Laguna Honda annual report highlights high vaccination rates, quality gains and staff awards

Laguna Honda Hospital’s leadership presented the facility’s FY2020–21 annual report and honored multiple staff teams for pandemic response and ongoing care improvements.

CEO Michael Phillips told the San Francisco Health Commission the hospital successfully reopened to visitors, reinstated resident passes and completed a widespread vaccination campaign. "We were able to vaccinate 100 percent of our staff and 93 percent of our residents," Phillips said, and he added that booster rollout was underway.

Why it matters: Laguna Honda serves a medically complex, diverse population and is one of the largest skilled nursing facilities in the country. The report framed vaccination, infection control and operational stability as central to protecting vulnerable residents and preserving local hospital capacity.

Leadership and quality results: Chief Nursing Officer Monica Biley described care improvements that she labeled "the Laguna Honda way," noting a 21% reduction in newly acquired pressure ulcers after adopting proactive assessment practices and a rise in barcode medication-administration compliance to the mid-90s. Chief Quality Officer Naz Talai and others highlighted resumed visitation, staff appreciation efforts and external awards that recognized the hospital’s COVID-19 outbreak response.

Formal recognition: Commissioners presented awards to the pharmacy team (for cold-chain logistics and vaccine coordination), the patient flow team (for admissions/readmissions management), social services (for family outreach and discharge coordination), nursing operations (supporting 700+ residents and ~900 nursing staff), EPIC core super users and nursing informatics (for stabilizing the electronic health record and repurposing equipment for resident connections), and the Department of Education and Training (onboarding and mandatory staff training for roughly 1,800 employees).

Finance and operations: Phillips summarized the hospital’s finances for the year, stating operating revenue increased to approximately $250,000,000 and operating expenses rose to about $296,000,000; he reported a year-end surplus of about $23,700,000 that reflected higher-than-budgeted Medi‑Cal per-diem settlements (transcript numeric formatting contains inconsistencies). He said the facility will continue focusing on improving staff retention and equity measures.

Next steps: Hospital leadership said they will continue booster outreach, maintain infection-control vigilance, and pursue targeted quality-improvement projects. Commissioners thanked staff and invited continued updates on performance metrics.

Ending: The commission accepted the presentation with no formal vote on the report itself and moved on to the director’s COVID‑19 update.