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Los Nietos is a community bordering Whittier and Santa Fe Springs which has been identified by the staff of Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital (a major regional hospital now known as PIH Health) as having the lowest rates of vaccination in our area. PIH Health has joined with the Los Nietos School District to address these and other health needs of this low income community. The Los Nietos School District is composed of three elementary and one middle school with an enrollment of 2,100, 85% of which is Latino. Over 40% of the students are English Language Learners and 99.7% are eligible for free or reduced price meals.
Funds will be used to provide the mobile health service of PIH, Careforce One, for a day to make stops at each of the schools to provide vaccinations to students who have not been vaccinated and adults needing such service and to make other health interventions as appropriate. Careforce One is staffed by a nurse practitioner, an EMT and other support technicians. The cost of mobilizing Careforce One with its staff for a day is $3,000 which will be paid to PIH Health by the Whittier Sunrise Rotary Club.
Club members provide logistic support to the mobile health service van during the day and distribute vaccination and other health information to parents as they drop off and pick up their children. Rotarians will also work with hospital and school staff to plan the day's activities and other efforts at community outreach drawing on some of the materials and expertise of Rotary in the Polio immunization campaign. This will be the second year of this program. A letter recognizing our participation last year and pictures of club members with Careforce One are part of our documentation.
School visits in the coming year will be in April or May of 2015 and planning meetings will begin in early fall once school staff have gotten the new academic year underway
Addendum to Project Description (added after the project was signed)
As the photos of our participation indicate, we are careful to wear our Rotary shirts when assisting with this project. We will also see that our local newspaper is sent a press release about this activity and that our participation is noted in internal PIH newsletters.
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