Kaiser Permanente gave a $5 million grant to Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland Tuesday to assist the nonprofit medical center's
ambitious rebuilding and modernization efforts and improve the quality of care it provides to children.

Dr. Bert Lubin, Children's president and chief executive, said he's "extremely grateful" for Kaiser Permanente's generous donation but admitted that it's a only small percentage of the $450 million Children's hopes to raise for its rebuilding work in the next five to ten years.

However, Lubin said he believes that getting a major contribution from Kaiser will spur other organizations to step forward and provide additional donations to the hospital.

Lubin also said that Gregory Adams, president of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan/Hospitals Inc. in Northern California, announced Tuesday that Kaiser could contribute up to another $20 million to Children's over the next four years.

Kaiser will review Children's progress each of the next four years and will consider additional $5 million donations each year, he said.

Children's Oakland has the Bay Area's only Level 1 pediatric trauma center, which means that it provides the highest level of surgical care to trauma patients.

Adams said in a statement, "Our support of Children's is an investment in the safety net and the future of health care."

Adams said, "No single organization can meet all the growing needs in our communities so it is important that business, government, non-profits
and individuals work together to most effectively meet the challenges ahead."

Children's officials said since their hospital's inception in 1912 they've remained committed to delivering specialized health care to all children in the region and beyond, regardless of a family's ability to pay.

Children's officials said that with no public pediatric hospital beds in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, their hospital is the safety net
for both counties, in addition to caring for privately insured patients.

Lubin said Children's biggest challenge is increasing its number of individual patient rooms, as most rooms now have to accommodate two
families on each side of a curtain, meaning that patients and their families don't have much privacy.

It's important to allow privacy because the standard of care now calls for families to stay with children who need treatment, Lubin said.

— Bay City News Service

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