Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital last evening was presented with a check for   $699,500  in a grant from UnitedHealthcare.  Sierra Nevada Memorial  Hospital Information Systems Director, Mark Freitas says the dollars will  be used to improve and expand the hospital’s eClinical Works program, which is an initiative to expand electronic health records and health information technology systems  for the hospital, doctors, and rural clinics. click to hear Mark Freitas

Left to Right: Grass Valley City Council Member Lisa Swarthout, SNMH Foundation Board President Alison Jones-Pomatto, SNMH Foundation Executive Director Kimberly Parker, SNMH CEO Kathy Medeiros, Nevada County Supervisor Nate Beason, Dr. William Olson of Untied Healthcare.

Freitas says  this new grant will allow the hospital to subsidize 80 additional providers to go paperless and come on-line, a cost that can run as high as $60,000. The grant will also allow the hospital to upgrade infrastructure, servers and disaster recovery systems,  and  expand a private wireless network that already touches 50 providers locally. It will also replace paper transmission  to the skilled nursing facilities in the area so that primary care doctors can review clinical results timely and make rapid medical decisions if necessary.
click to hear Mark Freitas

Left to Right: Nevada County Supervisor Ed Scofield, Nevada County Supervisor Nate Beason, SNMH CEO Kathy Medeiros, SNMH Foundation Board President Alison Jones-Pomatto, SNMH Foundation Executive Director Kimberly Parker, Dr. William Olson of Untied Healthcare, Grass Valley City Council Member Lisa Swarthout, Nevada City Council Member Robert Bergman, Nevada County Executive Office Alison Lehman.

The funding is in addition to a $334,268 grant the organization received from UnitedHealthcare in 2008 that helped the hospital start its health information technology program.
At the Check Presentation Ceremony   last evening, SNMH Foundation Executive Director Kimberly Parker outlined   how much the Hospital Foundation has been able to raise in the past 15 years.
click to hear Kimberly Parker
The hospital foundation recognizes all of the community supporters who have made that fundraising dream come true.