The only thing you should read today

I spent a day last week with the leaders of Ventura County Medical Center.  Not surprisingly, they are just as proud of their services as we are here in Santa Clara County—and they should be; from what I learned, Ventura County Medical Center is a jewel for their community…just like VMC!

They like to talk about “The Onlys” a lot. That’s their list of things that ONLY their medical center is and does. Theirs is a long list of “onlys”, and got me thinking about trying to compile our own list.

Of course, Valley Medical Center is known as the ONLY hospital in Santa Clara County that serves anyone, regardless of ability to pay. But as the alert reader of this blog knows, we also offer “onlys” that would have you choosing us even if you had platinum private insurance and a zillion bucks in the bank.

Here, in no particular order, are some of our “onlys”:

• VMC is the only stand-alone pediatric intensive care unit in San Jose.
• VMC runs the only Burn Trauma Center in the Bay Area (one of only two in the state north of L.A.)
• VMC is the only medical center in Silicon Valley that’s existed longer than 130 years.
• VMC is home to the only sexual assault response team in the county.
• VMC houses the only Mother’s Milk Bank in California.
• VMC is the only top-level trauma center in San Jose. It also serves Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Benito Counties…none of which have trauma centers.
• VMC provides the only brain/spinal cord injury rehabilitation inpatient service in the county.
• VMC has the only Rehab Trauma Center in California.
• VMC runs the only regenerative medicine institute in Silicon Valley.
• VMC offers the only emergency acute psychiatric service in the county.
• VMC is the only county hospital in the state with a genetics department.

…that last bullet I think is true – trouble is, “onlys” are hard to capture because there’s not usually some state-wide agency that keeps track of things like how many public hospitals have playgrounds on the roof (VMC does, and maybe we’re the only one).

What other “onlys” am I missing? Help me add to this list!