Quality Health Foundation Awards $200,000 to Seven Local Organizations to Improve Healthcare in Maryland and the District of Columbia

EASTON, Md., June 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --Quality Health Foundation recently awarded grants totaling $200,000 to seven organizations in Maryland and the District of Columbia to support local healthcare-related quality improvement efforts.

Funding decisions for the grants, which this year range from $5,000 to $50,000, center on a project's potential to impact access to care and improve the quality of healthcare and human services, particularly among area underserved populations.

"We are pleased to single out these seven organizations for the important quality improvement initiatives they have undertaken," said Brenda Crabbs, Chairman of the Quality Health Foundation Board of Directors. "Their work is in complete alignment with Quality Health Foundation's mission to improve the health status of individuals and communities."

Selected from a pool of approximately 70 charitable, not-for-profit, or governmental applicants, the seven 2010 grantees are:

Help and Outreach Point of Entry, Inc. (HOPE)

A grant of $50,000 will support the HOPE outreach ministry to the homeless and poor of Maryland's lower Eastern Shore. At a single point of entry for all of the services for Wicomico, Worcester and Somerset counties, clients will receive social and medical assessments, health education and screening, referrals to healthcare treatment, financial assistance to purchase healthcare and medications, other appropriate referrals, and education to end the cycle of homelessness. The funds will be used to provide a part-time salary for an executive director/outreach coordinator, a comptroller, and an outreach worker along with other administrative costs. Approximately 800 to 1,000 clients will be served.

Light House

The Light House will receive $5,000 to begin a Health and Life Skills program for homeless adults and children at the emergency shelter in Annapolis. The grant will pay for the services of a health educator to run 12 training sessions for adults and 12 training sessions for children, each designed to help Light House clients make healthy choices, adopt healthy lifestyles, and properly access health services. The program will serve approximately 50 adults and 10 children annually.

Mission of Mercy

A grant of $40,000 will enable Mission of Mercy to continue a free mobile medical program in Baltimore, Carroll, and Frederick Counties. The organization will provide 7,500 to 8,000 free medical visits and more than 12,000 prescription medications to more than 1,500 patients, predominantly the uninsured working poor. This level of service is made possible by a staff of licensed medical professionals and active and retired non-medical volunteers, coupled with the financial support of compassionate private donors. No government funds are used to operate the program. In addition, Mission of Mercy collaborates with social service agencies, providing access to food stamps, health information, and other public benefits onsite at the clinics.

St. Luke's House, Inc.

Funding in the amount of $35,000 will be provided to support the Somatic Care Project for more than 100 adults who are living with persistent mental illness and are being treated in the outpatient mental clinic at St. Luke's House. The project uses public and private community partnerships to ensure that clients are able to fully access needed services to improve their physical health condition while receiving the comprehensive mental health services they need to stabilize their lives. St. Luke's staff will ensure that each client is linked to a primary care physician and that their care through the clinic is coordinated with this physician. Staff will also work with the primary care physician to get referrals to medical specialists as needed.

The Barker Foundation

The Barker Foundation will receive $5,000 to help underwrite medical and mental healthcare services for women and at-risk teens facing the crises of an unplanned pregnancy. Services are offered to women ages 11 to 45 from all socio-economic backgrounds, regardless of whether they choose to place their child for adoption. Barker also provides 24/7 on-call counseling services to pregnant women and teens. It is anticipated that assistance will be provided to approximately 180 individuals.

University of Maryland Eastern Shore School of Pharmacy and Health Professions

The Exercise Science Department will receive a grant of $40,000 for its Youth Sports and Mini-Med Program. Through this program, 80 disadvantaged youth from the age of 11 to 16 will be recruited from Wicomico, Worcester, and Somerset Counties to participate in a month-long health sciences sports and education enrichment program.  

University of Maryland Medical System Foundation

A grant of $25,000 will be awarded in memory of Dr. Sheldon Goldgeier, longtime Quality Health Foundation board member, to support the University of Maryland Hospital's Breathmobile Program. The program focuses on underserved children and its services include testing to identify allergy triggers, lung function testing, and providing asthma medications. Preventive asthma education for children, their families, and school personnel is also provided. The mobile unit began operation at Baltimore City Schools in March 2002 and has served more than 1,500 children with asthma at more than 50 locations.

About Quality Health Foundation

Quality Health Foundation is the mission arm of Quality Health Strategies, a national not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving healthcare quality. Formed in 2003, the mission of Quality Health Foundation is to improve the health of individuals and communities. To achieve this goal, the organization provides modest grants to local charitable, not-for-profit, and governmental organizations that are undertaking improvement projects to impact access to and quality of healthcare and human services for individuals and communities. Since 2006, Quality Health Foundation has awarded grants totaling more than $1 million to 27 organizations in Maryland and the District of Columbia. For more information, visit Quality Health Foundation on the Web at http://www.qualityhealthfoundation.org/.

SOURCE Quality Health Foundation