WesternU Health tells patients ‘We Get U’

WesternU Health, Western University of Health Sciences’ cornerstone health care institution, provides comprehensive care to the Pomona Valley and its neighboring communities. WesternU launched a new advertising campaign with slogans that celebrate the University’s healers and the unique patients who seek their care.

“The ‘We Get U’ campaign is rooted in the belief that every patient has a story,” said WesternU Health Chief Medical Officer Stephanie White, DO, FAAFP. “We are each unique, powerful, vulnerable, messy, complicated, and full of both tremendous joy and tremendous pain. Healing is the art of embracing each narrative and bearing witness to times of great triumph and crushing loss.”

A new billboard was installed Jan. 12, 2021 on Holt and Towne avenues, less than a half-mile from WesternU Health Pomona. This billboard is accompanied by print ads telling the community “We hear U,” “We Get U,” and “We partner with U.” These ads appeared in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, the California Senior Guide, and on iHeart Radio.

WesternU Health provides high quality, empathetic, evidenced-based care while also educating future health care providers. Though WesternU has been part of the community for more than 40 years, many local residents do not know our story, White said. This campaign seeks to raise awareness of WesternU’s health care team to potential patients in Pomona and the surrounding cities.

“I want each patient to feel welcome as they are because we practice medicine as our true selves. We show up to provide care not because we are perfect, or have the fanciest equipment or all the answers, but because we believe each patient is enough exactly as he, she or they are and deserving of our best care,” White said. “We are a family here. A hard working, complicated, loving family. Patients feel that love and connection. That is what makes WesternU Health special and that is why patients keep coming back.”

 

WesternU Health Pomona, at 795 E. Second St., Pomona, California, offers state-of-the-art facilities, high academic standards, access to translational research and the premier electronic health record system. The facility offers primary and specialty care, eye care, dental care, foot and ankle care, and pharmacy and travel health care. But what truly makes WesternU Health special is that the health care team cares deeply about each other.

“Each member of this health care team also has a story,” White said. “Among us are survivors, refugees, immigrants, able and disabled, straight and LGBTQ, BIPOC and white. We have suffered losses, health crises, family separation, financial struggles, abuse, bias and discrimination. We’ve worked two and three jobs, we’ve served in the military, we’ve overcome learning struggles and we’ve buried friends from COVID like we buried our friends with AIDS.”

In March 2020, WesternU Health’s Primary Care team entered an exclusive contract with Regal Medical Group, an affiliate of the Heritage Provider Network. This relationship specifically applies to patients with Medicare and commercial HMO insurances and does not impact Medi-Cal or PPO insured patients. In order to maintain or establish care at WesternU Health, patients must select Regal Medical Group as their Independent Physician Association (IPA). Once Regal is selected, the patient requests a primary physician within the WesternU Health team.

This partnership between Regal Medical Group and WesternU Health Primary Care was based on the desire to streamline patient care, increase access for primary care patients to be seen with our specialty providers and enhance relationships between WesternU and external health care providers, White said.

Previously, WesternU Health contracted with many different medical groups and each group had its own set of policies and procedures, imaging centers, labs, and formularies for medications. A large portion of each visit was spent on care coordination as each provider attempted to navigate the many unique processes. Centering one partnership reduces the complexity of patient care so providers can focus on the whole patient and not on the care logistics, White said.

“Regal Medical Group has been a strong partner of WesternU Health for several years and demonstrated a consistent commitment to patient satisfaction, quality, and efficiency. Regal’s mission to ‘better every life we touch through the way we care’ aligns with WesternU’s core values of patient-centered care, authenticity, and trust,” White said. “Since March, WesternU has deepened the communication with Regal through interdisciplinary team meetings, quality care programs and frequent communication between clinic leaders. WesternU utilizes the physician concierge program with Regal to avoid unnecessary hospitalizations and arrange for faster referrals and imaging for patients. With each month our partnership strengthens with the goal of demonstrating exemplary quality while ensuring each person who chooses WesternU Health feels genuinely cared for.”

Visit the WesternU Health website at https://www.westernuhealth.com/

To make an appointment, call 909-706-3900.