Kaiser Permanente's 70th Anniversary celebrated at Silicon Valley medical centers

More than 500 doctors, nurses, and staff at Kaiser Permanente’s two Silicon Valley hospitals celebrated the 70-year history of the health care system during lively, colorful events at medical centers KP San Jose and KP Santa Clara.

The lunch-hour gatherings at Kaiser Permanente’s local medical centers were scheduled around July 21, 2015, which marked the 70th anniversary of Kaiser Permanente’s health care plan being opened to the public in 1945.

For many years, Kaiser Shipyard builders, steel and construction workers who built the great dams and launched the ships that helped win World War II used a pre-paid Kaiser health system to get their health care. In 1945, the innovative health care system opened to the public at a new Oakland hospital, which was originally built to provide care to shipyard workers.

During the anniversary gatherings, a history slide show detailed the growth of Kaiser Permanente from serving just 25-thousand members when it started to nearly 10 million members nationwide today. There are now 38 Kaiser Permanente hospitals and 622 medical offices stretching from California, Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest to Colorado, Georgia and Washington, DC.

At Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara more than 300 clinicians and staff visited the event in a large conference room. Last year, Kaiser Permanente’s Santa Clara Medical campus recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. The original hospital opened in 1964, but has since been replaced by an ultramodern medical center in 2007.

More than 200 other clinicians came to the event at Kaiser Permanente San Jose, which started as a small group of KP physicians in the early 1970’s, leasing medical office across the street from what became the current hospital off Santa Teresa Boulevard.

At each gathering, recorded 1940’s music was playing in the background, guests were treated to small cupcakes decorated with the number “70”, and large posters displaying historic pictures and text about Kaiser Permanente’s growth.

Those attending got selfies in a photo booth, and scooped some giveaways that included a vinyl card holder for cellphones.

Kaiser Permanente has become the nationwide model for excellent healthcare, innovating ways to improve the lives of our members and the health of the communities we serve.

One early innovation was called “the baby in a drawer,” as shown in a 1953 photograph from Walnut Creek. Newborns were kept in a drawer-like bassinet, which could be slid back-and-forth through the wall separating the nursery from the mother’s room. All that mother had to do was open the drawer and her baby was there, and the infant’s return trip to the nursery was as simple as closing the drawer.

For a complete story about Kaiser Permanente’s 70th anniversary, go to KP’s Share website:
http://share.kaiserpermanente.org/group/celebrating-kaiser-permanentes-70th-anniversary/
For more photos and a brief story, go to the San Francisco Chronicle’s SFGate.com:
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Photos-show-vintage-medical-care-as-Kaiser-6397541.php