"The 55-year-old burn unit is one of only three centers of its kind between Los Angeles and the Oregon border. It's not at Stanford - but Valley Medical Center, a San Jose hospital that predominantly serves the poor and uninsured. Its doctors treat people across seven counties and from as far south as the central valley. Those suffering life threatening burns - be it a wealthy tech executive or homeless person on the Guadalupe River - are going to the same place."
""We see patients all the way through to recovery. When we have a child burned, we're there to help them re-enter school," Clifford Sheckter, director of VMC's regional burn center, told San José Spotlight. "We just did that with a girl from Contra Costa County. We drove out to her school to let all the kids know their friend from last year looks a little different now.""
Santa Clara County's regional burn center at Valley Medical Center operates in a cramped, 55-year-old unit and is one of only three such centers between Los Angeles and the Oregon border. The center serves patients from seven counties and treats both wealthy and poor individuals, including the uninsured. Staff provide long-term recovery support, including helping burned children re-enter school. Current facilities occupy 4,500 square feet with eight beds; outpatient care is offsite and operating-room access requires multiple-floor travel. A planned eight-to-14-bed expansion would quadruple space, but reliance on Medicaid and looming federal spending cuts could strain capacity and operations despite construction funds being set aside.
Read at San Jose Spotlight
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