Stanford Health Care – ValleyCare launches strategic plan

A new strategic plan for Stanford Health Care – ValleyCare provides a vision for the Tri-Valley community hospital and its associated network of clinics to be a top-tier community health organization. During the next five years, SHC – ValleyCare will continue to serve patients locally, extend its services regionally and contribute to Stanford Medicine’s mission. 

“Our dedication to patient care in the Tri-Valley, East Bay and Central Valley regions is unwavering, and the new strategic plan is a demonstration of our commitment to meet the needs of our patients in their own community, while simultaneously enhancing the care that we provide,” said Rick Shumway, president and CEO of SHC – ValleyCare. “That means leveraging the extensive educational, research and clinical expertise of Stanford Medicine and incorporating that into our local care and services.”

The plan comes five years after ValleyCare Health System joined Stanford Health Care, a move made to expand Stanford Health Care’s patient base beyond Silicon Valley. The goal is to enhance and innovate within the already flourishing clinical care programs, and build out areas that lend themselves to Stanford Medicine’s tripartite mission to promote fundamental, clinical and translational discovery; train the leaders of tomorrow; and transform patient care.

“SHC – ValleyCare provides world-class community health care to the Tri-Valley area,” said David Entwistle, president and CEO of Stanford Health Care. “It is a tremendous strength, and with this new strategic plan, we're excited to build on that, with the full support of Stanford Medicine’s academic and clinical research expertise.” 

‘Community centered, nationally preeminent’

Over the past year, hundreds of leaders, faculty and staff from across Stanford Medicine came together to devise the strategic plan, laying out near-term initiatives and long-range priorities for SHC – ValleyCare. The plan focuses on three priorities that emphasize mission alignment and exceptional patient care:

·      Locally Stanford,  which encompasses efforts to embrace the strength and academic proficiency of Stanford Medicine. 

·      Regionally connected, which prioritizes the growth and development of health care services that round out a full continuum of care. 

·      Intentionally integrated, a concept that optimizes processes and facilities to drive excellence in patient care and provide a seamless Stanford Medicine experience across the health system. 

“We asked ourselves, ‘How do we better come together as a system with all the pieces that make us whole to help differentiate Stanford Medicine in the long term?’” said Priya Singh, chief strategy officer and senior associate dean for strategy and communications. “I see an incredible opportunity to expand the Stanford Medicine footprint into the Tri-Valley area, and with Rick Shumway and his fantastic leadership team, we are well positioned to make this a truly integrated system.”

‘Augment and amplify’

The strategic plan is not an effort to recreate the Palo Alto campus or hospitals, said Ronald Dalman, MD, associate dean for market development, who was instrumental in the strategic-planning process. “It’s a plan to augment and amplify the care we provide on a local level through efforts such as new resident training programs and the development of cutting-edge clinical trials that are brought directly to our patients in the East Bay,” said Dalman, who is also chief of vascular surgery and Walter Clifford Chidester and Elsa Rooney Chidester Professor of Surgery.

Likewise, the plan is not a prescriptive manual of how to reach the new set of goals, but instead a codification of the alignment of SHC – Valley Care with Stanford Medicine, said Catherine Krna, president and CEO of University HealthCare Alliance, a medical foundation that brings Stanford Medicine and local health care providers together to provide quality health care to patients in the Bay Area. The objective, Krna said, is to extend more high-quality care to a broader swath of the East Bay community that’s backed by the strength of the Integrated Strategic Plan, a vision that aligns the missions of Stanford Medicine’s three entities — Stanford Health Care, Stanford Children’s Health and the School of Medicine.

“Five years from now, if we can say that these key phrases — locally Stanford, regionally connected and intentionally integrated — ring true, I think that will be a testament to the fact that this plan for SHC – ValleyCare was the right one, and that it’s working,” she said.