We have often imagined what the conversations between the five founding mothers of Valley Children’s Hospital must have been like in 1948. They saw a need -- that the children of this Valley deserved their own hospital built just to take care of them. They knew it would take time, resources and patience, and they mustered all three of those. They had many people saying the idea was too big for this small group or too big for the times. But they persevered.
There is no doubt that now, 70 years later, our Valley, our communities and the hundreds of thousands of kids who have passed through our doors are better for it.
Valley Children’s Healthcare recently announced the most recent endowment to be funded by the 15 Guilds of our organization, a $5 million commitment to establish the Guilds Center for Community Health. Since their inception, the Guilds of Valley Children’s have raised more than $30 million dollars on behalf of this hospital and the kids we serve. Their work has always been bold, visionary and transformational.
This Center is the first of its kind in our Valley and we join a short list of children’s hospitals across the country in this work.
Our founding mothers might be amazed at the expanse of our network, starting at the corner of Shields and Millbrook in Fresno to a 12-county service area and caring for kids from 30 states, and the incredible capabilities of our physicians and staff, along with the sophistication of our technology.
At the cutting edge of technology, our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit physicians, nurses and genetic counselors are part of a Rapid Whole Genome Sequencing initiative with Rady Children’s in San Diego. This extraordinary capability has allowed us to shorten the path from diagnosis to treatment for critically ill newborns, resulting in care that is more effective and easing the burdens on families caring for these very sick children.
On the other end of cracking the genetic codes for rare diseases, Valley Children’s finds ourselves faced with the chance to transform the health of kids through their zip codes, both literally and figuratively.
The Guilds Center for Community Health will allow Valley Children’s to reaffirm our commitment to kids’ health not just here in the hospital, but also in the places where they live, learn and play.
Research suggests that our health is influenced 20% by the clinical care we receive and 80% by the factors outside our four walls: zip codes, educational status, access to clean drinking water, adequate food and safe places to play.
The Guilds Center for Community Health will serve as our organization’s centerpiece to align the important community work we are doing now and the transformational work that will emerge going forward.
Think for a moment the impact we might have…
If we can expand access to healthy food to the children and families we screened in our Merced pediatric practice who reported not having enough to eat?
If we can help kids who struggle with asthma to miss fewer days of school through improved support for school nurses?
If we can help pediatricians whose patients -- in for a regular check-up but that exhibit signs of depression -- can get immediate help through telepsychiatry?
If we can give kids with autism the chance to access our community resources like the Chaffee Zoo through expansion of our George’s Pass program?
If we can lead collaborations and partner with others to address our most intractable problems such as infant mortality, health inequities, lack of safe places to play in neighborhoods and clean drinking water?
These and more is the promise we are making to the kids of this Valley through the work of the Center. It will take time to realize its true impact but the needs are not lessening and the health challenges facing our Valley’s kids are not diminishing. But just as our five founding mothers must have said to themselves some 70 years ago, we can do this work. We must do this work.
Our kids are counting on us.
by Todd Suntrapak, President and CEO, Valley Children’s Healthcare