Pros
I've worked at universities and private medical groups where the margin is more important than mission, and there is no reinvestment of those dollars back into the community. AltaMed's mission of eliminating health disparities, while not easy, inspires me to continue fighting to improve primary care for underserved communities. As a physician leader, we are driving the strategic direction of this organization to expand the reach of our mission, while improving primary care for the communities we serve. We have great respect for our nurses and non-clinicians who are integral team members to help us live our mission. Our patient's needs and conditions are dire, given their social and clinical complexity, but this is why working here makes this that much more rewarding. As a state/country we cannot afford to keeping leaving impovershed communities behind.
Cons
Our mission is not for everyone. Some physicians believe that they can come to underserved communities and practice outdated medicine. We are welcoming and we strongly believe everyone can practice evidence-based high-quality primary care. We monitor employee engagement, patient satisfaction, quality and population health outcomes and value-based care. Establishing and caring for a primary care panel of underserved patients can be difficult and we support our providers with resources, tools and feedback. This pandemic while challenging for everyone in healthcare, has also helped continue investing in our clinical teams and improve our services.
