The efforts and accomplishments of our local Pursuing Perfection program were studied recently during a gathering of visiting healthcare leaders from around the world. The conference included site visits to FCN offices in Ferndale and Family Health Associates, a health care summit and a community picnic the week of August 23. Visitors met for in depth sessions with Dr. Bertha Safford and staff at Ferndale Family Medical Center, and Dr. David Lynch and staff at FHA to assess accomplishments and challenges to date. The care at each office has been redesigned by employee-doctor work teams that also included patients, to focus more on actual patient needs and less on insurance company busy work.
Attendees came from throughout the nation and the globe – including Sweden, the United Kingdom, Denmark and the Netherlands – to learn and observe what is going on in Whatcom County to improve health care delivery and access. Attendees included:
Just prior to the summit, Whatcom County’s Pursuing Perfection project was recognized with a feature front page story in the August 11, 2004 New York Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.