Staffing medical personnel, providing nurses and nurse aides, and offering on-site drug screenings are just a few of the services featured at Pacifica Medical Health & Medical, 5005 Texas St., owned by Bird Rock resident Jeff Sternberg.
“We stand out in the industry because we provide a group of services that utilizes RNs [registered nurses] and LVNs [licensed vocational nurses] and nurse aides for every service we offer,” Sternberg said. “This is significant because the single most difficult challenge in our industry is and always will be nurse recruitment and retention. By having so many different types of work available to our employees, we are able to cast a wider net, and if a nurse wants to try something different we have that opportunity for them.”
Sternberg launched Pacifica Health & Medical with the help of Selby Stultz, R.N., in October 2002 at a time when both were working for a large, national health services corporation. The pair had grown weary of the corporation’s emphasis on the bottom line at the expense of good personal service to patients and clientele and decided to try something different.
“Because Selby and I had direct client contact and because we worked closely with staff nurses, we felt confident that we could develop a medical services agency that would focus on patient care and keeping our staff nurses happy,” he said. “It seemed so simple: treat our employees well, respond to the needs of our clients and people we serve, and success would follow.”
A winning hand bore fruit, and since opening the doors the company has seen revenue growth at an average of 42 percent each year. The majority of the increase came from providing nurses to its biggest clients, Sharp Healthcare and the University of California, San Diego.
“One of the important lessons we had learned from our time working for large companies was that we needed to start with just one or two areas of focus, and make sure we do those things well before expanding our menu of services,” Sternberg said. “It has been like the classic story of the race between the turtle and the hare.”
Last year the company splurged on an electric car featuring its name and logo. The concept is a way to advertise but also serves Sternberg’s efforts to conserve the special way of life of the coastal community he grew up in.
Sternberg graduated from San Diego State University with a degree in social sciences and a teaching credential. He was a director of marketing for a home health-care company before starting his own.
“A big concern of ours that has grown out of our experience in providing private nursing care is the fact that our community is not well informed about or prepared for the care of our aging population,” he said. “There is a need for more dialogue about the challenges of caring for our population as it ages, and how to prepare for the time when difficult decisions about the course of care must be made.”
For information see www.pacificamedical.com.