Update on the Blue Ribbon Panel

Next Meeting of the Blue Ribbon Panel

May 8th, 2008 12:00 - 2:00 p.m.
Mission Bay Conference Center
Fisher Banquet Room
on Owen, off of 16th Street.

I apologize for so little publication about the Blue Ribbon Panel on SaveStLukes.org. It was our expectation that all minutes would be published on the http://www.cpmcbeyondmedicine.com/ site, however, that has not yet happened, I believe, for administrative reasons. The Panel is restrained from speaking to the press, deferring to the Chair and Vice Chair as spokespeople. Only one press release has been published as yet which I have posted on our blog. Both Marc Snyder, and myself, however, have attended both meetings. Dr. Goel attended the first meeting also as an observer.

The process was designed to be transparent.
All these meetings are open to the public, and I am assured by Judy Li, Chief Operations Officer for St. Luke's and a key architect of the process, that although there has been a delay on keeping the website up to date, the plan has always been to post all of the minutes of all of the meetings. Judy says that as soon as possible these minutes will be posted, and they hope to move the panel updates off the CPMC website, and to have it managed by the Blue Ribbon Panel administrators directly.

The last meeting of the Blue Ribbon Panel covered a good deal of socioeconomic and epidemiological data, all of which strongly supported an acute care hospital and outpatient services on our site. Brainstorming began about how to make the hospital viable and to identify some possible Centers of Excellence that CPMC could establish and market to help attract more patients.

A working taskforce was created by volunteers from the Panel to begin to outline some possible plans for such a hospital. I am proud and grateful that all of the St. Luke's physicians on the Panel volunteered be a part of that smaller but very important subcommitee. These are Ed Kersh serving as representative of the Medical Executive Committee, Ken Barnes serving on behalf of SaveStLuke.org, and Laura Norrell who has been appointed by Supervisor Alioto-Pier. The hospital will be very well represented!

The Mayor made a personal appearance to thank the Blue Ribbon Panel and CPMC for their efforts, and to emphasize his total commitment and the absolute neccessity that St. Luke's be preserved as an acute care hospital.

The next meeting will include the very vital report from the Community Task Force which will give the panel a more personal and direct sense of what the community's hopes and needs are for the new St. Lukes. Discussions of options and strategies for the hospital will continue to unfold.

All of these meetings are open to the public!

If you have input you would like to give to the process, please contact Dr's Kersh, Barnes baywestkb@aol.com, or Norrell.

You may also send me your ideas for the new hospital and I will pass them on to them or you can post your wishes here on our blog St. Luke's Hopes.....