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San Francisco Health Network outlines strategic plan and new patient‑communications push; three pilots launch with hospital opening
Summary
Network leaders presented a draft strategic plan built with lean/Toyota methods, described six "true north" goals and nine priority initiatives, and rolled out a patient‑communications strategy with immediate pilots: a welcome mailer to over 90,000 patients, a family birth‑center marketing pilot, and a Chinatown clinic outreach pilot.
Roland Pickens, director of the San Francisco Health Network, presented a progress update on the network's strategic plan and related implementation work, and staff described a new patient‑communications program focused on retaining and attracting patients.
Pickens said the network used a two‑day Hoshin planning process and lean consultants to produce an X‑matrix that aligns the network's mission and nine prioritized strategic initiatives with six "true north" goals: safety, quality, workforce, care experience, equity and financial stewardship.
"Our 6 true norths ... which are safety, quality, workforce, care experience, equity, and financial stewardship," Pickens said, outlining the metrics and a network goal that 70% of divisions meet their true‑north measures.
Staff described the network's immediate patient‑communications priorities and pilots. Rachel Kagan, director of communications, said the work is broader than branding and emphasized a "patient communications" function aimed at both internal staff alignment and external outreach. Patty Birbiglia described three initial projects: a welcome mailer to more than 90,000 network members, targeted multilingual advertising connected to the hospital opening, and a Chinatown Public Health Center pilot using direct mail and phone follow‑up to reduce the number of enrolled but not yet seen patients.
"It's just a welcome postcard to over 90,000 patients in the city," Birbiglia said of the first mailer; staff also said advertising will run in multiple languages and a large press insert is planned for a local paper timed with the opening.
Commissioners pressed for clearer numeric targets and asked staff to tie initiatives to measurable outcomes (for example, births at the new family birth center and appropriate use metrics). Staff agreed to return with more detailed performance measures after the current planning 'a3' clinic sessions concluded this month.
Next steps: staff will finalize clinic-level a3 plans, set numeric targets for financial stewardship and true‑north measures, and return to the commission and relevant subcommittees with more detailed metrics and implementation timelines.
