San Ysidro Health provides innovative health services to almost 110,000 people through a vast and integrated network of 47 program sites across San Diego County. In addition, they are a certified community behavioral health clinic (CCBHC), providing a range of substance use and mental health services to its patients. ACH Senior Vice President of Communications, Marketing & Membership Manager Dani Veira recently had the opportunity to do a site visit with Vice President & Chief Strategy Officer Vernita Todd.

What does working at San Ysidro Health mean to you?

Working at San Ysidro Health allows me to serve with my whole heart. While I don’t see patients, I know the work I do helps create a little more light in our patients’ lives.

What one thing makes you most proud?

That we treat people like they matter because they do! In our health centers, we don’t tolerate foolishness or discrimination based on skin color, language, income, education or who you love because we believe all folks deserve access to high quality health care delivered with respect and excellence. That single thing makes me proud to be a part of Team San Ysidro. One of the programs dear to my heart is San Diego PACE (Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly), a specialized health plan that provides high quality, compassionate care to adults 55 and older. Services are provided and coordinated by a team of geriatric specialized health care professionals who are bilingual and highly experienced in senior care. Our mission is to ensure seniors get the care they need to lead healthy, happy, and independent lives.

What keeps you up at night?

The worry of death by a thousand cuts. Because we do our job well, people forget the necessary investments made to get us here. With changing demographics, an increasingly difficult workforce challenge and wavering funding meet – it seems like a recipe for calamity.

If you had a magic wand, what would you wish for?

That love would win every time. But, work wise I would wish for CHC funding to be increased and made permanent; and along with that investment- our government would recognize its role in helping to ensure an adequate number of trained medical professionals to meet the needs of Americans.

Learn more about San Ysidro Health’s innovative health services by visiting: https://www.syhc.org/