Sunday's Mercury News: Telling the story of VMC

Today's Mercury News has done it, yet again. The alert reader of this blog is used to seeing us point out that the Newspaper of Silicon Valley does us proud...seems like every week there's at least one feature on why WE ALL NEED VALLEY MEDICAL CENTER.

How about two at once? First, today's lead editorial describing the crisis of Santa Clara County having so few hospital beds...and how much worse it could get. The Merc reminds us how we "lost San Jose Medical Center's 302 beds in 2004, when the corporate owner realized it could not afford to rebuild or retrofit the facility to meet state seismic standards. If Los Gatos Community Hospital's 143 beds disappear next spring, the shortage during a disaster could be serious."

They go on to describe the $840M bond measure to bring VMC to seismic compliance - Measure A, of course. Read the whole thing here - it's an excellent editorial.

Second, a super front page story on childhood obesity, and how the family unit is the key to kids eating healthy. Kudos to Dr. Dan Delgado and his Pediatric Healthy Lifestyle Center, funded in part by the VMC Foundation and our generous donors like the Myra Reinhard Family Foundation, Kaiser, and others. Check it out here...it's a reminder that VMC is not just about making you well when you're sick: It's about keeping you healthy in the first place.

And keeping VMC here, open, with all 524 licenced beds intact, is crucial for the health of Silicon Valley. Spread the word!