As the Pandemic took hold, the work of Community Health Workers became a critical connection to people isolated in shelter in place, as well as other important health issues. read more

We provide healthcare in the second largest healthcare system in the country – and sometimes in the day to day we lose track of the how critical our work is, and our work’s intersection with people’s personal lives. While Compassion is part of all of our work, this touching account commemorates Pastoral Week, celebrated at the end of October. A special thanks to all the members of the pastoral care family at Health Services. read more

As the data came out, it quickly became clear: the patients in our communities were getting hit hard with the pandemic: people of color, immigrants, essential workers, people living in crowded quarters. Driven by our Health Services Values including Compassion, we knew had to get the word out to our patients quickly – but we had never done this level of mass communication before. Staff formed the Patient Facing Communication Committee and pulled out all the stops to communicate with our patients like never before. They created a COVID related website, conducted robo-calls, sent text messages & emails, the Committee was able to send over 3.5 million messages to our almost 400,000 patients. It was a quick pivot in communication that resulted in lives saved. read more

Compassion for each other in our day to day work-lives is equally as important as compassion for our patients, especially during COVID. With so many changes to our work processes and deep concern for workplace safety, MLK-OPC developed a program to ensure compassion with teaching safer practices such as social-distancing in the workplace. Their “Just Culture” approach involves managers rounding clinics and other work areas to check in with patient care staff while coaching on safer work practices. read more