TD Charitable Foundation, the charitable giving arm of TD Bank, has awarded AdventHealth’s Community Care program a $100,000 grant for the “Community Care for Vulnerable COVID-19 Patients Initiative.”
This Initiative will serve 80 low-income, uninsured individuals who currently have or are recovering from COVID-19 with lingering health complications, multiple hospitalizations, and health risk factors. The grant will help patients reduce barriers to care such as medication costs, physician visit fees, transportation needs, food insecurities, utilities, clothing, and home improvement needs to keep patients safe.
Population Health’s Community Care program is a unique program designed to support the delivery of whole-person care to every patient, every time. The program targets those individuals who are high-risk, high utilizers of the AdventHealth hospital system and have little to no insurance with a goal to decrease health care costs, improve the patient experience and improve the quality of whole-person care given.
TD Charitable Foundation’s made an additional grant in 2020 of $15,000 which helped to improve the health outcomes of over 400 of AdventHealth's Community Medicine Clinic patients with chronic diseases and other health concerns. Patients were provided increased access to primary care resources such as medications and laboratory and imaging services to diagnose, treat and help them better manage their conditions and avoid adverse health outcomes.
Due to the 2020 grant, the Community Medicine Clinic (CMC) team was able to reduce inpatient admissions by 37% and ED visits by 30% for all patients admitted to the program in 2019. In addition, direct hospital costs were reduced by over $3,000,000!
Patients like Mr. Smith saw a direct benefit from the grant after being seen at AdventHealth Orlando for shortness of breath. He was hospitalized for several days with newly diagnosed heart failure and after his hospital discharge, he went to the CMC for a follow-up visit. While there, Dr. Cortes, the CMC's Medical Director, refilled all of Mr. Smith’s prescriptions for his heart condition but he had also developed some cancerous skin growths on his back that a dermatologist advised to have removed. Mr. Smith was unable to pay the thousands of dollars for the procedure, but Dr. Cortes determined that she could do the procedure free of charge. Although the growths were cancerous, the removal was sufficient treatment! The CMC team provided him with information on clinics near to where he lives that are similar to the CMC so that he will not need to travel far for medical care in the future.
As you can see from just this one story, this grant helps us fulfill our mission to extend the healing ministry of Christ. Not only will it improve patient's health outcomes, but a few dollars saved can really help patients facing financial limitations. It may mean that they can put food on their table, pay for that tank of gas to get to their part-time job, or saving just enough to pay for housing. TD's support has made a difference in their lives.
We are grateful to TD Charitable Foundation for this generous grant to better serve our uninsured population, especially during a difficult time when there have been many needs due to the COVID pandemic. This grant has protected and improved precious lives, and we are grateful for your support. If you would like to support patients in need, you can donate to our patient financial assistance fund here.
