Medication for Children: A Pediatrician’s Thoughts

March 22, 2012

Do you feel uncertain about giving your children medicine? According to Kellen Glinder, M.D., a Palo Alto Medical Foundation pediatrician at PAMF’s Palo Alto Center, one of the most common questions he hears from parents is, “Should I really give that medication to my child?”

In this video, Dr. Glinder, speaks about the importance of caring for children, especially when they are in pain. “Sometimes kids are so stoic, that by the time we actually know they have pain, it’s way beyond what we as adults could tolerate.”


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Connecting with Kids & Their Families – Jackie Busse, M.D.

March 16, 2012

PAMF Santa Cruz Pediatrician Jackie Busse, M.D., draws from her own childhood experience with doctors when treating her patients.

“I had good doctors and bad doctors, and I learned as much about being a good doctor from that experience as I did from my formal training,” says Dr. Busse.

A  favorite part of her job is connecting and building trust with her patients and their families, she says. “I enjoy interacting with the kids – they’re entertaining and resilient. They make it easy to come to work every day.”

Learn more about Dr. Busse in this video, which is part of a series highlighting the diverse voices of PAMF physicians.


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My Health Online – Helping Parents Take Care of Their Children’s Health

March 15, 2012

For Nancy Andre, a busy mother of three lively young children, My Health Online takes the stress out of managing her children’s health care needs.

In this video, Andre shares her experience with one of My Health Online’s many features – being able to complete well-child questionnaires for all her children online from the comfort of her own home.




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Fever and Children

March 13, 2012

Pediatrician Nancy Barnett, M.D., Palo Alto Medical Foundation

None of us want our children to be sick, but it’s important to remember that fever can be our friend. The American Academy of Pediatrics describes fever as “a positive sign that the body is fighting infection.” In this blog post, Dr. Nancy Barnett, a pediatrician at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, answers commonly asked questions about fever in children.

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Helping People We’re Caring For – Terence Lin, M.D.

March 7, 2012

Cardiologist Terence Lin, M.D., finds it most rewarding when his patients tell him that they were able to go on vacation, to their child’s graduation or play with their grandchildren again because of the care they received from him.

“We’re fortunate to have the world’s best technology at our disposal,” says Dr. Lin, who works at PAMF’s Dublin and Fremont Centers. “Yet, we shouldn’t just use it because we can, but rather because it helps the person we’re taking care of.”

He feels he has really made a difference for his patients when their illness or disease does not become their life.

“When you think about what you want from your doctor, I think you want somebody who makes you well enough to live your life,” says Dr. Lin in this video, which is part of a series highlighting the diverse voices of PAMF physicians.


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WAY2GO! PAMF Goes Mobile With Teen Health

March 6, 2012

If you want to help teens learn lifelong health, wellness and organization habits, how do you reach them? Through their favorite mode of communication – their cell phones.

With that in mind, the PAMF partnered with RallyOn, a Silicon Valley-based online and mobile health application developer, to create an online health and wellness program – called Wellness Assessment for Youth to Get Organized or WAY2GO! – designed specifically for teenagers.

Teenagers start by taking a confidential, online wellness assessment that creates an immediate, individually tailored report with links to health and wellness resources from PAMF’s teen website. Once teens have completed the health assessment they are linked to RallyOn’s free health coaching service that helps them work on daily health goals highlighted in their report such as getting more sleep and exercise or eating better. This engaging tool helps teens develop a personal wellness plan that includes activity challenges and health tips delivered through text messaging.

Prompts to get more sleep, exercise or eat better arrive via text message or email.

The program launched in March, 2011, and now is active in several local high schools as well as a few in Ohio and Wisconsin. So far, 370 people have taken the WAY2GO! teen version. The young adult version just finished beta testing and will be live by April 2012, with a preteen version (that will require parents to register youth) coming within the year.

More than 250 teenagers from Santa Clara County high schools participated in a six-month pilot test of WAY2GO!, funded by a grant from The Health Trust, a local nonprofit organization that aims to advance health and wellness in Silicon Valley.

Today there are more than 75 new users a month, and PAMF has started training nutritionists and doctors on how to use the tool with their teen patients.

