Greetings From Dr. David Druker, PAMF President and CEO -- March 2005

From the beginning of this project, the Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF) has made a commitment to be out in the community talking to people about their health care concerns and how PAMF might help address them. As a health care provider, we believe it is essential to have relationships with, and knowledge of, the communities we serve in order to provide the high quality of care for which PAMF is known.

As part of this effort, we recently commissioned opinion research firm Evans/McDonough to conduct a quantitative poll of 500 randomly selected registered voters in San Carlos. The poll found that there is overwhelming support for our new state-of-the-art hospital and medical center. Nearly 80 percent of poll responders expressed support for our efforts to join other hospitals in San Mateo County in providing healthy choices that will meet the long-term health care needs of the community.

The poll also found that several health care services that will be provided at PAMF's San Carlos Center were identified as top priorities by poll responders, including access to emergency and urgent care and enhanced access to personal physicians.

Beyond health care, the poll indicated that voters in San Carlos generally feel very satisfied with the direction of the city and are confident in the elected officials leading the community. While no one issue emerged as an overwhelming problem in San Carlos, poll responders did identify a few issues as areas of concern, including funding for education, lack of affordable housing and management of increased traffic.

We were not surprised to hear that education, as it is many communities, is an important issue in San Carlos. It is also an important issue for PAMF. As part of our community outreach efforts, PAMF is proud to collaborate with school health programs to bring health education to students of all ages in communities in which we are a part, and San Carlos is no exception.

PAMF recently met with the San Carlos Educational Foundation (SCEF) to learn more about how we can help support that organization's goals of sustaining and supplementing educational programs for public school children in San Carlos. During the meeting, SCEF representatives identified several issues that are critical to ensuring students continue to receive a quality education in San Carlos schools.

After several productive discussions, PAMF has formed a partnership with SCEF to promote the health and well-being of children in the San Carlos School District. (For more details about this partnership, please see article below.) This is but one example of our commitment to work with San Carlos residents, businesses and organizations to address important needs in the community.

We look forward to continuing our outreach efforts in the community throughout the year and providing updates on our progress toward construction of the San Carlos Center. Your support will continue to play an important role in the success of this project, and we encourage you to share your questions and feedback with us.

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