A Letter from PPMM CEO Stacy CrossDear Friends, As we begin a new year, I want to tell you how grateful I am to you. The past year presented challenging and unforeseen circumstances, including the loss of loved ones and neighbors, businesses, jobs, and any sense of security. We’ve all had to make sacrifices, both small and unimaginably large. Despite those sacrifices, as Planned Parenthood Mar Monte’s frontline staff continued to deliver high quality, compassionate health care in person and via telehealth, you were here with us. In fact, you made it all possible. Though there remains much uncertainty ahead, you’re making it possible for us to continue to innovate and grow. That’s what this entire newsletter is about: The promising year ahead. You’ll read about NextGen Population Health below. This new analytical tool allows our frontline health center staff to immediately analyze demographic data to ensure the best health outcomes for patients. Next, you’ll hear from Stephanie Dominguez Walton, whose run for Oakland City Council in 2020 got her charged up for the future. Sharing her story, below, inspired me to ask you a question: What are your goals for the coming year?
Thank you for being a member of the Planned Parenthood Mar Monte family, always. Because of you, PPMM staff will continue to serve your community by providing care to all who need us – no matter what. With gratitude,
Stacy Cross
Through your support, PPMM health center care teams will soon be able to discover with just a few clicks at a computer how to target treatment of specific health issues that affect patients of a particular age in certain communities – maybe even before these patients know they are facing a health challenge. Thanks to an analytical tool called NextGen Population Health, which allows providers to quickly view and assess many aspects of population health targeted specifically for our patients, PPMM providers will be able to collect crucial health data based on where patients live, their age, their most recent infection-screening, and other indicators that may put them in risk groups for threats to their health. “The population health analytical tool is an amazingly efficient way to find out immediately how our patients are doing,” said PPMM Chief Medical Officer Dr. Laura Dalton. “Based on the information we collect, we can do studies on health trends of patient groups, we can do targeted outreach to them about specific risks, and we can close care-gaps, such as making sure we see patients whose breast cancer-screening is overdue.”
For example, the tool can identify patients in one area who have uncontrolled diabetes and use its geo-mapping capability to find and “layer in” other social determinants of health including access to transportation to pick up medication and access to local food markets. This allows our care teams to focus interventions such as enrolling patients into home-delivery medication programs and discussing with them ways to eat a more balanced diet if they are living in a “food desert.” Having this information also means care teams, the frontline workers that your gifts support, can alert PPMM’s advocacy team and our community partners about these issues, especially if we see high rates of uncontrolled diabetes or other potentially related health complications. If the tool shows that many patients in one region live in a county that has steep increases in rates of syphilis or that a local public health official reports an increase in sex trafficking, PPMM could launch an outreach campaign urging people to come in for STI testing and treatment or an education campaign about the prevalence of local sex trafficking and ways for young people to protect themselves. “Having the population health tool is crucial to helping us make data-driven decisions about how best to keep our patients healthy,” Dr. Dalton said. “We know what the health challenges are, and we know how to treat them. This is a way to take the best care of our patients and be on the leading edge of this care.” Your support made it possible for Planned Parenthood Mar Monte to be an early leader in the COVID-19 pandemic local response. By early March, when shelter-in-place protocols first started, PPMM was one of the very first community health care providers to offer COVID testing at many of our health centers. By the end of March, you helped us launch curbside pick-up of birth control and other prescriptions. All in-person appointments, including on-site abortions, were converted to “minimal touch” to protect patients and staff. We also established three public COVID-testing sites – at the request of local officials in the cities of Tracy, Mountain View, and Monterey – to protect the health of our communities. PPMM is one of only three Planned Parenthood affiliates providing COVID-testing, and none of it would have happened without you.
You continued to step up, making it possible for us to quickly launch video appointments (telehealth) in a matter of weeks. By leveraging technology to meet patients where they are – whether they’re accessing health care from remote rural regions, suburbs, or large cities – you helped us keep patients safe. Steadfast PPMM supporter and 2020 Oakland City Council candidate Stephanie Dominguez Walton has already mapped out her goals for the coming year. Though she lost her election, being a first-time political candidate during a pandemic helped forge her determination to do big things in 2021. “I have zero regrets,” Stephanie told us. “The support I got was phenomenal, the relationships I developed in the community are lifelong. My goal for 2021 is to give back by helping the world to become a place where equity is Number One.” That’s why she’s excited to be a sponsor of one PPMM’s most important annual events, The Roe v. Wade Luncheon. “Planned Parenthood’s local (affiliate) is a life-changing organization for everyone, especially people who have been disenfranchised or marginalized,” she said. “That is critical at a time when health care is not universal.” Stephanie knows just how important our services are. She had an abortion in her late teens when the focus of her life was attending school and making plans for her future. “I never questioned that decision. It was absolutely the right choice for me,” she said. But that wasn’t her only experience with our essential care. “Years later, a friend of mine who was in her twenties went to a Planned Parenthood health center for a physical,” she said. “They discovered a tumor at the base of her spine. Planned Parenthood saved her life.” Those experiences and her encounters on the campaign trail this past year helped inspire Stephanie’s personal mission to keep fighting for her community. “When people don’t have access to choice, they don’t have power,” she said. “When people don’t have the ability to exercise their choice, to help provide a better way of life for their families, it promotes this cycle of inequity and racism – because we know so many who don’t have that choice are people of color.” We are proud that Stephanie Dominguez Walton stands with Planned Parenthood. Sharing what your goals are for 2021, or why you support your local Planned Parenthood, will bring us closer together. Go to ppmarmonte.org/share to share your story.
Although our lives and many cherished customs are still upended by the COVID-19 pandemic, PPMM is moving forward in honoring our annual fundraising traditions through a series of virtual interactive events with inspiring leaders, insightful commentators, and exciting voices and artists. You are invited to sponsor or attend the entire series or participate in individual events. Planned Parenthood Mar Monte is the largest affiliate in the US, with 35 health centers serving 42 counties in mid-California and northern Nevada. Donations from this series will ensure that nearly 250,000 people who depend on us receive the quality health care and education they need—from COVID-19 testing to abortion care—regardless of their income, identity, immigration status, or beliefs. No matter what. For more information on event speakers and sponsorship opportunities for individual events go to ppmarmonte.org/movingforward2021
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