What do we mean when we say, “Advanced medicine, close to home”? Well, how about a robot zipping down our hospital hallway en route to check on a stroke patient? Right out of Star Wars.

Or what about creating 3-D and 4-D (moving images) of the heart taken by a camera-like probe that travels down a patient’s esophagus? Really, it’s not too hard to swallow.

How about a self-expanding metal device made of space-age nitinol that can be fitted during surgery to defuse the danger of an abdominal aortic aneurysm?

The list of advanced medical procedures, now standard tools for healing offered at NorthBay Healthcare, goes on and on. And it continues to grow. In this issue of Wellspring, you will learn about 21st century—and beyond—medicine practiced every day, close to home.

We believe our family, friends and neighbors shouldn’t be shipped far from home to receive the best and latest lifesaving medical technology. That’s why we didn’t stop after creating the county’s first neonatal intensive care unit for premature babies, or its first accredited cancer center, or the only heart and vascular center featuring surgery that occurs while the heart is beating.

Robots pave the way for our accreditation as a primary stroke center. Before we began this endeavor, Solano County was one of the worst places to have a stroke because patients had to be rushed to hospitals in other counties. Now, our robots connect us to the region’s foremost center for such care, the Mercy Neurological Institute. Read on to find out how our partnership will create one more lifesaving medical service for local patients.

As I said, we aren’t done yet. As our stroke program develops, we move ahead to create trauma care services, something also missing in this county.

Our initial trauma center will be established at NorthBay Medical Center in Fairfield. When we complete our expansion work at NorthBay VacaValley Hospital in Vacaville, the trauma center will move there, and will be continually upgraded to advanced trauma care. Accident victims and those with traumatic injuries will then be rushed to a local hospital, not put on a helicopter and transported to Sacramento or Walnut Creek, losing critical time to begin advanced lifesaving procedures.

After that, we’ll continue to bring more cutting-edge medicine to Solano County that others cannot. There is much more to do.

Gary Passama

President and Chief Executive Officer