Community Benefit

Adventist Health’s mission statement of Living God’s love by inspiring health, wholeness and hope is coupled with a vision to transform the health experience of our communities through collaborative programs, community investments and community outreach. We are inspired by the healing ministry as represented by the life of Jesus Christ and believe we are called to live out our mission intentionally in the communities we serve. In the small towns, suburbs and inner cities we serve, we continue our journey to provide quality healthcare until every person made in God’s image has experienced the best health today, hope for tomorrow, and God’s love that endures forever.

In March of 2017, a small group of leaders began meeting to talk about how to collectively address challenging issues associated with homelessness in our community. They created a team of community partners that hosted the Innovation Summit in May and laid out the goal to engage 10 high-utilizing clients in the community by the end of December.

In September, Restoration House, a seven-bed transitional housing and respite facility for vulnerable members of the community, was opened. Restoration House houses clients enrolled in the Project Restoration collaboration, which continues to include Clearlake city government, local law enforcement, fire district/EMS leaders plus public and private community agencies in a united effort to serve individuals in the community who are high utilizers of local services. Project Restoration involves the partners in addressing an individual’s whole needs, instead of each agency focusing on one particular issue.

Adventist Health Restoration House Opening ribbon cutting with group All clients are enrolled in AHCL Live Well Intensive, an outpatient case management program that creates a customized plan tailored to the needs of our clients and the support they need to create a real difference in their health outcomes. The Live Well team of specialty providers, educators and coaches is helping improve their quality of life, not just treat a condition.

Restoration House and Project Restoration have combined to assist 18 vulnerable community members since opening. “Restoration House is saving my life. I can heal. It’s steering me in the right direction while taking care of my medical needs,” one client says. “I’ve made a couple friends. That’s a tough word for me. I am here to close a door on the past, to have a new experience and be who God wants me to be.”

In an effort to reduce the time it takes to diagnose and start treatment of sepsis in a patient, Adventist Health Clear Lake established a “Sepsis Working Group.” In 2017 the group planned and implemented a new sepsis protocol. We acquired a point of care laboratory machine that measures a patient’s lactate within seconds, compared to the 90+ minutes it takes using typical laboratory equipment (elevated lactate is highly suspicious of sepsis in patients). In addition to elevated lactate, the protocol takes the sepsis work even further. If a patient’s lactate is elevated, we now have an automatic reflex to obtain other blood work info, such as a procalcitonin, which is a further indicator of sepsis, if elevated.

This protocol has systemically changed the workflow for laboratory services, nursing and medical staff in order to improve patient outcomes for sepsis. We have already improved our ‘door to treatment’ time for septic patients by more than 30 minutes. This initial targeted clinical research has been used for 950 tests and is now part of our established best practices.