Recorded presentation

M. Ricardo Calderón, MD, MPH, Metropolitan Service Planning Area, Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, 241 North Figueroa St., Suite 312, Los Angeles, CA 90012, 213-240-8043, mrcalderon@dhs.co.la.ca.us

Integration efforts in Los Angeles have rarely worked and even failed due to differing definitions of integration and co-location initiatives resulting in separate entities working independently and/or duplicating efforts. Integration is not just service provider networking, community development, facility co-location, direct service gap filling, increasing access to services, pleasant partnerships, or a great vision and few concrete activities. The Metropolitan Service Planning Area Health Office transformed, therefeore, a Co-Location Project between the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (DHS) and The Los Angeles Free Clinic (LAFC) into a Service Integration Model. This was accomplished at the Hollywood/Wilshire Health Center by promoting 4 Fundamental Integration Principles (Sharing of Responsibilities, Enhanced Coverage and Quality, Customer Focused Service, Optimization of Resources) and organizing and deploying 5 Integration Planning Teams (Clinical Services, Business Office and Facility Management, Human Resources, Information Technology, Marketing and Development). This enabled DHS to provide appropriate services to more people, closer to where they live and work, at an earlier stage of disease development, and as part of a continuum of care process. As a result: (1) HWHC has seen a 70% increase in patient load, (2) patients have increased access to primary health care and public health services, (3) a Model Center of Community Health and Social Services is being created, and (4) status quo is being replaced by value added public health initiatives that are moving public health into the 21st Century.

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