Issue 01-7 July, 2001

July 2001

Issue 01-7 JULY, 2001

Community clinic funding celebrated

I t was a day of firsts for Orange County, as hundreds gathered June 28 at the County Hall of Administration to celebrate another of the important projects funded by Tobacco Settlement revenues. The event was unique in that, for the first time, all of the members of the Coalition of Orange County Community Clinics joined together at one location to provide ser-vices and information. It also marked the ceremonial presentation of $3.55 million dollars to the clinics to support expanded hours and services to meet essential community needs. The event brought out all five members of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, with HCA Director Julie Poulson serving as Master of Ceremonies for the check presentation program. Representing the clinics were Coalition Executive Director Marty Earlabaugh-Gordon and Coalition President-Elect Mary Moyer, who voiced their appreciation for the badly needed funding. In the Hall of Administration plaza, guests had the opportunity to tour a pair of mobile clinics that provide services to Orange County residents. They also received free health screenings, including blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol testing. Health information was distributed to those visiting the clinic booths, along with information continued on page 2

Participating in the check presentation ceremony were Supervisor James Silva, Coalition President-Elect Mary Moyer, Supervisor Todd Spitzer, Supervisor Charles Smith, Chair Cynthia P. Coad, and Coalition Executive Director Marty Earlabaugh Gordon. . . .

Widespread input for HCA Strategic Plan

A combination of large and small group work sessions were used during off-site meetings to develop drafts of the Agency Vision, Mission and Goals statements. Here, a group of HCA managers provide their input during a session held at the Santa Ana Police Department Community Room. The draft statements were reviewed by approximately 10% of the Agency's staff during Employee Forums held in June, with input from those sessions used to help produce final drafts of the statements.

Have you ever wondered how an organization comes up with its mission statement and decides on its vision for the future? HCA staffers have had the chance to get a first hand look at the process through employee forums held at various HCA sites and attended by more than 280 people. The forums offered an overview of preparatory work undertaken by a group of approximately 40 HCA managers, who met for two days to draft updated vision, mission and goal statements. These drafts were reviewed at each forum with employees who were given the opportunity to voice their preferences in each category, as well as offer suggestions on how to improve the drafts. Those attending the forums also had the opportunity to vote on the values they believe to be most important to the Agency and its role in serving the public. Input provided at the forums was summarized and presented to managers in additional planning sessions held in late June. The information helped to provide direction for the finalization of the vision, mission about the services provided by each clinic. Orange County is served by 19 community clinics that are a part of the Coalition. They are:

Clinica CHOC Para Niños
The Gary Center
Huntington Beach Community Clinic
La Amistad Family Health Center
Laguna Beach Community Clinic
Lestonnac Free Clinic
Mission Hospital's Camino Health Center
Nhan Hoa Healthcare Clinic
Share Our Selves Free Clinic (SOS)
Sierra Health Center
St Jude Medical Center Mobile Health Clinic
UCI Family Health Centers— Anaheim and Santa Ana
VNCOC Asian Health Center
Casa De Salud
Friends of Children Health Center
Orange County Rescue Mission Mobile Van
Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties
Puente a La Salud Mobile Community Clinics

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Issue 01-7 JULY, 2001

AUGUST Health Observances

Cataract Awareness Month

Spinal Muscular Atrophy Awareness Month

World Breastfeeding Week . . . . . . . . . . . . . . August 1-7

Check continued from page 1

Strategic Plan continued from page 1 and goals, as well as the creation of the agency's first formal values statement. Agency Director Julie Poulson said the employee input was essential to the process. "The forums provided very valuable information about how our staff views their role and the role of the Health Care Agency in meeting the needs of our community. I am pleased that our employees and managers both identified excellence, integrity and service as the three most important values for the Agency today and in the future," said Mrs. Poulson. A draft of the Agency's Strategic Plan is scheduled to be completed by the end of summer as the strategic planning process moves toward a projected December 2001 completion.

"What's UP!" is a newsletter for employees of the County of Orange, CA, Health Care Agency.

Editors . . . . . .

