In case you missed our Earth Day celebration...

Valley Medical Center did Earth Day 2009 up right with a historic launch of our solar panels...and nearly 1,000 people were on hand for the fiesta.

If you weren't able to attend, below is the next best thing. If your employer blocks videos, send this to your private account and watch from home. A huge thanks to Michael Elliott, VMC Foundation's Director of Program Development and Videography.

Join us Wednesday and MAKE HISTORY!

Hot enough for ya?

This week brings weather warm enough to fry an egg...or help save the planet, in the case of Valley Medical Center.

Join us at 2pm this Wednesday, EARTH DAY, on top of our parking deck for a history-making event: We're activiting our solar panels - 2,288 of them to be exact - and ushering in a new era of efficiency and environmentalism at YOUR public hospital.

Free ice cream, music, VMC Foundation water (in compostable bottles!), and Valley VIP's including Tom Werner, CEO of Sunpower (they make the solar panels). I know I've mentioned this event before, but this will truly be one to tell your grandkids about...

...when they ask you what our generation did to save the earth.

I know I feel pretty darn proud to work for an organization that takes energy conservation seriously. Oh - and it will be FUN, too - hope to see you there!

The chilling cost of budget cuts - life hanging in the balance

When the leadership of Santa Clara County and The Santa Clara Valley Health & Hospital System decided to spend 20 million dollars on
So what does this mean? VMC just expanded its cancer care. With our new Sobrato Cancer Center, we’re serving more people than ever before...we're still hurting, but we're still here.

What if our county leadership hadn’t done this? The results could have been devastating, as it is today in Las Vegas. If you saw 60 Minutes last week, you know what I’m talking about. University Medical Center just closed their cancer clinic due to budget cuts.

It's worth ten minutes to watch this, seriously:
Watch CBS Videos Online

Their patients see it as a death sentence, though many are trying to get area hospitals to take them…and they are searching further and further from Las Vegas. Soon, we expect, some may knock on Valley Medical Center’s door.

And VMC will answer. Thanks, county leadership. Thanks, Deloitte.

Here comes the Sun (Power)!

Earth Day 2009 will be extra-special at Valley Medical Center, and YOU are invited to be a part of it! The 50-second video below provides a sneak preview, but here are the details in print form:

Valley Medical Center invites you to Earth Day 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2pm
Main Parking Garage, top floor, corner of Moorpark and Turner Drive in San Jose



We will be officially powering up our new Solar panels!
Join Silicon Valley VIP's, elected officials, and dedicated staff of your public hospital as we turn on our massive new photovoltaics - the first of their kind in Silicon Valley!

Free ice cream + healthier snacks while they last, music, and the spirit that says "VMC is GOING GREEN!"

Please do join us for this historic day - we'd love to have you there for this celebration. For more info, visit http://www.vmcfoundation.org/ and of course, if your employer blocks YouTube, send this to your private email.

Delicious and deadly...shaking our hypertension

On this Cesar Chavez Day, I thought we’d discuss food: The kind grown in the ground and picked by good people who work much harder than I do.

If I ate more of that kind of food – fresh fruit and veggies – maybe my doctor, Chris Snow, wouldn’t have resigned from VMC last year after taking my blood pressure. There’s no known connection, but still.

I actually do okay with the green leafies, being vegan and all, but the real problem is SALT. I promised Dr. Snow last year that I’d stop dumping the salt shaker over on top of everything I ate, but he explained that wasn’t the main problem…yes friends, the issue is processed foods: Pre-cooked, additive-rich, and pre-packaged. Welcome to the American Diet.

Food from a carton or can or box likely contains tons of salt. All that stuff in the middle isles of the grocery store, and most of the stuff Americans seem to love…it’s all processed. “Oh, but this can of tomato juice is so GOOD for me,” I hear you saying. Check the nutrition facts, and wonder no more why after drinking that can your heart feels like it’s trying to escape from your chest Alien-style.

I’m being cute about it I know, but this is serious: Hypertension kills millions of us every year. Slows some of us down too; my pal Bruce had a heart attack last week. And VMC Foundation major supporter and prominent attorney Richard Alexander just became an evangelist against salt.

You see, Dick Alexander is a big dude like me, and realized he could do more for his health after a no-salt, no sugar retreat he attended. He writes eloquently about why we ALL need to cut back on salt, and you should read it by clicking here.

And then look for me and Dick in the Valley Medical Center cafeteria. We’ll be the guys stealing all the salt shakers…because we “heart” you thiiiiiis much.

Educating nurses...from around the world?

Today was super cool - it began with a visit to Valley Medical Center by a group of 12 nursing students from Japan! That's them, in the photo, along with VMC Foundation staff member Debbie Burdsall, touring through our Spinal Cord Rehabilitation outdoor plaza.

Okay, I'm not the finest photographer on earth. Maybe they all turned their heads at once or something. That's probably it.

Anyway, they said they learned a lot (through their translator), and if only knowing six words of Japanese didn't make me feel inferior enough, I was given a reality jolt when Debbie and I explained our wireless network.

In 2004, the VMC Foundation with help from Ophoenix launched Valley Medical Center's first wireless network for patients and their families. Debbie's job is Technology Champion, helping patients with a wide range of disabilities access the Internet, email, and information. All made possible by our wireless network, of course.

We explained all this to the Japanese nursing students. They were confused. They didn't seem to understand. Then it occured to me: Most of them were from Tokyo. Their whole CITY has been wireless since most of these students were putting puffy stickers on their Hello Kitty lunch boxes. They literally had NO IDEA why what were describing was worth describing.

So another reminder that America is now and then behind the times. Still, our wireless network has been helping patients in major ways for years now, and some hospitals in Silicon Valley don't yet have this technology available in patient rooms, public areas, and everywhere we can offer it. Even if they did, they don't have Debbie...funny how the best technology still depends on a skilled and helpful human being for the best experience.

Our wireless program really is cool, in fact. Want to learn more about how we do it, about Debbie, and how you can help us improve it? Click here, and thanks!

The New VSC...making room, and fast.

Hey Friends, just a quick look at today's news on Valley Medical Center's main campus: The construction zone is in effect!

I took this shot this morning, as the fencing goes up around VMC's old one-story, outdated outpatient building (that's the dark, windowless portion just behind the truck). This facility was emptied earlier this month as all the departments moved to the new Valley Specialty Center. Next step? Bulldozers!

Once this building is gone (soon), we begin building the "NEW" VMC. Want to learn more? email me at echristopher.wilder@hhs.sccgov.org or watch this space.