Pete’s Perspective: Honoring Veterans

Media Contact: Karina Rusk
831-759-1843

Our healthcare system will soon celebrate seven decades of service to the people of the Salinas Valley and beyond. As we embark on this new chapter in our legacy of leadership, we honor the past while looking to a bright new future.

We have adopted a new name for our healthcare organization. It’s part of an overall rebranding process to better reflect our work in helping the community rise through good health. You’ll hear more soon about this expansion of our commitment to the people we serve. It’s a bold and holistic approach based on our belief that community well-being is the foundation of individual well-being. While our new name will be shorter, our recognition of Veterans – in whose memory our hospital is dedicated – remains fundamental.

As approach the seventieth anniversary of opening day, we do so with reflection on the many changes that have taken place during that time. Medical advances have transformed the healthcare landscape. New ways of thinking have reshaped systems and changed processes in our ongoing commitment to quality and excellence. How we honor our Veterans will change and we are excited about the energy and ideas generated as we look to a future of greater inclusion and access.

We will recognize staff with Veteran status with special insignia on their badge both in tribute to their service and to bridge connections with patients who are Veterans. A multi-departmental task force is considering ways to recognize Veterans who come to us for care. Ideas include special signage on patient doors; patriotic blankets knitted by volunteers to gift to service members; a “pinning ceremony”; and other meaningful tributes to the men and women who put their lives on the line for our nation.

Annual observations like Memorial Day and Veterans Day are important reminders to pause our daily lives with gratitude for the sacrifices of those in service to their country. Yet Monterey County’s longstanding military presence is part of the fabric of everyday life here on the Central Coast. We appreciate our good fortune in housing world-class military training facilities and thousands of Veterans who contribute so richly to this special place we call home.

In turning a new page in our legacy, our healthcare system remains true to its 1953 dedication “to the health of the community.” Rising to a future with a greater focus on the connection between community and individual well-being, we not only celebrate the memory of those who have died while serving our nation, we pay real-time tribute to the Veterans who live and work alongside us.

If you have an idea for honoring our Veterans as patients, as employees, as our neighbors, and friends, send us an email at suggestions@svmh.com.

In the meantime, stay tuned for more information about the rollout of our new name and new look! We look forward to our bright future and we invite you to join us as we help our community rise in good health.

Be safe and be well.

– Pete