After a 40-year career, with nearly 20 years at NorthBay Health, I made the decision in March to announce that I am retiring at the end of the year.

It’s never easy to close such an important chapter in your life, but this is the right time and the right decision for me and my family. Certainly the pandemic has taught us all lessons, and one I’ve learned is the importance of prioritizing the time we spend with loved ones.

I thought once we emerged from the pandemic, it would be just a matter of time before things returned to normal. But the economy had other ideas, and put hospitals across the country into a tailspin as we all struggled to continue to deliver quality care in the face of rising labor costs and skyrocketing inflation. In truth, the landscape was changing, and it was essential that health care organizations change with the times.

At NorthBay Health, our leaders quickly built and executed an ambitious recovery plan to get the system back on stable financial footing in the year to come. 

There were difficult decisions to be made in order to create a leaner but more sustainable system that can continue to serve our community for years to come. More than $100 million in budget recovery plans had been implemented by the end of 2022, with more than $50 million in savings already fully achieved by those efforts.

And through it all, in every decision, NorthBay Health’s commitment to patient care has never wavered.

It’s going to take some time and the unrelenting commitment of our boards of directors, our management team, our physicians and our work force to prevail. But I have every confidence that NorthBay Health will prevail, with the same determined commitment that existed when a band of volunteers raised money in the 1950s to create a community hospital that opened for business in January 1960.

We will continue to hold on tight to our independence, especially because NorthBay is the only independent, locally managed health system in Solano County. We will continue to work with Solano Public Health as the county’s de facto county hospital, delivering quality care to all who need it, regardless of ability to pay.

Although I announced my retirement in March, I will be here through the remainder of the year, helping guide our system as we select a replacement to make the transition as seamless as possible — someone who values our unique qualities and our independence.

Thanks to solid leadership, I have every confidence that the organization will serve this community for years to come. As I told my colleagues and employees, I will continue to be NorthBay’s biggest cheerleader in perpetuity, as they go about the business of delivering compassionate care and advanced medicine, close to home.

 

B. Konard Jones
President and Chief Executive Officer