Howard Sutter

Pat Markley

Anne Fialcowitz

Your Input

Phone . (714) 834-5109

Fax . . . (714) 834-7644

E-mail . HSutter@ochca.com

Pony . . Bldg. 38-S, 4th Floor

Need knows no season

What started out as a holiday project has turned into a year-round pursuit for one HCA staff member who was recently recognized for her generosity to others. Public Health Services Administration Secretary Kathy Clark has been presented an "Angel of Donations" award from Social Services Agency social worker Pat McCall for her efforts to help clients of the Welfare-To-Work program. Kathy's involvement began shortly before the 1999 Christmas Holiday season with an inquiry from McCall about the possibility

of posting a request for donations at the HCA headquarters building. Kathy took on the project and helped to gather donations of clothing, toys and household items to assist those in the Welfare-To-Work program. After the holiday drive wrapped-up, Kathy says she began to think about how she could help the program all year long. "I took my enjoyment of shopping and started together items as I saw things on sale," Kathy recalled. As she ran out of storage room, she called her contacts at SSA, who gladly accepted the donations on behalf of their clients.

While the holiday project is still important, Kathy is helping many single parents and families with their day-to-day needs. Recently, McCall and several other social workers surprised Kathy with the presentation of her "Angel of Donations" certificate, along with a handful of thank you notes and a cake to celebrate the occasion. Anyone interested in learning more about how they can help meet the needs of those in the Welfare to Work program can contact Kathy at 834-3122 or Pat McCall of the Social Services Agency at (714) 435-5852.

HCA website a popular destination

Have you checked out the HCA website lately? Well, over 230,000 visits to the website have been recorded in both May and June, showing HCA's presence on the Internet is growing in popularity. The adorable dogs, cats and other animals available for adoption at Orange County Animal Care Services are the biggest draw to the HCA Internet site, but many other HCA programs also log frequent visits. These include the Public Health home page, Human Resources, Environmental Health's Beach Posting report and Food Establishment closing list. Other popular sites include the many pages that are a part of Behavioral Health Services and Medical and Institutional Health Services' resources. The HCA website is a constantly growing, constantly changing way of presenting vital information to the public, our clients, HCA staff and other county agencies.

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Issue 01-7 JULY, 2001

Get more of what you want by acknowledging others

We hear over and over again from a variety of employees surveyed that they never hear from their boss when they are doing a good job— only when mistakes are made. Many of you who have attended the Enlightened Leadership training may recall the importance of acknowledgment and the concept that you get more of what you focus on. If this concept is true, then why not acknowledge the performance and behavior that you want more of in your work environment? People at all levels want to feel that what they do makes a difference, including your boss, coworkers and subordinates. The following are some ideas to help get you started on your own recognition and acknowledgment program that can be initiated at the department or program level. They cost little to nothing and can be implemented immediately.

NO COST IDEAS

Greet your employees and coworkers by name when you pass them in the hallways.
Take a coffee break with employee (s) who are stationed at another facility and those who you don't see frequently.
Acknowledge the employee for his/ her achievement in an article in "What's Up" newsletter. / Select an employee/ coworker/ super-visor each month for recognition by the team, having each staff member identify what contribution or skills that employee brings to the team.
Employee of the Month Parking Spot— Supervisors and managers could honor the employee with a preferred parking space for the month— trade your parking spot for theirs (assuming yours is more desirable…)
Send an e-mail or memo to the employee commending his/ her performance, copy your boss, and have it placed in the employee's personnel file.
Do the same for your boss if he/ she has done something to help you.
Select a "Leader of the Month" who gets exposure working on a high visibility project, leads staff meetings, etc. / Place a notice on your program's bulletin board acknowledging an employee's special achievement.
Ask 3 to 5 coworkers in the department to go up to the employee or boss to thank them for achieving a specific task and to say "good job."
Have employees provide input for their coworker's evaluations on the out-standing work their coworkers have contributed to the team for the past year.
Schedule a day in honor of an out-standing employee (" Bob Smith Day"),notify all staff of the date and the reason, and have staff offer congratulatory words or food offerings throughout the day to that individual.
Create a Hall of Fame with photographs of outstanding employees and a few words about their achievement.
Establish a yearbook with everyone's photograph and his/ her best achievement of the year.
Rewarding an employee's out-standing achievement by volunteering to do that person's least desirable work task for a day.
Arrange to have the Manager, Division Manager or Director call or visit the employee being recognized.
Reward the employee with a better office location, office arrangement, upgraded equipment or plum assignment.
Have staff develop a peer recognition program of their own design.

Low Cost Ideas

Carry a supply of your business cards and as you catch people doing something right or an act of kindness, immediately write their name, what they specifically did in 3 to 5 words, a "Thanks/ Good Job/ Well Done," and sign it and give it to the employee.
Have "You Done Good" Award cards printed and use them in the same
Create a "Lifesaver Award" and give a pack of lifesaver candies at time of acknowledgment.
Give an employee a copy of the latest best-selling management book as reward for special achievement.
Give an employee a subscription to a business journal as reward for special achievement.
Give an employee a Starbucks drink coupon ($ 3) for a "You've Earned a Coffee Break" Award.
Reward the outstanding achievement of an employee with a fast food lunch certificate ($ 5).

