On Friday, June 22, 2012, Candy Rabago graduated from the Clinic Leadership Institute developed by the Blue Shield of California Foundation. Candy is a Clinical Quality Supervisor who is responsible for ensuring that Eisner Pediatric & Family Medical Center is providing quality of care that is respectful of and responsive to individual patient needs.
During the 18-month Clinic Leadership Institute program, she was one of 25 students who developed their leadership, decision making, financial management, and strategic planning skills.
The professional development program includes comprehensive training in the following core competencies:
Organizational values and behaviors
Leadership and decision making
Strategic thinking
Business acumen and financial/grant management
Relationship management
Diversity
Organizational improvement
Data-driven decision making
The Blue Shield of California Foundation (BSCF) launched the program in 2007 to identify and train the next generation of California’s community clinic leaders. They were looking for leaders who are passionate about protecting and serving the unique social justice mission that is a core value embodied in community health centers. Students come from across California and are representative of the economic, social, and rich cultural diversity of the state. Only staff of clinics licensed by the state of California as a Community Clinic or Free Clinic, or designated as a Tribal Clinic, are eligible, and they must complete a rigorous screening process to be considered.
The program was started as one solution to the growing need for community health centers and skilled leaders to manage them throughout medically underserved communities in California. More than 3 million Californians depend on about 800 community clinics to receive health care services. This includes more than 12 percent of California’s children. For many patients in these communities, local health centers are their only avenue for receiving health care services.
Candy Rabago began her career at EPFMC in 2000 as a medical assistant in the Adult Health Department. A year later she was promoted to Supervisor of Adult Health, where she was responsible for day-to-day operations and ensuring that the department remained in compliance with all state and federal regulations. In 2008, Ms. Rabago was promoted to Clinical Quality Supervisor, where she also has been instrumental in the implementation process for our i2i system and training. She was also a key member of our Electronic Health Record implementation team.
When asked what graduating from the Clinic Leadership Institute meant to her, Candy responded:
“When you are driving around the city, you get an opportunity to see a variety of license plates. For me, I noticed the plates that state ‘Alumni of USC’ or other universities. I often wondered when I would have an opportunity to have a license place that said ‘Alumni of __.’ Now that I have successfully completed the CLI program, I am recognized as an alumnus of CLI. Now, I can tell the world of my accomplishment with a license plate that reads ‘Alumni of CLI.’ For me, attending CLI was like attending and graduating from a university. I am now a graduate and ready to explore many more career opportunities.”