Photo Friday: LEED Platinum Integrated Health Care in San Diego

While in San Diego for a Continuing Medical Education course (more on that later), I was fortunate enough to get a personal tour of the brand new Kaiser Permanente San Diego (@KPSanDiego) Medical Center, by its Area Medical Director, Michael Lalich, MD (@KPlalich) and team, including Tana Lorah (@KP_Tana).

I was told that there are four LEED Platinum hospitals in the world. This is one of them. My photographs (which are below) don’t do it justice. Instead, I recommend this flyover, and article quoting Mike about just a few innovations in operation here.

Sidney Garfield’s Descendants Focus on Health, not on Buildings

It’s worth noting, as I posted on this blog previously, that our physician founder, Sidney Garfield, MD, cited “adequate facilities” as only one part of the genetic code of Kaiser Permanente’s success. And true to these values, when I asked Mike and his team what was next, he/they spoke about all of the things they were doing outside of the hospital that produce health for our members. It’s a very different point of view than fee for service medicine, where much of the revenue derives from the hospital. Here, the hospital provides value, rather than revenue, in the way it is utilized.

It reminds me of this quote from another set of ancestors, the ones who created the specialty of family medicine, which Mike and I are both members of:

s/he (a family medicine specialists) will be a specialist by inclusion – in contrast to the classical clinical specialist who specializes by excluding. His aim is to broaden his concern, to widen his skill; he seeks to accept responsibility; not merely to pass it along. He utilizes specialists, rather than surrendering to them. (Wilson, 1969)

The people who build medical centers are specialists of inclusion – of all the time, place, and spaces where members achieve their life goals through optimal health.

Enjoy the photos/flyover.