2016 06/29-07/05

SCENES IN THE CITY

(PITTSBURG, CA) Winning the 2015 Blue Ribbon-Nationals Excellence in Service Award comes with honor, a certificate, a party, a trophy and a check (for $120,000 that is equally divided among the Diamond Ridge staff). And a personal hug from Tony Oglesby, CEO and President of SAVA Senior Care

(PITTSBURG, CA) 2015 Blue Ribbon National Winner Diamond Ridge's Luisa Escueta (center), Social Services Manager flanked by Mike Oxford, (right) Director of Operations and Wayne Sanner, President of West Division.

(PITTSBURG, CA) American College of Nursing's Gigi Elegado (left) congratulates and donates $30,000 worth of scholarship to 2015 Blue Ribbon National Winner Diamond Ridge Healthcare Center, represented by Tony Moya (right), Senior Administrator & Bobbie Roces, RN, Director of Bursing.

(SAN FRANCISCO, CA) The Rayos Family reached out to this Manila Mail Columnist to thank us for sharing their Father's Day "Angel Soft" video commercial which incidentally, now has over a million views on both Facebook ($1.3M) and YouTube, after only 5 days when it was first uploaded. Define viral. Photo grabs from YouTube

(BRENTWOOD, CA) - TV Patrol's Henni Espinosa (together with Adobo Nation's Katrina 'Jayne' Dimaranan and ABS-CBN Foundation International Community Ambassador Maribeth Lalongisip) graced the 5th Annual Bayanihan Golf Tournament held at the Deer Ridge and Shadow Lakes Golf Clubs last Saturday, June 18. Photo by Richard Lao, CPA, MSMOT

Celebrity Host/ Singer Sansu Ramsey was one of the Sagalas (escorted by Manila Mail's Richard Lao) during the San Jose 2016 Flores de Mayo and Santacruzan Festival held Sunday, May 29, 2016 at the Most Holy Trinity Church and compound (mass officiated by Father Bob Fambrini; Hermana Mayors were Virginia Sajor and Lina Simpliciano).

PITTSBURG FACILITY WINS BLUE RIBBON AWARD

SEEN IN THE CITY:

(PITTSBURG, CA) – Contra Costa’s Diamond Ridge Healthcare Center (‘Diamond Riddge’), a 120-bed skilled nursing facility established on August 1, 2005 and located at 2351 Loveridge Road, wins the very prestigious 2015 Blue Ribbon Committee Excellence in Service Award – Nationals Division besting over 200 other businesses in the industry.

Last year, the same facility, which employs mostly Filipino staff (6 out of 10) won the same award – the District Division, though. No less than the Chief Executive Officer and President of SAVA Senior Care, the umbrella organization that supports Diamond Ridge attended last Wednesday’s victory celebration on the facility’s closed-for-the-event parking lot. The mood was extremely celebratory. Staff and crew were uniformly dressed in Golden State Warriors blue and yellow colors (too bad, they lost the finals) as they feted themselves in a variety of ethnic food – a little of Thai, a little of Filipino, a little of Chinese, a little of Indian, among others.

So what is the meaning of the Blue Ribbon Award? According to Wayne Sanner, President of West Division for SAVA Senior Care, the company that supports Diamond Ridge Healthcare Center, “It is a very special award. It’s a real honor. It means that Diamond Ridge delivers the best quality of care possible to the residents that they serve; that they have an excellent culture for their staff; and just a real community spirit here at Diamond ridge. The purpose of the award is to recognize, in all areas of our healthcare operation. It’s very, very well deserved for Diamond Ridge.”

Sanner furthers that in order to win the award, “There are several criteria. One is around quality of care – we look at different components of quality of care that we deliver to our residents every day . We also look culture and employee experience – and so we look at our employee turnover. We have very, very low employee turnover at Diamond Ridge. We retain our staff due to our attractive corporate culture. We look at other measurements of business performance. One of the key drivers of our business, obviously is our census – the individuals we serve every day. In attaining good Census you have to have good care and good culture. You have to have a strong reputation to do that. It’s very broad and comprehensive. It doesn’t just look at one particular component.”

Sanner also expressed his admiration for his Filipino workers. “As President of the West Division at SAVA Senior Care, I have several communities that I support in Northern CA including Diamond Ridge. The Filipino workforce has been spectacular. There’s just something very special about the spirit and energy that our Filipino employees bring to our communities. Bring very caring loving group that is extremely hardworking and dedicated to the residents and to the organization. I am just extremely grateful for all the help and service we provide our organization.”

According to Diamond Ridge’s Social Services Director, Luisa Escueta, “We Filipinos are naturally industrious, we report early to work, we don’t complain and have the ‘can do’ attitude!”

Director of Nursing Bobbie Roces, RN said she contributed and in her own little way contributed like the others in more than a hundred of employees there. ‘I walk the walk. I do not only sit in the office. I showed them what to do. I led them. Leading by example. We showed them how to do it. I am very proud that we hire a lot of Filipino workers not because they’re Filipinos – but because they’re most qualified! I hire new workers from being newbies to experts. We help our kababayans. In return, they give back to us, to the community – like American College of Nursing (the Filipino-owned school donated $30,000 scholarship to Diamond Ridge employees and their families).”

Tony Moya, Senior Administrator said, “The taste of winning the Divisional Award last year got the staff more motivated to work harder - they were more inspired, they wanted to achieve higher, they wanted to accomplish more and set goals to win the National Award this year. It took a lot of hard work, a lot of determination. I set the goals for the staff here, I set the expectation and the staff responded. A lot of the Filipino employees here have been working here for over twenty (20) years. Almost all our nurses here are Pinays. The majority of the management team, including Bobbie Roces, RN – Director of Nursing, are originally from the Philippines.”

Sanner’s advise to others who seek to attain excellence in service recognition: “I would say focus on people. Focus on people. Be compassionate love one another. Honor people for their strengths and talent and what they bring. If you cultivate that spirit – that is what is healthcare is about. Hopefully that is what human kindness is all about. That would probably be my biggest piece of advise,” Sanner concluded.

Congratulations and more power to DIAMOND RIDGE HEALTCARE CENTER OF PITTSBURG, its staff and officers!

This article also appears online at www.eManilaMail.com, www.BradfordAdkins.com, www.ScenesInTheCity.com, and http://sites.google.com/site/adkinsmmcevents/Home/ with readership in 176 countries now (& still counting!) according to the latest Google Analytics report.

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