Community Benefit = Access to Care
Increased availability of care improves community health
Sometimes doctors, like parents, “sign on” for 18 years of child rearing, but for someone else’s baby.
Imagine a pregnant woman who finds herself in the criminal justice system for self-destructive behavior. Without intervention, the chances are very real that her baby’s health will be compromised and there will be immeasurable social costs to be borne by our community.
Local physicians make an 18-year commitment to be available to about 20 of these children every year through a unique partnership between the Santa Cruz County Health and Human Services Department, Sutter Maternity and Surgery Center and the Santa Cruz Medical Clinic.
“We’ve made a commitment to the community with a program called Access to Care that allows us to be responsive to the community’s healthcare changing needs,” said Sutter Santa Cruz CEO Larry deGhetaldi, M.D. “This program is one of the best examples of how a partnership between caregivers and local government works for the community.”
“We offer state-of-the-art maternity services to 800 mothers a year at a hospital with patient satisfaction scores in the 99th percentile nationwide. Our County OB patients account for approximately 20 of those births. Our physicians, the hospital and county pool resources to provide them with the medical care they need. “
“Twenty is a small number of individuals, but over 18 years, this investment in the well-being of the community results in significant savings to society,” Dr. deGhetaldi explained, noting that quality of life is improved for these children and those connected to them throughout life.
The agreement with Santa Cruz County calls for a contribution of dollars and services to indigents and those without insurance each year in an amount equal to seven per cent of the hospital’s net operating expenses.
An example is the donation of $25,000 every year to enroll 100 eligible families in Healthy Families, a state-sponsored insurance program for low-income children. Other community benefit activities include prenatal care, cash or in-kind donations to health-related organizations, health education classes, free health screenings and a physician relocation program for specific specialists.
“A focus on community needs encourages innovation,” Dr. deGhetaldi said. Many activities are low profile but reap future dividends. Community involvement is as variable as volunteering as team physician for local sports teams, serving on non-profit boards, lecturing in schools and removing tattoos. For example, dermatologists James Beckett, M.D., Peggy Albrecht, M.D. and Leonard Moore, M.D., provided sun safety education and skin cancer screening to nearly 3,000 junior and senior lifeguards, surfers and others in 2002.
Together with unpaid costs of government programs (services to Medicare and Medi-Cal insured people for which reimbursement is less than the cost of providing care), the three Sutter Santa Cruz entities contributed nearly $6,000,000 in community benefit activities in 2002.
Availability of care, better health and savings to society are community benefits. Providing such community benefits is encompassed in the mission of the foundation, hospital and Visiting Nurse Association of Santa Cruz County (VNA), the three not-for-profit Sutter Santa Cruz entities. In fact, they share the same mission statement:
“We enhance the health and well-being of people in the communities we serve through a not-for-profit commitment to compassion and excellence in health care services.”
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