Your gifts to Montage Health Foundation make measurable differences in Montage Health’s ability
to improve the health of our community. Here are a few ways your donations are making an impact.
Access to Healthcare
Access to healthcare means a lot more than being able to see a doctor — though that’s part of it. With donor support, Montage Health Foundation provides grants to Community Hospital to educate nursing students, provide special training for nurses joining the Emergency department, and for care for people who can’t afford it. To help ensure community members can see a doctor when they need one, the foundation has an initiative to recruit and retain the best and brightest doctors for Montage Medical Group and Community Hospital.
Ohana
After a nationwide search in 2018, we welcomed Susan Swick, MD, MPH, as physician in chief of Ohana, our mental health program for children and young people. Swick, an innovator in the field of child and adolescent behavioral health, will lead this transformational program, supported by a $105.8-million gift from Bertie Bialek Elliott. Swick is a clinical psychiatrist who completed her training at Columbia University and Harvard Medical School. After joining Montage Health in October, she began meeting community leaders and clinicians and making plans for Ohana, a program of Community Hospital.
Women’s Health
Women historically put others first when it comes to healthcare. With your help, we are planning a Montage Health women’s health initiative, focused on the needs and interests of women of all ages and circumstances, from adolescence to child-bearing years to menopause to end of life. We are talking to women in the community to help us identify the biggest needs. We are also planning a new Carol Hatton Breast Care Center at Ryan Ranch, with groundbreaking expected in fall 2019.
Community Health
Montage Health Foundation supports Montage Health’s work to improve the community’s health in many other ways, including:
❙ The Mobile Health Clinic, caring for those experiencing homelessness and other underserved residents, now has six stops
to provide healthcare in locations where individuals can most easily access it
❙ Opioid-related deaths in Monterey County continue to fall, thanks in large part to the efforts of the Monterey County
Prescribe Safe Initiative, a collaboration led by Montage Health and Drs. Reb Close and Casey Grover of Community Hospital’s
Emergency department. Monterey County now has the third-lowest rate of opioid deaths among California counties
❙ Kids Eat Right, Community Hospital’s free, hands-on nutrition program for students, is going to 4th-grade classes all over
Monterey County to teach better exercise and eating habits
GENERAL NEEDS
Donors to Montage Health Foundation’s general needs fund have helped bring innovative technology to Community Hospital to treat patients with irregular heartbeats, advance the microbiology capabilities in the hospital’s lab, provide heart-starting Automated External Defibrillators (AED) to schools and organizations throughout Monterey County, and much more. These funds help Montage Health stay at the forefront of healthcare and enable our clinical experts to realize opportunities to advance what they do. General funds are also critical to meet the unexpected needs and opportunities that arise for every nonprofit organization.