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San Francisco Health Network gives five-year update, highlights EPIC, Lean and primary-care gains
Summary
Network leaders reported on five years of integration and Lean adoption, progress on EHR/EPIC implementation, centralized operations savings, expansion of telehealth and primary-care access (zero new-patient waiting list), and ongoing challenges including data fragmentation and leadership vacancies.
San Francisco Health Network leaders updated the Health Commission on Oct. 2, marking five years since the integrated delivery system was created and outlining recent operational improvements, strategic priorities and remaining challenges.
The update described the network’s strategic emphasis on an EPIC electronic health record implementation, workforce development and value-based payment readiness, and a proposed additional focus on homelessness and street-health conditions. Presenters highlighted the consolidation of centralized services — including a single materials-and-supply prime vendor (projected savings about $2 million annually), expanded telehealth lines, improved language-access and rolling Lean-based process changes across facilities.
Deputy director and chief medical officer Dr. Alice Chin reviewed the network’s "True North" scorecard and described efforts to narrow measures and align reporting across divisions; she said data fragmentation remains a core challenge and reinforced the EPIC implementation as central to improving data availability. The presentation also summarized the department’s participation in several waiver and incentive programs (identified in the presentation as the "11 15 waiver," PRIME and other programs) and noted variable progress on behavioral-health metrics compared with physical-health metrics.
Dr. Hallie Hammer (primary care leadership) reviewed primary-care accomplishments: 14 health centers and about 65,000 active patients; centralized call-center and new-patient appointment unit that eliminated the historical waiting list for new patients; team-based care and behavioral-health integration; and upcoming facility investments funded by the 2016 Health and Safety bond.
Commissioners praised the breadth of the update and asked for continued trend reporting and clearer links between reported measures and city-level outcomes. Presenters acknowledged remaining vacancies in network leadership roles and said several initiatives are in implementation phases, with continued focus on standardizing measures and improving data capture for nontraditional encounters (street medicine, shelter-based services).
The commission took no formal vote on policy changes in this item; the presentation was an informational update and staff will follow up with more detailed scorecards and metric trends.
