|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Press
Releases Packard
Children's News
Children's Fund
Update |
|
One for All
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Hospital's primary service area of San Mateo and Santa Clara counties includes low-income neighborhoods where pediatric and obstetric services are scarce. According to 2002 Census estimates, more than 41,000 children in Santa Clara County and more than 11,000 children in San Mateo County are living in poverty. Almost a quarter of children in Santa Clara County and 12 percent of children in San Mateo County rely on government health insurance, according to a survey by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. Due to Silicon Valley's continuing economic slump, more families are losing employer based health insurance and turning to government sponsored programs.
Unlike many local health clinics, the Hospital accepts all forms of government insurance. Last year Packard treated 11,300 patients covered by Medi-Cal, making up 35 percent of all visits. Since Medi-Cal reimburses only 56 cents on the dollar, the Hospital must cover the shortfall. In fact, Packard Hospital spent more than $65 million in uncompensated care last year alone. For the few children and adolescents who have no insurance coverage, Packard works with families to determine if they qualify for any insurance programs, helps them to enroll, or determines whether they qualify for financial assistance.
"We do not turn away any local child. That has been a fundamental tenet of Packard Hospital since the day we opened the doors," says Dawes.
At Packard, the range of services for local families is expanding. Last summer marked the opening of the Mary L. Johnson Center for Ambulatory Care across from the Hospital on Welch Road. The Center is the hub for Packard's many community outpatient clinics including a primary care clinic that largely serves low-income families. In the specialty care clinics where pediatric pulmonologists, immunologists, and endocrinologists treat diseases such as asthma and juvenile diabetes, patients receive a level of care found nowhere else in the region. This summer, through a partnership with Packard, Stanford Hospital's emergency department will begin offering new pediatric emergency services. The first of its kind in the area, the emergency room will provide a separate waiting room and pediatric experts for young patients needing urgent care.
 |
Packard's network of satellite nurseries brings specialty care to at-risk newbornms throughout the region. |
Not just basic services, but all aspects of Packard's world-class pediatric facility are available to any local child. David Stevenson, M.D., chief of neonatology and director of the Johnson Center for Pregnancy and Newborn Services, explains that underinsured families often need the highest level of care. Studies show lower birth weights, more premature births, and more complications relating to childbirth in lower-income communities.
"There's no question that there are economically disadvantaged families in our immediate backyard," Stevenson says. "Because we're at Stanford University, in Palo Alto, I think a lot of people don't realize that we're not just serving Menlo Park, Atherton, Los Altos Hills, and Los Altos. You look at the care mix in our nurseries; almost half of our kids are from families who have no way to pay for hospital care."
The Johnson Center's influence extends throughout the Bay Area and into neighboring counties through its network of satellite nurseries. Packard operates a neonatal intensive care unit at Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz and special care nurseries at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City, Washington Hospital in Fremont, and as far away as Pleasanton, Salinas, and Watsonville. Mothers and babies are transferred to Packard from 100 hospitals in the region if they need care that isn't provided in their community.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Vital Stats:Number of children living in poverty: Percentage of children who rely on government health insurance: Amount Medi-Cal reimburses Packard for every dollar of care provided: $0.56 Percentage of yearly visits to Packard Children's Hospital from patients covered by Medi-Cal: 35% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
For many underinsured children, the emergency department is the point of entry for medical services. That's a pattern Packard is working to change. The Hospital is increasingly extending its expertise into the community, to deliver services more effectively and prevent problems from reaching the emergency room. Partnerships in the community promote regular access to physicians, and healthy homes, schools, and neighborhoods. This is part of a national trend for hospitals to advocate for children's health, says Candace Roney, executive director of community partnerships.
The largest of the hospital's community collaborations is the busy Ravenswood Family Health Center, which opened in December 2001 in East Palo Alto. From the start, Packard Hospital provided pediatricians, obstetricians, and pediatric nurse practitioners to help care for patients at the clinic. Last year, Packard added another full-time pediatrician, a pediatric social worker, and a part-time adolescent medicine specialist. This summer, Packard is giving one of its mobile health vans to the Health Center to allow the clinic to extend its services into schools and the community.
Through its adolescent health services program, Packard also provides primary health services to homeless and uninsured teens. An estimated 2,000 adolescents are homeless in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties; many have no access to formal health care. A mobile medical clinic, known as the Teen Van, travels to high schools and teen shelters on a regular schedule, caring for homeless adolescents ages 12 to 24. The van is staffed by a Packard doctor, nurse, nutritionist, and social worker. Participants' testimonials and an 86-percent return rate speak to its success in serving as a "medical home" for at-risk youth.
 |
Packard has formed a partnership with Ravenswood Family Health Center to help meet the health care needs of children in East Palo Alto. |
Packard is also at the forefront of another area that touches the lives of low-income children: the fight against obesity. "The obesity epidemic transcends socioeconomic status, but is particularly serious in communities where access to healthy foods and safe places to exercise are problems," Roney says. Packard is leading a number of collaborative efforts to make communities more conducive to healthier nutrition and physical activity.
At Ravenswood Clinic, Packard offers its Pediatric Weight Control Program, free of charge, to families who agree to participate with their children in an intensive, six-month behavioral modification and disease management plan. This proven approach, also offered to the general community through Packard's Center for Healthy Weight, is part of a continuum of treatment services, research projects, and community-based efforts focused on children and adolescents struggling to achieve a healthy weight.
In spring 2004, Packard joined other community organizations to launch Healthy Silicon Valley, which seeks to improve community health by strengthening the ability of children and families to make healthy choices about diet and exercise, and partnered with the Ravenswood City School District and other agencies to form the Get Fit East Palo Alto initiative. The effort promotes and boosts funding to increase access to more healthful food and physical activity opportunities. Representatives from the Hospital also are active members of the Prevention of Childhood Obesity Task Force as part of Healthy Communities San Mateo County.
Just 14 years since the Hospital's opening, Roney says, the scope and depth of Packard's community initiatives are equal to those at more established hospitals. Other services range from helping provide families with medical-legal advocacy, to offering free van rides to families living more than 25 miles from the Hospital without access to reliable transportation.
In addition to Packard's array of community partnerships, the Hospital is working to improve all children’s access to ongoing quality health care by supporting efforts to ensure medical insurance coverage for all area families. Last year Packard pledged $415,400 to the Healthy Kids insurance program, a locally funded insurance plan for children from families who do not have access to quality health care and do not qualify for Medi-Cal or other subsidized programs. The donation covers the premiums for 100 children and teens each in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties for two years. Packard also employs certified insurance enrollers onsite to help families register for these programs.
Most importantly, when a Packard doctor sees a patient, every child is equal. Chief of Staff Harvey Cohen, M.D., Ph.D., explains that the Hospital's policy means he never has to turn away a local child based on a family's ability to pay.
"We do see this as our obligation as a hospital, to be a safety
net for the children in this community," says Cohen. "I think
a lot of hospitals would like to do this," he adds. "With the
support of the community, we've had the resources to do it."
| |||||||||
 |
