| New Partners for Healthy Kids Mobile Pediatric Van Dedicated |
Posted: June 15, 2000 |
LAWNDALE, CA � A new mobile pediatric van, built to serve the health care needs of South Bay children who have little or no medical insurance, was dedicated today at one of the school sites that the van will visit on a weekly basis.
The new �Partners for Healthy Kids� van, operated by Little Company of Mary, will complement the original van that has been serving South Bay children since 1994.
�The new pediatric vehicle is more comprehensive and complete than the original Partners for Healthy Kids van,� said Jim Tehan, Director of Community Health for Little Company of Mary. �This will allow us to reach out and serve a larger percentage of the tens of thousands of children in the South Bay who need medical attention but whose families are uninsured.�
The new vehicle was purchased through the generous donation of the Crail-Johnson Foundation, a San Pedro-based foundation whose mission is to promote the well-being of children in need.
The dedication of the 38-foot long vehicle, which features the same bright yellow paint and multi-ethnic logo of children�s faces as does the original van, took place at William Anderson Elementary School. The school is one of five campuses that will be visited by the vehicle each week. Among the speakers at the event were Blair Contratto, President and CEO of Little Company of Mary; Eric Johnson, Chairman of the Crail-Johnson Foundation; and Joe Condon, Superintendent of the Lawndale Elementary School District.
Other attendees included Anderson Elementary School�s third grade choir and several families whose children have been seen by the van�s staff of nurses and visiting physicians.
�When my children are sick, the Partners for Healthy Kids staff always cares for them,� said Isabel Muniz, President of the Hawaiian Avenue Elementary School PTA in Wilmington and a mother of four. �The staff is real helpful and very nice.�
Besides being two feet longer than the original van, the new pediatric vehicle will include two full-size and private examination rooms, a nurse�s station, a floor-to-ceiling pantry for medications, four refrigerators for medications and lab specimens, a freezer for vaccines, and a computer that provides access patients� laboratory test results.
Beginning in the fall, the new van will assume the original van�s duties of weekly visits to Los Angeles Unified School District campuses in San Pedro, Gardena, and Wilmington, as well as to Anderson Elementary in the Lawndale Elementary School District. The van will also go to the Richstone Family Center in Hawthorne once a month and the Harbor Interfaith Shelter in San Pedro four times a year.
The original van will continue to be used at health fairs and as a back-up to the new vehicle.
The Partners for Healthy Kids program was started in 1994 through the collaboration of Little Company of Mary and the Crail-Johnson Foundation. The Crail-Johnson Foundation also purchased the original van, and Little Company of Mary is responsible for the operating costs, most of which are raised through generous donations to the foundations at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Torrance and San Pedro Peninsula Hospital.
The Partners for Healthy Kids staff provides health care for children who have no medical insurance or who only have insurance covering medical emergencies. The staff also will see any child with an urgent medical problem.
During the 1998-99 fiscal year, the Partners for Healthy Kids staff examined more than 2,000 patients, with total visits exceeding 3,500. The staff also provided nearly 1,000 immunizations and made more than 500 specialty referrals to clinics and hospitals. |
|
|
