Since the start of the pandemic more than a year ago, your hospitals have been on the front lines, treating patients non-stop, continuing to care for all Californians in all ways. You canceled non-elective surgeries, retrofitted space to accommodate a surge of patients, purchased protective and clinical equipment, and hired more staff.
And through it all — as you’ve navigated the highs and lows — it’s been an honor and privilege for HASD&IC and the One Team (CHA and the three Regional Associations) to support your hospitals and employees. By working collaboratively on your behalf, along with sharing resources and finding efficiencies, our One Team is much stronger.
To strengthen the One Team, we recently gathered, as we have done regularly throughout the pandemic, for a virtual town hall meeting to hear from the four CEOs. It was a mix of information sharing, reflection, and some time for Q&A.
The associations’ One Team foundation is solid, strong, and resilient — and our path has never been clearer. Shaped by our principles and following our mission to support and advocate for our members, we are proud to celebrate our accomplishments, and realize there is always room for improvement.
We spent a good portion of the meeting talking about our One Team culture — unity — which has been key to our success over the past 12 trying months. To that end, we are working to make our culture even better and more inclusive by adding a key item to the One Team behaviors:
“We believe in the importance of a diverse and inclusive culture, where differences and similarities are valued equally, and team members listen without judgment to learn and grow from one another’s strengths and perspectives.”
But it’s not enough to simply make this declaration and send it out in an email. We’re going to take action with an educational session for all staff on unconscious bias that will arm us with the tools to help us confront this problem head on.
In addition, the One Team staff got a chance to hear from the four association chairs — HASD&IC, HASC, Hospital Council, and CHA — who shared their thoughts on the pandemic and offered appreciation and gratitude for the work the One Team has undertaken this past year.
Despite the current state of optimism, we know that the threat of a fourth wave of COVID-19 looms large in everyone’s minds. But we plan to stay the course — unified in our advocating, supporting, and planning — just as we’ve done since the beginning of the pandemic. We know that if we remain united as we work toward common goals that we will be successful, because unity is the best way forward.