When acknowledging others, it is important to:

Use the person's name when recognizing him/ her.
State in specific terms what the individual is being recognized for and what makes the behavior or result important or beneficial to you, your team, the program and/ or the agency.
Make the recognition timely.
Acknowledge up as well as down. Acknowledgment heightens our awareness of the value, strength and potential of others as well as ourselves. It may even begin to overcome the limits we impose, often unconsciously, on our own and others' capacities. We encourage you to create your own tailored program that will be meaningful to your employees, your coworkers, your boss and yourself.

Partially adapted from 1001 Ways to Reward Employees by Bob Nelson, Workman Publishing, New York, 1994

" When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves." by Rebecca Robinson/ HCA HR

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Issue 01-7 JULY, 2001

E-mail Attachments by Information Technology

We have all experienced it. After returning to work from a relaxing vacation, we start up our PC to check our e-mail, only to be confronted with a barrage of out of space warnings from the "System Administrator"! Why? In addition to regular e-mails, our mailbox has exceeded its size limit because of numerous "special event" flyers sent not once or twice, but three or four times to everyone in the Agency.

The ease and speed of electronic communication is a by-product of modern technology. However the e-mailing of large attachments can adversely affect not only your own PC, but also the entire HCA network. Each user's personal mailbox has a limit of 10 megabytes of space for network storage of e-mail and attachments. Deleting old or unnecessary e-mail from your "Inbox" and "Sent Items" will help to keep you from running out of space. Additionally, consider storing e-mail and attachments in folders you create in your Personal Folders, thus freeing up system servers as you move your data to your local hard drive. Large e-mail attachments sent to you by others present a challenge in managing your e-mail. The average flyer with graphics occupies about 2-mega-bytes of space. Sent as an attachment to all HCA users, it immediately fills up 20% of every mailbox in the Agency. This is often compounded by repeating the mailing two or more times. To utilize our system's resources wisely and efficiently, consider sending special event announcements, such as those about retirement parties or baby showers, only to those who know the person. You can always print and post more copies of the announcement at other locations. When putting together a flyer, please try to reduce the size of the document by limiting graphics. If sending an attachment to the entire Agency is absolutely necessary, please limit the distribution to one mailing. Finally, e-mail alone can still communicate your message to many people at once, and have little adverse effect on our system's resources.

"We're on-line!" You can check out the latest issues of the Health Care Agency's newsletters by using this URL: http://www.ochealthinfo.com/newsletters/index.htm We will keep current issues on line for a year. Let us know how you like the convenience!

The June 2001 recipient of the "Spotlight on Excellence" Award presented by the Cultural Competency Program is Benito Paredes, a Mental Health Specialist with Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services. Paredes was described as a professional who is dedicated to the client and willing to learn about new cultures. Present at the Mental Health Board meeting for the presentation of the award were (l-r): Deputy Agency Director/ Behavioral Health Services Doug Barton; Mr. Paredes; Veronica Kelly, Cultural Competency Program; Rafael Canul, Cultural Competency Program; and Brett O'Brien, ADAS Service Chief.

HCA promotions announced

In recent weeks, two HCA veterans have been named to leadership posts within the Agency and have assumed their new responsibilities. The Agency's new Environmental Health Director is Steven K. Wong, REHS, MPH, who has been serving as the Interim Director since November 2000. Steven's career with Orange County began in 1977, when he joined Environ-mental Health as an Environmental Health Specialist. He served as Hazardous Waste Program Manager for three years and was the Assistant Director of Environmental Health for fifteen years beginning in October 1985. After earning a Bachelor of Science Degree in Environmental Health from California State University, Los Angeles, Steven received his Masters Degree in Environmental Health Management from UCLA. While serving with the Health Care Agency, Steven was named California Environmental Health Specialist of the Year in 1983.

Ron LaPorte brings a broad range of experience to his new post as Chief of Quality Management. LaPorte has served as Division Manager for Public Health Services/ Epidemiology and Disease Control for the past five years. After serving with the Orange County Health Planning Office and County Administrative Office, Ron came to the Health Care Agency in 1982 as Manager of Administrative Services for the Office of Planning and Policy Coordination. He also served as Division Manager for Public Health Services Alcohol Programs in the early '90s and most recently was also the Acting Division Manager for Public Health Adult and Child Health. Ron received his Bachelors Degree in Sociology from California State University, Long Beach and his Masters Degree from the University of Southern California.

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