members amid the many complexities of state and federal mandates.

• Employee Health Services performed more than 12,000 COVID-19 tests and vaccinated more than 9,700 employees, physicians and vendors working on our campuses.
   

Investing in our workforce

Our team is the most valuable part of our organization. Our top priority continues to be attracting and retaining top talent by offering competitive pay, excellent benefits, professional growth and training opportunities, as well as a safe and positive work environment. For example:

• We invested $43 million in boosting pay for our workforce.

• More than 300 team members advanced their education, taking advantage of more than $700,000 in scholarships and tuition reimbursement.

• We grew our well-being support tools, including Talkspace — a free, virtual therapy option — as well as confidential group online forums where employees and physicians can share their social and emotional stressors.

Growing our system

Earlier this year, we introduced a new name for our system: Community Health System. This change reflects our commitment — beyond our growing hospital services and care centers — to our physician partners and our health plan.

We believe that when hospitals, health plans and physicians work together, the result is a stronger, truly integrated healthcare delivery system to better serve our patients. Here are some highlights of this integrated system:

• Community Medical Centers provides 56% of Fresno County’s inpatient services.

• Community Care Health is the only locally based health insurance plan in the area and the third-largest HMO in Fresno, Madera and Kings counties with over 12,000 members and 2,600 affiliated providers.

• Community Provider Network allows us to work more directly with physicians, regardless of how they choose to affiliate with us. This includes our medical foundation Community Health Partners which, after a year in operation, has about 125 providers and nearly 100 team members, and operates 11 clinics.

• Our $430 million Clovis Community campus expansion is proceeding on-time and on-budget. When completed in 2022, our health system will have another five-story bed tower, six more operating rooms, 15,000 additional square feet of emergency department space, and enhanced radiology and lab services. It will also include a new Heart and Lung Institute.

• We continue to expand access beyond our hospital wall through the MyChart patient portal with 206,000 active users and the new MyHealthMate, our custom app for our patients, families and visitors.

There are countless other achievements across our organization that make me honored to lead this amazing Community team. To each and every Community Health System team member and provider: Thank you for all you do — you are what makes our Community so special.

Craig S. Castro
President & Chief Executive Officer
Community Health System