When a recent survey conducted by San Francisco-based Pacific Business Group on Health questioned members about their satisfaction with health care management services, San Diego’s Sharp Community Medical Group ranked at the top.
The 50,000 people surveyed in Southern California were asked to rank their satisfaction with their service’s care, quality, access and communication abilities.
Insurance brokers and employers will use the survey to help members select medical groups during open enrollment.
“We are extremely proud to announce that Sharp rated above all other medical groups in Southern California,” said Elizabeth Curtis, CEO of the Sharp Community Medical Group. “In addition, SCMG rated first in California in the category of satisfaction with specialty care.”
Sharp is comprised of about 600 primary care physicians and specialty care physicians, who serve more than 120,000 people in San Diego County. Sharp Community Medical Group was ranked first in the past two surveys conducted by PBGH. The health care management services survey is conducted once every two years.
PBGH is a nonprofit consortium of large business groups, which has interests in the health care fields and conducts specific surveys of health care organizations.
Some of the member groups include Bank of America, California Public Employees’ Retirement System, Hewlett-Packard, SBC Communications, Sempra Energy, University of California, and Wells Fargo Bank.
PBGH also presented its Green Ribbon Award to Sharp. This honor recognizes health care management services throughout California based on their excellence in Pacific Business Group’s four strategic initiatives: quality, cost, partnering and data management.
Dr. Benjamin Hourani, president of Sharp Community Medical Group, reported the Green Ribbon Award places Sharp above the 90th percentile among physician groups throughout California.
“The reason we ranked first in the past Pacific Business Group on Health’s surveys is we provide a private practice model in a saturated managed health care market,” Hourani said. “It’s the reflection of wide choices of physicians and level of quality, which gave us the statewide recognition.”
Budget Now Renting Clean-Fuel Autos
An environmentally conscious San Diego business opened May 1 to kick off National Clean Air Month. Congressman Brian Bilbray lauded the company as he became its first customer in an opening ceremony.
Budget EV Rental Cars will rent out a fleet of automobiles that use cleaner technology than conventional gasoline. Cars available on the lot include the Honda Insight, an electric/gasoline hybrid vehicle; and the Honda Civic GX, a natural gas vehicle which Honda spokesman Steve Ellis lauded as being 98.5 percent cleaner than most of the cars on the road today.
The project is a joint promotion between Budget, American Honda and San Diego Gas & Electric Co. Honda makes the cars, while SDG & E; provides access to seven of the dozen natural-gas fueling stations in the San Diego area.
The May 1 opening of Budget’s San Diego EV rental outlet marks the fifth Budget EV Rental Cars outlet in California, after similar ventures at Los Angeles International Airport, Beverly Hills, Sacramento and Ontario. The EV outlets deal exclusively in alternatively powered vehicles.
Bilbray congratulated Budget EV Rental Cars for its commitment. By making these cars available for rent, that provides a risk-free way for consumers to try them, and paves the way for broader consumer acceptance of alternative fuels.
Ellis, manager of alternative fuel vehicles for American Honda, cited the tremendous stake the firm has in the success of Budget EV. Honda views natural gas as the solution not only for the short term, but the mid-term and long term as well.
Ellis pointed out that natural gas has a number of advantages over conventional gasoline. For one thing, natural gas costs about half as much as conventional gasoline.
For another, natural gas is a domestic fuel, safe from the price shocks and supply disruptions that have occasionally socked users of conventional fuel.
Also, cars running on natural gas are much cleaner. They emit 85 percent fewer hydrocarbons and 50 percent less carbon monoxide and smog-producing nitrogen oxides than even the cleanest of conventionally powered vehicles, he said.
