Steve Hubbard, MD
“Dr. Hubbard helps Kaiser Permanente achieve substantial gains in access nationwide.”
Kaiser Permanente members may not know who Steve Hubbard, MD, is, but they certainly appreciate what he’s done for them.
That’s because Dr. Hubbard was instrumental in revolutionizing primary care access in Kaiser Permanente.
In the late 1990s, primary care access in Northern California was in critical condition. As Assistant Physician-in-Chief, Dr. Hubbard accepted the challenge to implement Advanced Access systems throughout his Department of Family Medicine. Before long, Santa Rosa members who had been able to see their own physicians only 47% of the time were now seeing them more than 80% of the time. The wait for appointments plummeted from six weeks to one to three days.
Hearing of his success, leaders from the Permanente Medical Groups in the Northwest, Mid-Atlantic, and Southern California regions invited Dr. Hubbard to help them solve their significant access problems.
While these regions had the technical understanding to improve access, they lacked the spark. Dr. Hubbard so clearly communicated the benefits of implementing Advanced Access that before long the physicians were excited and willing to make the necessary changes.
Dr. Hubbard’s leadership and drive have given more than one million members better access to their primary care physicians – proof that one person can have an enormous impact on an entire organization.