News
Sutter Maternity & Surgery Center and Palo Alto Medical Foundation Receive 2009 Champion for Children Award
SANTA CRUZ, Calif., January 30, 2009 - – Sutter Maternity & Surgery Center (SMSC) and the Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF) - Santa Cruz Division have been presented the 2009 Healthy Kids "Champion for Children Award" in recognition of an $800,000 investment in children’s coverage programs and ongoing support since 2003.
County Supervisor John Leopold presented the award to Larry deGhetaldi, M.D., president of the Santa Cruz Division of PAMF. Ali Spickler, field representative for California Assembly Member Bill Monning also presented Dr. deGhetaldi with a certificate of appreciation on behalf of Assembly Member Monning.
Dr. deGhetaldi expressed his thanks to the community and said supporting Healthy Kids was a clear choice for SMSC and PAMF. "Healthy Kids improves the health of local children, reduces missed school days, helps parents be more productive at work, reduces cost and supports a more cost effective system of care," he said.
SMSC and PAMF have donated $575,000 to pay for Healthy Kids premiums since 2004 and $225,000 to subsidize the cost of premiums for low-income families for the Healthy Families program since 2003. PAMF and SMSC will continue to support Healthy Kids and Healthy Families in 2009.
Over the past five years, Healthy Kids has helped cover more than 12,000 individual Santa Cruz County children by launching its new Healthy Kids health plan, as well as by enrolling thousands of children into Medi-Cal and Healthy Families. According to a 2008 study by USC, between 2000 and 2005 Santa Cruz, along with 8 other California counties operating a Healthy Kids program, showed a 25% reduction in preventable hospitalizations per year. Thus 1,050 hospitalizations were prevented annually for asthma, bacterial pneumonia, gastroenteritis, etc, resulting in cost savings of over $7 million per year to the State.
The award was given during the Healthy Kids Coalition's annual celebration event. About 70 business and community leaders, elected officials, health care providers and children’s advocates celebrated the accomplishments of Healthy Kids at the Sesnon House in Aptos.
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About Sutter Health
Serving patients and their families in more than 100 Northern California cities and towns, Sutter Health doctors, hospitals and other health care service providers join resources and share expertise to advance health care quality and access. The Sutter Medical Network includes many of California’s top-performing, highest quality physician organizations as measured annually by the Integrated Healthcare Organization. Sutter-affiliated hospitals are regional leaders in cardiac care, women’s and children’s services, cancer care, orthopedics and advanced patient safety technology. For more information about the not-for-profit Sutter Health family, please visit www.sutterhealth.org.
Palo Alto Medical Foundation Contact
Mark Riley
Marketing
(831) 460-6034 direct
rileym1@pamf.org
Sutter Health Contact
Kami Lloyd
Communications Coordinator
(916) 286-6680 direct
(916) 286-6695 media line
Lloydk@SutterHealth.org