Hope and High Water [working title]

The phrase “ America’s health care crisis” is now a familiar refrain. It has been spoken by politicians, news anchors, filmmakers, activists and just about anyone discussing the state of health care in America. More often than not the discussion of health care focuses on what is wrong with the system.

Highland will give this reality – which threatens to become cliché – greater context by thrusting viewers into the world of Highland Hospital CEO Wright Lassiter. With complete access to the hospital and its staff, the filmmakers will follow Mr. Lassiter as he struggles to run a complex yet vital institution in the face of daunting systemic and political challenges. Lassiter is the latest in a string of CEOs that have taken the helm at Highland. At one point Highland had eight CEOs over the period of ten years and three different CEOs in the span of one day. In 1999 CEO Mike Smart, who had served since 1995, left the job, citing stress as his main reason for leaving.

Unlike the most recent documentaries about health care, Highland will focus on the story of one man and his quest to achieve both personal and professional goals. Surrounding Mr. Lassiter is a collection of young administrators, many of them African-American, whose drive and talents are evident. But it raises an intriguing question: are talent, drive and ideas enough to achieve the goal of elevating Highland into the realm of hospital’s like Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins?

Highland will be a film less about the consequences of our health care policy in America and more about the story of one man attempting to rebuild a struggling public institution into one of the best hospitals in the country.

Over a period of two months the filmmakers will follow Mr. Lassiter as he attends to the business of the hospital. The cameras will capture his attempt to meet a specific goal. Along the way, the audience will get a rare glimpse into how a hospital is really run and the challenges it faces on a daily basis.

Bolstering this story is the remarkable backdrop of one of the busiest and dramatic trauma centers in the country. Highland is located in Oakland, CA in a working class neighborhood blighted by poverty and crime. It is a cross between and war zone and third world hospital. On any given Friday night gun young shooting victims will take their turn along side patients with an array of often exotic and advanced-stage disease. Because of this robust and challenging environment, Highland is able to attract and retain some of the nation’s best young doctors.

The story of Mr. Lassiter’s fight to rebuild the hospital is also the story of the hospital’s diverse collection of patients, many of whom lack health insurance. Highland, along with its sister facilities Fairmont hospital and John George Psychiatric Pavilion, is the safety net for the uninsured and underinsured in the Bay Area’s Alameda county. If you are sick and do not have insurance you can go to Highland and be seen.

Part of what complicates Mr. Lassiter’s job is the state of our poor communities. Simply stated they are not taking care of themselves. They do not just wait until they are sick to show up at the hospital. They wait until they are very sick.