BUILDING A BETTER FUTURE
& Building a Better Future a More Healing Environment
IMPROVING YOUR CAMPUS TO BETTER SERVE YOU
T he future of VA Long Beach Healthcare System is all about creating a campus that promotes healing and wellness among its 66,000 Veteran patients. To do so, Anthony Streletz and his team of experts—including outside health care consultants—have created a master plan that will modify what currently exists on campus while also adding new structures that work together to create a truly 21st-century campus. “My primary mission has two sides,” says Streletz, the VA Long Beach chief engineer. “It’s the maintenance and operations of the current facility, and then it’s the development of the future facility to meet the needs of our Veterans and the objectives of the administration.” Streletz, an Army Veteran, says he’s traveled the world to see what works—and what doesn’t—at leading health care facilities. “It’s about being able to envision where things need to go and how things need to be organized,” he says. “I think that’s where I bring value, that and how we implement [that vision].” “You have discussions with providers and other support folks, as well as the administration, and you get this input, and they have a lot of wants and needs but they aren’t really sure
how to bring it all together,” Streletz says. “And that’s what I like doing—being able to understand and bring it all together so it’s a working facility as opposed to just a lot of little pieces.” INTEGRATED HEALTH CARE Although it is one of the country’s leading health care providers, the VA Long Beach campus could be called disjointed. The original hospital was built in the 1940s and has had many additions over the last 80-plus years. But additions without a master plan, which allows you to look at the big picture, is like applying Band-Aids. Patients now go to many different facilities on the campus, which Streletz terms a “menagerie.” “There wasn’t a lot of planning that went into the current layout; it just developed because that happened to be the space or location available,” he says. Patients often say they’re confused about where to go because things are all over the place, he says. One of the most important needs for the future of health care is integrated health care. So one part of the plan is what Streletz calls the Innovation Center. Technology is a major driver for health care delivery and for those who support the
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