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Dr. Carol Ann Somersille, an obstetrician and gynecologist, is seeking a second term on the El Camino Healthcare District board. Somersille says her experience as a full-time practicing physician has been invaluable to the board, and she is running for reelection to continue to implement quality health care initiatives and advance the health of the community.
Somersille’s top three priorities are guaranteeing health care as a right; ensuring that the healthcare district remains controlled by the community; and fostering improvements in preventive care and coordination between inpatient and outpatient care to decrease the risk of rehospitalization and readmission.
Somersille sees some of patients’ greatest unmet needs occurring outside the hospital setting. For these reasons, she supports the district’s plan to address non-medical factors impacting public health. This includes looking at social determinants of health, like housing instability, food insecurity, transportation needs, utilities difficulties and interpersonal safety.
Somersille says she will continue to advocate for policy changes and strengthen partnerships outside the hospital setting. This can be difficult however because of competing interests from groups providing care, she said. “Some are for-profit and others are not-for-profit. With convenings of those groups, and better communication, I believe we can partner for a common good,” she added.
In respect to the district’s community benefit program, Somersille says the money has been well spent with thoughtful analysis to support underserved communities, but there’s always room for improvement. Out of 50 grantees, none had a LGBTQ+ focus before she came on board, she said. Since then, the district has begun a partnership to provide LGBTQ+ cultural awareness, Somersille said.
More information about Somersille’s campaign can be found on her website, https://www.carolsomersille.com.
