County Health-Care Agency Hopes to Polish Image

After losing a bruising political fight to build a new $56-million outpatient center earlier this year, Ventura County’s health-care agency embarked Wednesday on a new campaign to polish its public image.

From Thousand Oaks to Oxnard, officials touted the county’s fiscally sound health-care system--at a time when Los Angeles County hospitals and other public systems are faltering--and drew attention to the programs it offers, from child immunizations to mental-health services.

A professionally produced television program will reaffirm that message for cable television viewers in the weeks ahead. The program and public relations campaign will cost less than $100,000, which will come from an educational fund in the Health Care Agency budget.

The publicity push comes at a time when the Ventura County Medical Center is preparing renovation plans. With the proposed outpatient center thwarted by the rival Community Memorial Hospital--and ultimately by voters--the 76-year-old county hospital still needs a new laboratory and kitchen, as well as other facilities.

Officials would not say Wednesday what they planned to ask the county to provide.

But they stressed that the public relations campaign is educational in nature and in no way related to the medical center’s future plans.

“We’ve been severely criticized that we haven’t done a very good job of letting people know about all the services available to them,” said Dr. Samuel Edwards, administrator of the county hospital. “So we’re just trying to make sure that everyone understands what their health-care system is all about.”

A representative for Community Memorial Hospital who attended the county’s press conference declined comment. The private, nonprofit hospital is pursuing legal efforts to block the county from treating private patients. Its own public relations efforts include newsletters to Ventura residents.

County officials literally took their campaign on the road, piling local health-care advocates onto a bus, dubbed the Health Express, to visit clinics in Thousand Oaks and Oxnard for a firsthand look at their daily operations.

At the Conejo Valley Family Care Center, Chris Landon, director of pediatrics for the county hospital, said the satellite clinics are critical to controlling health-care costs because of their emphasis on preventive care.

“If you treat people at the local level before they really get sick, you can save money,” Landon said. While patients need the specialized care provided at the county hospital in Ventura, most primary health-care needs can be provided in the community, he said.

Pierre Durand, director of the county’s Health Care Agency, said the county’s outpatient clinics had about 300,000 patient visits last year and the entire health-care system nearly 1 million.

“What is amazing is that we provide all of this service with no financial crisis in the health-care system,” he said. “This is a system that runs efficiently.”

Durand stressed that the Health Care Agency, which has a budget of $160 million, receives an annual subsidy of $12 million from the county. At the same time, he said, the agency pumps about $300 million back into the local economy, largely through the nearly 2,000 full- and part-time jobs it provides, he said.

“It is a key component of the economy of Ventura County,” he said.

To drive home their message, health officials also unveiled plans Wednesday to air a half-hour “Edu-Tainment” program on local cable television, with the first broadcast scheduled for Oct. 12 on KADY. The program will spotlight medical, public health, mental health and alcohol and drug programs offered by the county Health Care Agency.

With the county’s fast-growing uninsured population, it is crucial to have an aggressive educational campaign that includes television, Durand said.

“Over half of the population of this county has no health insurance, so they have no other place to go for services,” he said. “What we want to do is better inform the public about what services are available to them and where they need to go to get them.”

County health officials also took the opportunity Wednesday to promote awareness of breast cancer, mental health and AIDS, as part of a separate, monthlong educational campaign.

“If we get the message out about early detection of breast cancer and about the importance of immunization, to me that affects the health status of the whole county,” said Dr. Gary Feldman, the county’s public health officer.

Times correspondent Miguel Helft contributed to this story.