Strategies for Recruiting and Nurturing a Thriving Health Workforce

By the California Improvement Network Team at Healthforce Center

Recruiting, nurturing, and retaining staff is an increasingly greater challenge for providers of community health and social services. In an era of persistent labor shortages, insufficient resources, and soaring costs, organizations must adapt with greater flexibility, new approaches, and humility to sustain the workforce required.

Understanding Indigenous Communities to Support Their Health Needs

Indigenous communities in California and throughout the United States face striking health disparities. At 71.8 years, American Indian and Alaska Native individuals have the lowest life expectancy compared with other races and ethnicities. They are 2.3 times more likely to die from diabetes than white people and they have the highest rate of suicide compared with all other racial and ethnic groups (28.1 per 100,000).

Equitable Co-design in Health Care: How to Incorporate Community Voices to Impact Systems

By the California Improvement Network Team

Photo of Stella Safo, Karyn Young-Lowe, and Sunita Mutha at the CIN partner meeting in March 2023 (photo credit: Sonya Yruel).

Community-Based Organizations to Join Reimagined California Improvement Network

By Kathryn E. Phillips, Associate Director, California Health Care Foundation

Photo: Brett Perkinson receives his weekly supply of medically tailored meals delivered from a community-based organization to his home in Aptos, just outside of the city of Santa Cruz. Credit: Shmuel Thaler

 

Celebrating our Achievements: CIN Advanced Racial Health Equity and More

The California Improvement Network (CIN), a project of the California Health Care Foundation that is managed by Healthforce Center at UCSF, is a community of health care professionals that has been striving since 2005 to identify and spread ideas to improve health care delivery in California. CIN’s most recent cycle — the last two and a half years — was especially challenging due to the pandemic. Despite making its activities entirely virtual, CIN sustained and strengthened relationships across health care silos and inspired actions to improve care in California.

Partnering to Solve Complex Problems: Advice from Dr. Sunita Mutha

“Show up fully. Move at a slow enough pace that you can be creative together. Leave room to be delighted. Be overly communicative.”

This advice about how to build and nurture partnerships in the face of complex health care challenges was offered by Dr. Sunita Mutha, director of Healthforce Center at UCSF. 

Reflections on Leadership: Being Intentional About How to Approach What’s Next

By Sunita Mutha, MD, FACP, Director of Healthforce Center

As we look forward from this recent presidential election, there is a lot to celebrate given the huge success of “get out the vote” efforts. However we might feel about the results of the state and presidential elections, there are important reflections about where we are at this moment in time and how we prepare for what’s ahead of us still. 

Innovations, Failures, and Leadership Lessons During the COVID-19 Pandemic

On September 18, Dr. Mitch Katz, President and CEO, NYC Health + Hospitals, shared with California Improvement Network (CIN) partners at the fall CIN partner meeting about his experience leading the largest public health care system in the United States as it became the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020.

Reflections on Addressing Social Needs During a Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our lives in every possible way in a short amount of time. While the spread of COVID-19 and the economic effects of shelter in place have impacted everyone to varying degrees across California, the gaping social disparities underscored by the pandemic make clear that addressing social needs that impact health is more important than ever. What changes are health care providers seeing and how is the role of health care evolving in this context?