Local healthcare providers honored at annual dinner

Khang Nguyen, DDS; Zita Yi; Annie Carlson, RN; Mayor Mike Murphy; Oscar V. Ramos, MD; and Carolyn Castañeda Fassioli, DDS.

The 2018 Merced County Binational Health Week Committee Members.

The Annual Appreciation Dinner of the Merced County Binational Health Week Committee (BHW) was held Friday, Feb. 22 at Treviño’s Mexican Restaurant in downtown Merced.

Local dentists, medical providers, support staff, volunteers and sponsors were honored for their efforts to improve the health of underserved Latino residents.

The ceremonies were opened by Chairman Juan Roman, who spoke of the many events held in 2018. “From October to November we held eight health events in cities all over Merced County,” he said.

After the singing of the National Anthem by Martha Armas-Kelly, Roman introduced speaker Mike Murphy, City of Merced Mayor.

“Our city is vibrant because of the people who are doing so many things. The city wants to emphasize the importance of volunteering by recognizing several this April, which is Volunteer Month,” Murphy said.

He continued that volunteers could be nominated by emailing a description of why the volunteer should be honored to [email protected].

During 2018 BHW held health events which provided 2,060 service encounters to 1,667 individuals. These services include car seat inspections, health screenings, flu shots, acupuncture, medical consultations, dental work, and medical referrals.

The list of events includes:

• Merced Child Passenger Safety Seat Check Up

• Planada San Joaquin Drug Health Fair

• Atwater Market Health Fair

• Dos Palos Flu Shots & Resource Fair

• Livingston Health & Safety Fair

• Los Banos Flu Shots & Resource Fair

• Tenaya Middle School Healthy Family Festival

• Los Banos Flu Shots & Resource Fair

• Thanksgiving Flu Shots at Merced Veterans Memorial Building

Recognition awards were presented by Mayor Murphy to Khang Nguyen, DDS and Jason Song, DDS, both of El Portal Dental Group; Carolyn Castañeda Fassioli, DDS of Evershine Dental Group; Marie D. Moran, DDS of Merced Pediatric Dentistry; Eric Cheung, DDS of Atwater Family Dental; Ranu Mishra, DDS of Mishra DDS Inc.; Patricia Portillo, DDS of Access Dental; Oscar V. Ramos, MD of Hilmar Family Medical Center; Melinda Edmonson, PA of Livingston Access Family Medical Center; Zita Yi of Tzu Chi Foundation; Kim Ochoa, RDH of Mishra DDS Inc.; Judy Vang, RDH of El Portal Dental Group; Annie Carlson, RN; and, José Valencia, LVN.

The 2019 Executive Committe for BHW was announced. They are Chairs Lillian Sanchez-Ramos of Dignity Health-Mercy Medical Center and Salvador Vasquez of MCOE-Migrant Education Program; Co-Chairs Juan Roman of Milan Institute and Melissa Salazar of Merced County Department of Public Health; and Secretary Stephanie Gonzalez of California Health Collaborative.

For more information about the Merced County Binational Health Week Committee and their events, email: [email protected].