Expert Panel Report Now Available

OPTIONS FOR
HEALTH CARE
IN THE
SONOMA VALLEY

A REPORT TO THE PLAN B COMMITTEE BY THE EXPERT PANEL
Based on the proceedings of an Intensive Evaluation Workshop held at Ramekins in the City of Sonoma on April 20 and 21, 2006

Panel Members:
Jim Diaz, Principal, KMD Architects, San Francisco
Wanda Jones, President, New Century Healthcare Institute, S.F.
Craig Acosta, Principal, KSA Health Care Planning, San Bruno

Presented here is the Final Report submitted to the community in the Sonoma Valley by the Expert Panel that was commissioned by the Plan B Committee to evaluate previous assumptions, examine publicly unexamined alternatives, and suggest new concepts for a new hospital and health care system to serve the Sonoma Valley.

Download the Report (pdf)

The report is based on the information presented to the Expert Panel at an Intensive Evaluation Workshop sponsored and organized by the Plan B Committee and held at Ramekins in the City of Sonoma on April 20 & 21, 2006.

Plan B is not a plan but a process.
In the days when the Plan B Committee was being formed, the name seemed appropriate in view of the fact that Plan A (Measure C) was clearly on a course toward failure, and a “Plan B” of some kind was the next logical destination for our community. Additionally the name always gets a smile (a rare thing in the Measure C debate), and its intention is always immediately understood.

Plan B’s activities: Our activities have been, and will continue to be, geared toward a process rather than a plan, and this report is just one part of the process. Running parallel are efforts to form a coalition of leaders from both sides of the Measure C debate to enable our newly informed and awakened community to regroup and provide positive input into the decisions that need to be made soon; to reassure the doctors, nurses and staff at the hospital and invite them to work toward a positive outcome in the effort to find consensus on health care in the Sonoma Valley; and to work to involve the leadership of the Latino community in the next steps of the process.

The role of the Expert Panel has been to gather information, listen to the presentations and review the documentation presented at the Workshop, then provide the benefit of their experience in hospital design, construction and programming to develop the report presented here.

Four panelists participated in the Intensive Evaluation Workshop at Ramekins: Jim Diaz, Principal with KMD Architects, San Francisco; Wanda Jones, President, New Century Healthcare Institute in San Francisco; Craig Acosta, KSA Health Care Planning, San Bruno; and Siga Weber, Principal in Weber & Company in Glen Ellen.

Unfortunately, due to the responsibilities surrounding the death of a close family member that occurred soon after the Workshop at Ramekins, Siga had to drop out of the Panel. We regret her absence, wish her well, and thank her for her participation in the two days of the Workshop at Ramekins.

The role of the Plan B Committee has been to invite and sponsor the Panel of Experts, facilitate the Workshop, and deliver the report by the Expert Panel to the community in the Sonoma Valley and to the Board and administration of the Sonoma Valley Health Care District. The Plan B Committee wishes to make it clear from the outset that this is the Expert Panel’s report, not the Plan B Committee’s report.

The opinions expressed here are those of the Panel members and, like the public and the hospital administration, the members of the Plan B Committee may have differing opinions about their content any findings they make. The Plan B Committee looks forward to working with the community and the administration of the hospital to arrive at a course of action that is appropriate to the future of health care in the Sonoma Valley.

DISTRIBUTION
The Plan B Committee has made the following arrangements for distribution of the Expert Panel’s report:

Summary: the summary will be printed in English and included for distribution in the two local newspapers that serve the Sonoma Valley – the Sonoma Index-Tribune and the Sonoma Valley Sun. The Sun has agreed to also make an additional 1000 copies of the Summary available for further distribution.

The Summary also will be translated into Spanish for distribution to the Latino community in the Sonoma Valley through El Sol de Sonoma, the Spanish language newspaper published by the Sun.

Download The Report (PDF)