The CEO of CHOMP takes the temperature of the local health care landscape.

With the dramatically shifting landscape of health care insurance coverage for many Americans, it would be tempting to simply state the obvious: More coverage for more people equals more business for hospitals.

Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula has seen an uptick in visits at all of our facilities. In Monterey County, 37,000 additional residents obtained insurance coverage through expanded Medi-Cal eligibility under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). We saw nearly a 50-percent increase in the number of Medi-Cal patients needing hospitalization in 2014; many had no means of paying for care before.

Beyond more patients, there is something bigger to consider, something we at Community Hospital have focused on for nearly a decade – an opportunity to promote better health for every person in Monterey County.

Improved health care coverage means, theoretically, more people can access preventive care and reduce the number of acute/emergency visits to our hospital. A new paradigm in health care calls for a focus on well care vs. sick care and a commitment to keeping people out of the hospital whenever possible. In health care circles, it’s called “The Triple Aim” – better care, better health, lower costs.

At Community Hospital, we have been pursuing these goals. We are committed to improving lives by inspiring and helping all to achieve optimal health. We have developed a number of initiatives to help achieve this vision.

In 2011, we opened the now near-capacity Peninsula Wellness Center in Marina, a 34,000-square-foot medical fitness facility. In early 2012, we introduced Community Health Innovations (CHI), a subsidiary partnering with other providers to coordinate patient care, promote wellness and manage disease. Also in 2012, we added Aspire Health, a Medicare Advantage health plan to give seniors a local option for coordinated, customized care.

A year later we focused our attention inside the hospital to develop something not available anywhere on the Peninsula – an inpatient rehabilitation unit with a focus on quickly returning patients to their best possible quality of life following major illness or injury.

In 2014, we expanded Peninsula Primary Care to add a number of other medical specialties – cardiology, neurology, urology and infectious disease.

The ACA is not a panacea for challenges we will face in 2015. Ensuring there will be enough doctors to meet the demands of an aging population and an influx of newly insured patients remains daunting. Managing costs in an era of increasingly sophisticated and expensive medical technologies requires vigilance. And we must address our community’s health care needs while complying with ever-growing government regulations and unfunded mandates.

Our resolve is steadfast – to provide safe and reliable care based on prevention, wellness and, above all, an emphasis on optimal health.

STEVEN PACKER, MD, is president and CEO of CHOMP.