Sutter Health Supports Red Cross Disaster Relief Efforts


September 14, 2001

SACRAMENTO, CA — The 26 not-for-profit hospitals and five physician organizations that comprise the Sutter Health provider network today collectively contributed $300,000 to the American Red Cross New York Emergency Relief Fund.

"Although we have traditionally focused our resources on improving the health of Northern Californians, the terrorist attacks on the East Coast remind us that we are part of a larger community, and that community is hurting," said Sutter Health President and CEO Van R. Johnson. "I know I speak for our caregivers in saluting the individuals and organizations like the Red Cross that are tending to those in need in New York, Pennsylvania and the nation's capital. Our hearts and prayers go out to the families who have been so deeply impacted by this tragedy."

Staff from throughout the Sutter Health network are providing services and support in a variety of ways. At lease two nurses from Alta Bates Summit Medical Center have been called to duty on the emergency response team, and a social worker from Mills-Peninsula Health Services is on-call. Hundreds of employees have donated blood and others have helped set up Red Cross donation centers. Additional blood drives are also being scheduled at some of the hospitals. Staff from the Sutter VNA and Hospice also offered their bereavement counseling services to various local Red Cross agencies.

One of the nation's leading not-for-profit networks of community-based health care services, Sutter Health serves more than 100 Northern California communities, from the Oregon border to the San Joaquin Valley, and from the Pacific coast to the Sierra foothills.

Sutter medical centers care for more inpatients than any other network in Northern California, and are the regional leaders in infant deliveries, neonatology, orthopedics, pediatrics and cancer care services. Sutter Health supports more than two dozen acute care hospitals; physician training programs, medical research facilities, region-wide home health, hospice and occupational health networks; and long term care centers. Sutter's hospitals and care centers have relationships with approximately 5,000 physicians and employ more than 30,000 people.