Let's end the week on a POSITIVE note!

I have two bits of great news for you: First, we were visited by our friend and community champion Dick Levy yesterday. Dr. Levy is the Chairman of Varian Medical Systems, and he and his wife Susan have become two of Silicon Valley's true heroes in philanthropy.

Continuing his support for VMC, the Levys gave $250,000 yesterday to our effort to bring Digital Mammography to our hospital and clinics. This will be a HUGE benefit to our patients, decrease waiting times, increase speed of diagnosis, and further VMC's mission to provide the finest care with the best technology. THANK YOU, Susan and Dick...learn more about them and some of our other strong supporters here.

Next, Valley Medical Center has been named one of the top places for nurses to train...by the nurses themselves! The following article in the San Francisco Business Times hints at why the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation are working with us to achieve Magnet Status, the highest level of nursing designation in the country.

How many public hospitals have ever applied for Magnet designation? Just one. VMC!

Read on, forgiving the error (they call us Santa Clara County Medical Center) and click here for the full article:

Bay Area RNs and nursing students are watching the local market vigilantly, and are apt to aim for jobs at sought-after spots like Kaiser Permanente hospitals, UCSF Medical Center, Mills-Peninsula Health Services (part of Sutter Health) and Santa Clara County Medical Center, according to a survey done this spring.

Surveys of 220 Bay Area nursing students and 225 experienced RNs by San Francisco's Health Workforce Solutions LLC identified those organizations as favored job sites, with Kaiser, UCSF and Santa Clara County med center landing at the top of experienced nurses' lists. Surveyed students came from the College of San Mateo, Los Medanos College, Samuel Merritt, Santa Rosa Junior College and UCSF.