100% Health Insurance Campaign
St. Mary Medical Center has played a leading role in San Bernardino County and the High Desert to organize community entities on the problem of uninsured children. Greater networking and communication has improved the county’s Children’s Health Initiative (CHI) to attract donors to support its efforts of insuring all children.

Approximately 11,500 children in the High Desert do not have health insurance, according to reports from the Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP).   These same data sources indicate that between 60,000 to 90,000 children living in the San Bernardino County are uninsured. Nearly all of these children are eligible for health insurance through state or other low-cost health insurance programs if they can be enrolled.  Reaching these children and their parents remains a challenge.

Over the past two years, St. Mary Medical Center has championed a 100% Campaign across the High Desert. With funding from the St. Joseph Health System Foundation and St. Mary Medical Center, staff led the creation of a Children’s Health Initiative Collaborative. This has included working with schools and churches to reach uninsured families and assist with enrolling their children into free or low-cost insurance programs.  In many cases school and church staff are being trained and certified to enroll children into health insurance.

St. Mary Medical Center and Yucca Loma Elementary School personnel worked together to identify students who lack health insurance.  The campaign successfully confirmed that up to 98% of the 600 students were enrolled in health insurance.  In June 2008, the Governor of California recognized the hospital and school for their outstanding work.

St. Mary continues working on 100% Health Insurance Campaigns with school districts in the communities of Adelanto, Apple Valley and Hesperia.   Additionally, hospital employees are also undertaking enrollment efforts in partnership with local churches, where they train parishioners to enroll children attending school and religious studies.

Major funders for the Children’s Health Initiative include an annual grant of $1million to fund young children’s health insurance premiums by the County’s First Five Commission.  Additionally, the St. Joseph Health System Foundation and Kaiser Permanente each have provided $75,000 to assist with building organizational capacity, grant writing, enrollment and advocacy.  These funds have enabled matching grants to be secured from the Blue Shield Foundation for additional insurance premiums.

Funders: St. Joseph Health System Foundation,  St. Mary Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente - Fontana, The California Endowment, Blue Shield Foundation, The First Five Commission of San Bernardino County, Inland Empire Health Plan   Top

Improving Access to Health Care Services
Access to quality healthcare remains a challenge in the Victor Valley.  It is estimated
that nearly 35% of the approximately 400,000 residents who reside in this region of San Bernardino County incur problems accessing health services due to a lack of transportation, financial resources or health insurance. For more than 10 years, St. Mary Medical Center has operated the High Desert’s only community clinics and mobile medical programs dedicated to serving at-risk populations – some in rural communities where investment in health services has been minimal.

In the past three years St. Mary’s Community Health Department has opened two new clinics – a larger facility in Apple Valley open six days a week along with a clinic serving residents in the City of Hesperia.  Additionally, the department has expanded its clinic in the rural community of Adelanto while also purchasing a new mobile medical van which is on the road five to six days a week.  These expanded health services represent the hospital’s commitment to serving a region that, up until recently, has been one of the fastest growing in California.  Not surprisingly, the medical center’s community health programs assisted more than 35,000 patients last year - a 40% increase from the previous year. 

A remarkable accomplishment for the hospital’s community clinic is the quality of care they provide uninsured patients.  For several years running, the clinics have served at-risk patients who are battling multiple challenges including poverty, unemployment and no health insurance and provided them care that meets US Department of Health and Human Services Healthy People 2010 goals regarding cesarean section, pre-term delivery and low birth-weight rate.  In 2008 the hospital’s clinic practice continued to meet many of these goals including a Primary C/Section rate of only 10.4% a pre-term delivery rate of 8.9% and a low birth rate of only 2.9%.  Helping patients avoid misusing health services offsets the country’s rising healthcare costs.  In 2008, the clinics cared for over 200 uninsured adults who self-reported had these health services not been available, they would have sought care at a hospital emergency department.  With an average hospital emergency department bill of $1,500 and medical bankruptcy a leading cause of consumer debt, utilization of community clinics provides the community quality care that is easily accessible at low cost.

Expanding the programs of the medical center’s Community Health Department would not be possible without the financial support of key partners.  The County of San Bernardino’s First Five Commission has provided grants totaling more than $1 million to operate the High Desert’s only hospital/clinic based family resource center.  In FY2008, the family resource center with its midwifery program served nearly 18,000 patients. Patients requiring a broad range of education and counseling are provided services in-house or referred to community partners for a higher level of care.  Additionally, the county’s Public Health Department provides funding each year for cancer detection screening programs conducted at the medical center’s community clinics and mobile van. 

In FY2008, over 170 uninsured women accessed cancer screening services with the average turn around time from diagnosis to completed referral being 29 days.  Yearly, the Public Health Department provides nearly $48,000 for child immunizations.  The clinics also receive approximately $300,000 per year from the Prenatal Service Network of Loma Linda for lactation services. Additional funding from St. Joseph Health System Foundation secured the purchase of a new mobile medical van with upgraded medical equipment and computer systems.  The clinic continues to upgrade its equipment and IT systems allowing for better care and more effective patient care.  One example is using wireless laptop computers to enroll uninsured children into state provided health insurance programs like Medi-Cal and Healthy Families.

New health programs were also added to the clinics along with expanded hours and service areas.  According to recent health investigations conducted by the hospital, nearly 20% of residents self-rated their own health status as fair or poor. Given the growing problem of caring for uninsured adults needing care, the community clinic is looking to serve up to 600 uninsured adults in FY2009. Finally, the clinic practice is addressing the national crisis of diabetes and childhood obesity.   Care programs are being developed to assist families living with these chronic conditions. Along with partners at school clinics, children are being measured for their body mass index as part of a developing a comprehensive childhood obesity program.   Top