[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 102 (Thursday, July 9, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1706]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 IN HONOR OF THE BIG SUR HEALTH CENTER

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. SAM FARR

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, July 9, 2009

  Mr. FARR. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the 30th anniversary 
of the Big Sur Health Center, an independent, state-licensed, not-for-
profit, community clinic, nestled in the heart of the beautiful Big Sur 
Valley. The Center is the only source of out-patient care for the 1,500 
residents of the over 100 miles of remote and mountainous Big Sur 
coast. The Center also serves nearly 3,000,000 tourists who visit the 
Big Sur coast each year. It is crucial to the welfare of the Big Sur 
Community. As a Big Sur resident myself, I applaud the work of the 
health center staff and volunteers who do so much for their neighbors 
and visitors alike.
  The Center grew out of a local, grass-roots effort in the late 1970s, 
to meet the needs of this rural community to provide quality 
comprehensive medical care to all in Big Sur regardless of a patient's 
ability to pay. At that time, I represented Big Sur as a Monterey 
County Supervisor. I had the great pleasure of working with Ray 
Sanborn, Dr. Saul Kunitz and other community leaders.
  The Center finally opened its doors in September 1979. By 1985, it 
had become a 501(c)(3) corporation with a volunteer Board of Directors. 
That same year BSHC relocated from the Big Sur Grange Hall to its 
current location on the grounds of the All Saints Episcopal Church. In 
2004, following a community-wide fundraising effort, the Center moved 
out of its old trailers into a new building at that site. Over the 
years the Center has developed into a busy family practice with over 
2,600 patient visits annually. In the last few years the Center has 
also embarked on several important outreach initiatives. These included 
an oral health program emphasizing childhood dental care, a program to 
work with families and school districts to reverse growing rates of 
childhood obesity, and a multi year effort to reach out to the Big Sur 
coast's substantial Spanish speaking population.
  This spirit of service and professionalism was apparent during the 
summer and fall of 2008 when the second largest wildfire in 
California's history besieged the Big Sur community for the better part 
of two months. The Center staff worked hand in hand with the fire 
response authorities to help treat injured fire fighters so that they 
could return to their crews to continue their important work.
  Looking to the future, the Center has fully embraced the move to 
electronic medical records championed by the Congress and President 
Obama. The Big Sur Health Center has developed and implemented an 
information technology system that provides practice management, 
electronic medical records and electronic health information exchange, 
and assures the protection of critical patient data in the event of a 
disaster that threatens or destroys the facility. In addition, this 
system allows for remote access to documents and facilitates patient 
management in the event of after-hours emergency room visits, or during 
a community disaster that closes the center. Retrieval of information 
for disease management in key populations, quality measures reporting, 
tracking of data and State-mandated annual clinic reporting is no 
longer the cumbersome and time consuming project of past times. 
Electronic retrieval and reactivation of patient health records is now 
done rapidly and accurately. The result is great savings to the Center 
and faster, better, more attentive care to the patient.
  Madam Speaker, the Big Sur Health Center is a national treasure. It 
exemplifies a kind of dedicated grass-roots based health service that 
will be a key ingredient in a reformed American healthcare system--
first rate medical care, cutting edge technology, in a community based 
setting. I know I speak for the whole House in extending our 
congratulations to the Center for a successful thirty years and our 
wishes for many more to come.

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