SACRAMENTO, Calif., Oct. 12, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Sutter Health today announced a $250,000 donation to the American Red Cross California Wildfires Fund to support fire relief efforts across seven Northern California counties.

The donation bolsters the American Red Cross' ongoing efforts to provide food, shelter and other desperately needed resources to people affected by the massive fires still raging in Sonoma, Napa, Solano, Lake, Butte, Mendocino and Yuba counties.

"Northern California is Sutter's home—it's where we live and work—and the fires across several of our counties have created extreme hardships for our patients, family members, neighbors and colleagues," said Sarah Krevans, president and CEO of Sutter Health. "Organizations like the American Red Cross are essential to providing our communities with the critical supplies and safe evacuation shelters desperately needed right now. I am humbled by the incredible acts of courage and compassion demonstrated by our employees, clinicians and first responders during this crisis."

Additional Assistance Underway

Sutter Health is also actively supporting its communities, patients, employees and physicians in this time of need:

• Donating gauze and saline to evacuation centers in Santa Rosa and Petaluma.
• Re-opening high-risk obstetrics clinics in Santa Rosa (at 990 Sonoma Ave., for prescheduled Maternal Fetal Medicine and urgent patients only) and Sebastopol (at 555 Petaluma Ave., for high-risk obstetrics patients only) to support these vulnerable individuals.
• Providing support to Sutter Health staff and physicians who need it, including at least 37 employees and doctors known to have lost their homes in the wildfires; efforts include financial aid, disaster recovery pay, prescription assistance, and other employee assistance support ranging from insurance claims help to mental health resources.
• Creating a new Sutter Health Employee Disaster Relief Fund, a philanthropic fund to support employees impacted by this disaster and open to monetary donations from employees and the community. Looking into the future, the fund can help employees who are significantly impacted by other large-scale disasters that affect our communities.

Sutter Health has long partnered with the Red Cross and other organizations to help people close to home and worldwide. Our contributions helped support relief efforts during many disasters including the recent hurricanes in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico. Last year, Sutter Health invested $537 million in care and services for the poor and underserved.

For more information about the Sutter Health network visit: sutterhealth.org | facebook.com/sutterhealth | youtube.com/sutterhealth | twitter.com/sutterhealth.

SOURCE Sutter Health

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