“We received wonderful feedback from the teenagers who participated in the WAY2GO! pilot program – they loved this innovative approach to managing their health,” says Nancy Brown, Ph.D., a PAMF education manager and WAY2GO! project director.

The WAY2GO! pilot program has already received nationwide recognition. In March, 2011, it was awarded the 2011 Hilary E.C. Millar Award for Innovative Approaches to Adolescent Health Care by the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine.

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Every Woman Has a Story to Tell – Laura Ahn, N.P.

February 29, 2012

If nurse practitioner Laura Ahn had her way, she and her Obstetrics and Gynecology patients would meet in a café. A women’s health nurse practitioner at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation’s Dublin Center, Ahn finds connecting with women and learning about their lives to be the most enjoyable part of her workday.

“Every woman who comes into my office has a story to tell,” says Ahn in her PAMF profile video.

She finds the most rewarding part of her job to be caring for patients as they move from teen years through menopause and beyond. In particular, she enjoys helping women move through their pregnancies and become mothers.

“They’re going through this metamorphosis,” Ahn says. “All my pregnant women are beautiful.”

Learn more about Laura Ahn in this video, which is part of a series highlighting the diverse voices of PAMF physicians.


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PAMF Receives Top Rankings by California Office of the Patient Advocate

February 27, 2012

The Palo Alto Medical Foundation has been rated four out of four stars by the California Office of the Patient Advocate (OPA) in a statewide assessment of all medical groups.  Medical groups were ranked in two categories: meeting national standards of care, and patient ratings.

Established in 2000, the Office of the Patient Advocate is an independent state office in conjunction with the Department of Managed Health Care. The OPA was created to represent the interests of health plan members to get the care they deserve and to promote transparency and quality health care by publishing an annual Quality of Care Report Card.

The Palo Alto Medical Foundation is one of only a few medical groups in California that rated four out of four stars in both categories.

“Our physicians and staff are committed to providing all of our patients with superb medical care and service. The four-star rankings are truly gratifying,” said Richard Slavin, M.D., chief executive officer of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation.  “Measurement of performance and outcomes is critical to continuous improvement in our organization. Our focus is our mission: To enhance the well-being of the residents of our communities through compassion, excellence and innovation in health care services, education and research.”

For this statewide assessment, 17 quality measures are evaluated across a range of important health conditions, including preventive care and wellness, for rating on national standards of care.

The second rating was for patient satisfaction, collected via the Patient Assessment Survey (PAS), which assesses the patients’ experiences of care, and their service with the doctor and medical group.

Patients answered questions about: 

  • Communications
  • Coordination of care
  • Helpfulness of office staff
  • Timely care and service
  • Health and wellness promotion.

View the Quality of Care Report Card.

View the medical group ratings by counties.

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Making a Difference in People’s Lives – Jaret Butler, M.D.

February 23, 2012

There is nothing Jaret Butler, M.D., would rather be doing than working with the people who come to him for his services as a PAMF orthopedic surgeon.

“It’s exciting, it’s challenging, and it’s something that makes me feel like I’m making a significant difference in people’s lives,” he says in this video, which is part of a series highlighting the diverse voices of PAMF physicians.

“The challenge is to get a sense of who a patient is and what makes them comfortable,” Dr. Butler says. “When I’m in the operating room and taking care of a patient, there’s nothing else that goes on in my life at that time. It’s the most focused I ever am.”


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School Children Surprise Sunnyvale Center Construction Team with Valentines

February 15, 2012

On Valentine’s Day, some people got chocolate, others received flowers. But the DPR Construction workers building PAMF’s new Sunnyvale Center got a heartwarming surprise when a group of students from St. Martin’s Elementary School (next door to the site) delivered a creative collection of handmade Valentines for the crew.

“It was totally unexpected and was just a beautiful moment,” said Joseph Yau, DPR project manager. “Our team did a little storytelling about the PAMF project, and every student went away with a lollipop.”

Since the project began in February 2011, the DPR construction team and subcontractors have put in 100,000 hours. You can watch the building take shape on live Webcam and view a time lapse of the project to date.

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