How one VMC Foundation program is being affected by Healthcare Reform

If you have been following VMC in the news or on any of our blogs, you know by now we’re busier than we ever have been. Over the last 10 years, the patient demand for services all throughout our health and hospital system has doubled. Next year, because of healthcare reform, we estimate that an additional 50,000 more patients will utilize the services provided by VMC. Here is one way the VMC Foundation is feeling this patient increase: we have distributed 4,200 more books to children in our outpatient clinics in 2010 than we did during the same time last year. Just take a look at the graph below.

Reach Out and Read is a program run by every pediatrician in the hospital system. When children visit the doctor for their regularly scheduled well-child visit, their Pediatrician introduces them to a culturally and developmentally appropriate book to take home. As the child interacts with the book, parents are coached on the importance of reading with their child every day and different read aloud techniques. 12,000 of the 50,000 new patients VMC will see next year will be children that will benefit from Reach Out and Read. That represents nearly a $30,000 projected increase in program cost for the next calendar year.

Every child who visits a physician at a Valley Health Center clinic deserves to receive literacy coaching and a book each time they see their Primary Care Physician. We are actively seeking out additional grants and funding sources to ensure that this happens. But a little goes a long way in the Reach Out and Read, and we are hoping you can help. A $40 donation will sponsor one child’s entire ROR book library. Will you help us maintain the imapact of the this program?

For more information on how you can help, or to make a donation to Reach Out and Read, please contact Andy Groggel at 408-282-2687 or email him.