Nativdad Hospital

By Jyl Lutes

Natividad Medical Center is a crucial asset for our community, protecting the health and well-being of all residents.

Given the great cross-section of humanity represented in the County, from inland farmworker to hospitality worker that all play an integral part in our economy, we need medical institutions that serve all county income levels.

Creative ideas for permanent funding revenues for Natividad must come from a pro-active, not passive Board! We start to deal with the budget crises by addressing internal management issues, budget oversight, and billing problems. We continue with community outreach, citing Natividad's actual superior medical facilities (accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations)to attact private pay patients. We foster collaborative private/public partnerships that includes hospitality, agricultural, and construction industries who benefit from the service Natividad provides to their workers.

We include in the community outreach, public health education that encourages patients to seek early medical treatment before treatment becomes costly medical emergencies at Natividad. Worker health-care savings accounts tied to Natividad; Natividad accredited specialties that receive reimbursement funds; shared joint supportive services with Salinas Memorial Hospital--all are multi-faceted, creative ideas that together can sustain this most important medical institution.

By reinvesting in the city infrastructure for more compact,healthy, walkable, mixed-use urban environments rather than "outsourcing" investment in segregated, auto-oriented, suburban sprawl in the unincorporated parts of the county, will indirectly support the Natividad Medical Center in the long term. It better concentrates investment in urban services such as the hospital where services are more efficiently and economically provided. This, in turn, supports a healthy community that the national Congress of New Urbanism already has recognized in the City of Salinas year 2002 adopted General Plan.