Number of Diabetes Cases Increasing in California

According to the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, the number of adults in California diagnosed with diabetes rose from 1.5 million in 2001 to 1.8 million in 2005. Native Americans, Latinos, and Asians showed the biggest increases in diabetes diagnoses. Overall, the Center report (released Aug. 22) found that 7% of California adults in were diagnosed with the chronic disease that, if not managed, can lead to blindness, kidney failure, heart attack, leg or foot amputations, and premature death.  Experts estimate that the actual numbers are higher by as much as one-third because Type 2 diabetes, the most common type of the disease, can go undiagnosed for years.  Read the full Los Angeles Times story here.

SNI Welcomes New Board Members

SNI welcomes two distinguished individuals to its board of directors:
Susan Ehrlich, MD, MPP, is the medical director and vice president of Ambulatory Care Services at the San Mateo Medical Center. She was founding medical director for the Ron Robinson Senior Center at the Medical Center, where she continues to practice. She previously held policy positions with San Francisco’s Department of Public Health and with the California Legislative Analyst’s office, where she handled issues related to Medicaid, maternal and child health and indigent health care.

Bruce Spurlock, MD, is a national health care consultant working to create state-of-the-art clinical management programs. He chairs the CHART Steering Committee overseeing a statewide voluntary, standardized hospital performance report. He is also on the faculty of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and is an adjunct associate professor with Stanford University. Dr. Spurlock has also served as the executive vice president or the California Healthcare Association, and practiced internal medicine for several years with The Permanente Medical Group.

Please join us in welcoming Drs. Ehrlich and Spurlock to the SNI team!

SNI Hosts Conference on Quality Healthcare Interpreting for CA Hospitals

SNI and the Health Care Interpreter Network/Kaiser Permanente Learning Partnership are sponsoring a two-day conference on quality healthcare interpreting services on Nov. 7-8 at the Waterfront Plaza Hotel in Oakland. This conference will explore the challenges and strategies in providing quality health care interpreting services across the diverse spectrum of California hospitals. Attendees will hear from hospitals that have veteran interpreter departments and from those interested in launching new interpreter services efforts. Hospitals can send up to three people at no cost if registration is received by Oct. 10.  Please click here to learn more about the conference and to download the conference RSVP form.

LEAD Program Celebrates Training Results and Release of Bilingual Preconception Brochure

Earlier this year, four teams from the LEADing Organizational Change: Advancing Quality Through Culturally Responsive Care (LEAD) program attended a two-part communications training focused on developing presentations for selected internal and community groups to help increase awareness about the quality services offered at public hospital systems and strengthen partnerships.  Since then, teams have reported further cultivation of relationships with community organizations, the recruitment of numerous interns and volunteers, and even a 20% increase in foot check exams for patients with diabetes--all as a direct result of their presentations.

In addition, SNI’s co-convener of LEAD, the UCSF Center for the Health Professions, has developed and released a preconception brochure targeting Spanish-speaking women with low literacy entitled, A Woman's Guide to Preventing or Planning Pregnancy. This patient brochure was created with the guidance of an expert panel and is available in both English and Spanish. The brochure also has a blank space on the back panel so that individual counties can list where local services are available.

CAPH Annual Conference: Dec. 5-7 in San Francisco-Register Now!

Registration for the 2007 CAPH Annual Conference is now open! The conference will be held Dec. 5-7 at the Stanford Court Hotel in San Francisco. Featured speakers include Karen Davis, President of The Commonwealth Fund, Ian Morrison, an internationally known futurist and author, and Fred Lee, a nationally recognized expert in patient relations and author of the health care best seller If Disney Ran Your Hospital: 9 ½ Things You Would Do Differently. For more information, please call (510) 874-7100.

Kaiser's 6th Annual Nursing Evidence-Based Practice Conference on Nov. 9