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Our Most Recent Success Story
The most comprehensive and successful achievement of NexCare Collaborative so far has been its First 5 LA Connect project.

(July 2005) The most comprehensive and successful achievement of NexCare Collaborative currently has been its three-year, First 5 LA Connect project. The centerpiece of the program is a comprehensive, state-of-the-art helpline, professional call center and Web site.

Some highlights of this NexCare program include:

• NexCare assisted more than 100,000 Los Angeles County families
• Helped to enroll more than 18,000 children in free or low-cost health insurance programs, which helped save Los Angeles County between $30-$60 million per year in potential medical costs.
• Assisted more than one-in-ten of all Latino families (with children in the newborn-5 year age range) in Los Angeles County
• Maintained extraordinarily high customer satisfaction and quality control standards, including:
  • More than 93% of all callers were “Very Satisfied” with NexCare’s services
  • 99% said they would call us again
  • 98% said they would refer others to our services
  • More than 99% considered NexCare’s Information & Referral Specialists “polite, patient and respectful”.
• Created a continuously-updated database of more than 18,000 agencies within Los Angeles County for First 5 LA Connect referrals
• Developed a state-of-the-art helpline and professional call center from scratch, utilizing proprietary-developed software and highly-advanced computer and telephonic systems
• Call volume exceeded 350,000 calls in the first 18 months of the project.
• Web site “hits” exceeded one-million

The sheer scope of the project was enormous from the start.

In 1998, California voters passed Proposition 10, which provided for a tax increase on tobacco products. The funds from this tax increase were to be invested in the healthy development of California’s children, from the prenatal stage to age 5.
First 5 LA was formed to distributed Los Angeles County’s share of these funds: approximately $140 million per year initially.

Under the guidelines of First 5 LA, it was natural that a state-of-the art helpline for parents, along with a corresponding Web site, should be the signature service.

Enter pediatricians Dr. Pejman Salimpour and Dr. Pedram Salimpour. Former clinical chief of pediatrics at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and recognized internationally as an effective champion of children’s issues, Dr. Pejman Salimpour has served on a dozen diplomatic delegations and governmental commissions around the globe. His passionate commitment to safeguarding the health and bolstering the social welfare of children made him (along with his brother, Dr. Pedram Salimpour), the perfect choice to lead First 5 LA’s helpline.

Funded by First 5 LA, the Salimpours created the not-for-profit corporation, NexCare Collaborative, to develop and operate First 5 LA Connect.

(For reaction to the First 5 LA Connect project, see the Testimonials section of this Web site).