Pediatric Mobile Services Unit Will Serve Children in Underserved Communities

For most of us, although it’s something we hope not to have to do, taking our children to specialist hospitals like Medical City Kids Orthopedics (learn more about their pioneering work here) when they need treatment, is always an option. But imagine if you didn’t have the ability to travel to healthcare facilities like this? What would you do? Well, Virtua have thought of a solution. On June 7, 2018, Virtua announced the launching of its new Pediatric Mobile Services Unit in Camden, New Jersey. This Unit will allow pediatric specialists to provide services to children from infancy to 5 years of age via a mobile van. Services that will be provided include developmental screening, dental screenings and oral health education, flu shots, lead poisoning education and screening information, and community resources and referrals to specialists.

At the event, founder of The Joseph Lacroce Foundation, Sam Lacroce, was honored by Virtua President & CEO Dennis Pullin. The Lacroce Foundation has donated $1 million to fund the Pediatric Mobile Services Unit.

Christina Mattison, Senior Vice President, Virtua Foundation explained how much Mr. Lacroce’s generosity means to the new pediatric program. “This is something transformational that we couldn’t do without The Joseph Lacroce Foundation. We are truly grateful. Their generous gift will truly save lives.”

While the Pediatric Mobile Services Unit will begin as a pilot program l in the City of Camden, it will eventually serve children living in medically underserved and impoverished urban and rural communities across Burlington, Camden and Gloucester counties.

To learn more about the event on Virtua Broadcast News, visit this link.

About Virtua:

As one of New Jersey’s largest, non-profit health systems, Virtua provides comprehensive health care services to achieve its mission to help people be well, get well and stay well. Virtua provides services through Virtua Medical Group with more than 450 clinicians and through Virtua Physician Partners with more than 1500 providers at its urgent care centers, hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, health and wellness centers, fitness centers, home health services, long-term care and rehabilitation centers, and paramedic program. A leader in maternal and child health services, Virtua delivers nearly 8,000 babies a year.

It provides health services to 1,500 businesses, and participates in Virtua Physician Partners, a clinically integrated network of 1,400 physicians and other clinicians. Virtua is affiliated with Penn Medicine for cancer and neuroscience and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) for pediatrics. It employs over 9,000 and has been honored as the #1 Best Place to Work in the Delaware Valley every year since 2007.

It is the recipient of a 4-star rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for quality of care, and its hospitals earned straight A’s in patient safety by The Leapfrog Group and the 2016 Patient Safety Award from Healthgrades. U.S. News and World Report ranked Virtua’s Mount Holly and Voorhees hospitals as High Performing Hospitals and Voorhees as a Best Regional Hospital.

Virtua is also the recipient of the Consumer Choice Award from the National Research Corporation. For more information, please visit Virtua.org or Virtua Broadcast Network.