Mountain View, CA – When the board members of the El Camino Healthcare District met in July to award nearly $8 million in grants for the coming year, they knew one of the largest recipients would be the Ravenswood Family Health Network.
"We are supporting Ravenswood’s clinics with one of our largest Community Benefit grants for its critical role in providing medical care for those with inadequate or no insurance," said George Ting, M.D., chair of the El Camino Healthcare District Board of Directors. "Providing access to timely care is crucial to reducing visits to emergency rooms and admissions to the hospital that are avoidable. We believe we can help our community be as healthy as possible by removing barriers to getting care when it is needed. With our support, Ravenswood’s clinics will be better able to do that as a strong healthcare partner to El Camino Health."
Ravenswood operates two clinics within the district’s boundaries, in Mountain View and Sunnyvale. Both known by the name MayView Community Health Center, these provide a wide range of health care services, including routine primary care and screenings, integrated behavioral health services, child wellness exams, chronic disease management, prenatal and postpartum care, lab and oral health services.
Clinics like those operated by Ravenswood are part of a health care safety net, which is important because it provides affordable and accessible health care to people who are uninsured or have limited health insurance. Ravenswood cares for more than 21,500 patients, 6,952 of whom live within the El Camino Healthcare District. Seventy-one percent of Ravenswood patients who reside in the district are considered low-income and 70 percent are enrolled in public health coverage programs. Another 17 percent are uninsured.
"We want patients to have coverage as well as access to comprehensive primary care, and those are very different things," said Gralyn Jacques, CEO of Ravenswood. "You can give someone an insurance card, but that doesn’t mean they can get care. Our goal is to make sure they can get whatever care they need, while also improving the overall health of those in our community by providing the full spectrum of health care regardless of a patient’s ability to pay or immigration status."
All El Camino Healthcare District resident patients can receive care at any of Ravenswood's locations. The $1.25 million grant from the healthcare district helps cover the cost of a 10-person medical team at the MayView Mountain View and Sunnyvale clinics, including physicians, a nurse practitioner, medical assistants, a dentist and support staff. Ravenswood projects that through the grant, it will be able to serve 2,200 district residents a year.
For more information about Ravenswood Family Health Network or to donate, visit www.ravenswoodfhn.org.
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The El Camino Hospital District was established by voter approval in 1956 in accordance with California Local Hospital District Law. The purpose of the district is to establish, maintain and operate or provide assistance in the operation of health facilities and other health care services, provider groups and organizations that are necessary for the maintenance of good physical and mental health in the communities served by the district. The district, now known as El Camino Healthcare District, encompasses most of Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, a large portion of Sunnyvale, and small sections of Cupertino, Santa Clara, and Palo Alto. The publicly elected El Camino Healthcare District Board of Directors approves tax dollar expenditures, including expenditures for the award-winning Community Benefit program. Community Benefit funds are granted each year to local nonprofits, schools and government programs that provide critical health services to the underserved. All district board meetings are publicly noticed, open to the public, and available for viewing on the district website.