Any physician—whether it’s your family doctor, your oncologist or your neurosurgeon—will tell you that the mind can make a difference when it comes to overcoming a medical challenge.

“You gotta have hope.” That’s what they sang in the Broadway hit, “Damn Yankees,” and it pretty much applies to modern medicine as well. As much as we can do with all the new technology and knowledge about the human condition, the patient still needs to believe.

So it is we bring you this edition of Wellspring.

Many of you will recognize the Vacaville restaurateur featured on the cover of this magazine. Joe Murdaca took over the family business in Vacaville started by his Italian immigrant parents who had hope for a better life in America and found it. Their son, Joe, sought to continue his passion of serving good food and good friends. His hope, and the quick response of firefighter paramedics and North-Bay Healthcare specialists, means he will continue.

Our hope at NorthBay Healthcare is that we will be able to keep bringing more advanced medicine to Solano County. The larger, corporate systems are satisfied with directing local residents to their specialty clinics and programs outside of our community.
But we are not.

More than half a century ago, our founders—local physicians and community leaders—had a great hope for a locally managed, locally responsible healthcare system that had as its top priority the local community.

We’ve realized much of that hope with the first intensive care unit for infants and newborns, with the county’s first accredited cancer center, with the Heart & Vascular Center, a Center for Women’s Health, the first and only verified Level II trauma center, and most recently the creation of the NorthBay Center for Neurosciences.

All it took was hope. And a lot of hard work.

Gary Passama

President and Chief Executive Officer