Economy forces healthcare district to do more with less

Put Jane Rozanski and Kara Partridge-Ralston in the same room to discuss the Camarillo Health Care District and the two executives will talk earnestly in a give-and-take that attests to their passion for their work.

Rozanski and PartridgeRalston are, respectively, the chief executive officer and chief operating officer for the healthcare district on Las Posas Road that serves some 82,000 residents in the greater Camarillo area including Somis.

Early last month, the district's board of directors approved a $3.5-million budget for next year.

Despite the rocky economy, Rozanski said the budget was not "fear-based" and that it was kept largely intact due to the careful planning of the district's fivemember board of elected directors.

"There are no planned reductions of programs or services or staff," Partridge-Ralston said.

Salary and benefits for the district's 50 employees—21 fulltime and 29 part-time—account for about $2.2 million in costs, according to the district budget.

Next year, the Pleasant Valley Neighborhood for Learning—a $430,000 program funded by First 5, a statewide plan to promote early child development—will move out of the healthcare district and return to the Pleasant Valley School District. The move was made because the program had outgrown the facility at the healthcare district, Partridge-Ralston said.

Rozanski, a longtime resident of Camarillo who has headed the district since 1993, said she has seen the facility grow from an agency serving 250 clients through 13 programs to one that provides 1,000 services and programs to approximately 35,000 clients.

"The most challenging thing is managing growth," Rozanski said.

Faced with a waning economy and the county's highest concentration of seniors—around 21 percent, according to the district— the public agency is being asked to do more with less.

Funded largely by tax revenues—about $2.2 million this year—the district's largest programs include Lifeline of Ventura County, a 24/7 personal monitoring device that provides medical response in an emergency. It also has a fleet of eight vans used primarily to take seniors who are unable to drive to doctor's appointments and local stores.

The vans are paid for by grants from Caltrans and the Ventura County Transportation Committee in addition to about $250,000 in funding from the healthcare district. Partridge-Ralston said despite the expense of the vans, the district's board understands their importance in an area with a high senior population.

"They recognize that (transportation) is a labor-intensive, front-end, heavy-loaded customer service," Partridge-Ralston said. "(The board is) committed to it and remains committed to it."

Partridge-Ralston said next year the district will receive five new vans fully funded by federal stimulus money via the Ventura County Transportation Commission.

Lifeline has about 1,200 clients, Partridge-Ralston said, and is expected to bring in nearly $556,000 in revenue next year and cost about $200,000.

The healthcare district will pay about $167,000 next year in fees for classes and programs it hosts. The programs range from nail services to adult day care.

Rozanski said the district is working to better train family caretakers—a role that she said has seen a fundamental change in the past few years.

"No longer are we faced with elder caregivers taking care of elder people," Rozanski said. "We're seeing grandparents having to care for their children. We're seeing young wives being caregivers to disabled veterans."

To better educate this expanding group of caretakers, Rozanski said that in October the healthcare district will introduce a resource center to train those who give inhome care to a family member.

She said the center will be a "one-stop shop for caregivers" and teach basic skills, such as how to give a bath to and change the linens for a bed-bound patient.

Rozanski said the idea for the center came from the findings of a needs assessment report the district recently conducted.

According to the report, those served within the district said the economy has made it more difficult to afford such basics as housing, medication and in-home care. The report said seniors, including the upper end of the aging baby boomer generation, want more information about healthy aging, how to navigate the healthcare industry, where to get transportation and tips on preventive medicine.

Those unable to afford those services are turning to the healthcare district for help. Rozanski said the district helps clients afford their services by using donations to fund scholarships.

"We're always looking at what's missing and saying, 'Okay, we can do something about it,'" said Rozanski, noting an uptick in the past year of those suffering from brain injuries. She said war injuries, motorcycle accidents and strokes account for the increase in head trauma cases.

Although Rozanski and Partridge-Ralston said it's a continual challenge to provide an increasing number of health-related services to a dynamic population, the pair are excited about the coming year.

"We're always excited," said Rozanski, as Partridge-Ralston interjected, "Always," to which Rozanski quickly added, "We can't ever sit on our laurels."