My Location - Alpine, CA

Many have asked about my location. Mountain Health and Community Services has 5 clinic sites. The site in the middle of all of them is located in Alpine, CA. Alpine Family Medicine has the majority of the bottom floor of this Alpine Regional Center building. I have a desk in an office I share with a VERY fun woman Robyn! Maybe I can snag her picture next time.

My Trip (much belated entry)

I wanted to put up a few pictures of my trip out to California. I chose scenes that were absolutely beautiful to me or a fun surprise.


The sequence went like this.

1 - Started off in RTP, NC last day of work was 12-23-09

2- Madison, FL on 12-24/25-09 for family Christmas celebration and to pick up my mom who traveled with me

3- New Orleans, LA 12-26-09

4 - San Antonio, TX 12-27-09

5- Las Cruces, NM (first surprise..we woke up to snow and the hotel manager said he had not seen that in the 5 years he lived there) 12-28-09

6- Sedona, AZ 12-29 to 12-30-09

7- Grand Canyon. 12-30-09 to 1-1-2010. We traveled in a snow storm to get there! Was snowed in the first night. The second day was New Year's Eve and it was minus 11 degrees during the morning. It was snow covered and gorgeous!!! The evening of NY Eve there was a full moon on the snow at night and it was so cold we could not breathe but the sight of it all was unforgettable.

8 - Las Vegas, NM (spent New Year's Day/Night there). From Grand Canyon to Las Vegas I passed the point in I-40 which was my last chance to turn around and head home to NC. I continued on!! My fun in Las Vegas was seeing my mom win some cash for her first visit ever to LV!

9 - Arrived into San Diego, CA on 1-2-10.

10 - On the 3rd I traveled to Alpine, CA which is the location of my assignment.



I took a lot of photos on the trip out. Click on the link for some highlights. Please enjoy!


http://picasaweb.google.com/107410517512574207906/TripToCA?feat=directlink

From GSK to Jacumba and Campo, CA

I left Durham, NC (GSK) on 12/24/09 and ended up in Alpine, CA on 1/3/2010. I decided to make an adventure out of getting to my PULSE assignment. So, I spent my year-end-shut down driving across the most Southern part of the USA (along route I-10 for most of it with a detour in Arizona). I was joined by my mom who decided she wanted an adventure, too. (More about that trip in a future post).

I started with Mountain Health and Community Services (MHCS) on 1/4/2010. The nonprofit connected to MHCS is Direct Relief International. DRI is the NGO that many PULSE volunteers have assignments connected to. Each of our assignments are very different. My day to day is not in direct contact with DRI. Mine is working directly for MHCS on a specific project.

MHCS is community health clinic system comprised of 5 sites (3 rural in Campo, Jacumba and Alpine, CA and two urban in Escondido and San Diego, CA). The HQ is in Campo, CA. My work space is out of the Alpine location where there are others in some administrative offices, including all of the folks I work with directly on these projects. I am assisting MHCS with designing a comprehensive HIT plan as well as assisting them with the implementation of several HIT projects that are just getting underway. Most notably are an Electronic Practice Management system (this will be implemented while I am here) and Electronic Health Records system (I will assist them with the implementation plan for this which will happen after I leave). There are some telemedicine initiatives as well (some of these will be implemented while I am here).

In the photos there is GSK of course (Ellis Road entrance on the RTP Campus!!!!). The photo with the stucco building is the Jacumba site (High Desert Family Medicine) and the other photo is the Campo site (Mountain Empire Family Medicine) and that is the HQ for MHCS. I don't have a pic yet of the site where my space is in Alpine. It looks more urban but is still considered rural.

MHCS is a sweet organization where everyone has one focus. The patient. Does it serve the patient? If not we are not doing it. Everyone knows their mission and sticks to it. It's kind of simple. The complex part is how to keep the shop running when relying on grants and support from donations, etc. More about that in future posts. The organization is quite successful at that and has grown over roughly 30 years from just the one site to the five they have now.

More about MHCS at http://www.mtnhealth.org/index.html

Just Getting Settled

I've just gotten into Southern California. I'll be describing my journey here as well as my experiences over the next six months.

Please visit back soon!

Thanks,
Denise