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To PAMF Doctors: Thank You
Editor:
As the president and CEO of Peninsula Healthcare Connection, a not-for-profit organization that provides primary care and support services to people experiencing homelessness, I’d like to thank our physician volunteers from Sutter’s Palo Alto Foundation Medical Group this Doctor’s Day.
In 1996 Dr. Donald Barr, then a physician with PAMF, along with Dr. Lars Osterberg from the VA, saw a need for medical care and safe housing for those experiencing homelessness. They founded PHC and the Opportunity Center to meet those needs.
From the day we opened in 2006 PHC’s Chief Medical Officer has been a PAMF physician. Each has devoted up to 12 hours a week to our clinic and I’d like to publicly thank them:
Dr. Patty McGann, you helped us secure our state license and community benefit investment from PAMF for the part-time medical assistant position that we’ve had since 2011.
Dr. Enoch Choi, you were with us in 2013 when we started our Community Outreach program and merged with New Directions—a provider of behavioral health, case management and psychosocial supports.
Dr. Haleh Sheikholeslami, you saw us through our application to become a Federally Qualified Heath Center Look-Alike and under your leadership we were able to open full-time, M-F, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Dr. Ed Yu, you brought your entire leadership team along with you in their devotion to those experiencing homelessness.
Dr. Navneet Singh, you tapped your network and brought us our new CMO.
Dr. Sangeeta Kopardekar, you secured a community benefit investment from PAMF to cover the salary for a part-time nurse practitioner for the clinic. The difference has been huge.
My sincere thanks, to each of you, for all that you’ve invested in this clinic!
Eileen Richardson
President & CEO, Peninsula Healthcare Connection
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