FOR GENERAL RELEASE:
May 28, 2002

MEDIA CONTACT:
Matt Schenone
Santa Clara Family Health Plan
(408) 885-4161

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Santa Clara Valley Health & Hospital System Wins National
Award for its Role in the Children’s Health Initiative

SSAN JOSE, CA – At its annual conference in June, the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems (NAPH) will present its 2002 NAPH Community and Patient Service Award to the Santa Clara Valley Health & Hospital System.

The award recognizes the successful role the Santa Clara Valley Health & Hospital System has played in developing and implementing - in collaboration with its community partners - the Children’s Health Initiative (CHI). CHI is a sweeping effort to provide comprehensive healthcare coverage to the children in Santa Clara County who are uninsured. When the program was launched in January 2002, an estimated 71,000 children in Santa Clara County did not have healthcare coverage. Since then, applications for 34,261 children have been processed by CHI.

NAPH’s awards committee singled out the efforts of Robert Sillen, Executive Director of the Santa Clara Valley Health & Hospital System, and two of his colleagues, Robin Roche, Director of Ambulatory & Community Health Services, and Margo Maida, Director of Community Outreach Services, for the their leadership in planning and launching CHI. A key component of CHI is a vigorous outreach program under the direction of Roche and Maida.

"From its inception, the Children’s Health Initiative has been a joint venture involving community partners," Sillen said. "This award recognizes the hard work of our outreach workers. But is also reflects the vision and courage of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors and the commitment of a community that has made healthcare for children a high priority."

"Our strategy from the beginning has been to ensure that every child that qualifies for health insurance receives access to medical, dental and vision care," Roche added.

Santa Clara Valley Health & Hospital System outreach workers help families complete CHI applications at clinics and other strategic locations throughout the community. The outreach efforts have been supported with targeted marketing and educational campaigns.

One of the cornerstones of CHI is the Healthy Kids program, which uses revenue from the tobacco lawsuit settlement, tobacco taxes, foundation support and other public and private sources to fund health insurance for children. The Healthy Kids program, the first of its kind in the nation, secures healthcare coverage for low-income children who do not qualify for the state’s Medi-Cal or Healthy Families programs, both of which are also promoted under the aegis of CHI.

"Our ultimate goal is to get children enrolled into one of these three programs as quickly as possible, so they can begin accessing high-quality healthcare," Maida said.

NAPH Executive Director Christine Capito Burch in a letter announcing this year’s winners, stated, "Your program was highly regarded by the awards committee, and we are pleased that the committee selected this important program as the winner in its category,"

The 2002 NAPH Community and Patient Service Award will be officially presented to representatives of the Santa Clara Valley Health & Hospital System during an awards luncheon at the Rancho Bernardo Inn in San Diego on Friday, June 21.

For more information about CHI, visit its Web site at: www.CHIkids.org

For more information about NAPH, visit its Web site at: www.NAPH.org.

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