MFH Awards $1.9 Million in Grants
to Cape Area Organizations
St. Louis,Mo. Dec. 20 -Four
Cape Girardeau area organizations have received a share of
$1,901,933 in grants from Missouri Foundation for Health (MFH).
The funding enables recipient organizations to improve services
to diabetics, develop better organizational/management strategies,
promote smoking cessation in the workplace, and increase options
for access to health care. Two of the funding efforts are
new in 2006.
Two organizations have been
funded through MFH's newly developed Primary Care Access Initiative,
which focuses on strengthening the health care safety net
and improving access to care for Missouri residents. These
two three-year grants are among eight made across the state
under this Initiative. Cross Trails Medical Center,
in Cape Girardeau, receives a $545,590 grant to expand oral
health services to uninsured and underserved individuals in
rural Bollinger County. Missouri Highlands Health Care,
in Ellington, has a $896,333 grant to open a new clinic in
Poplar Bluff. Both locations have little access to primary
care and preventative services currently.
Missouri Highland Health
Care also has received a $373,178 grant from MFH to expand
its diabetic care programs in Reynolds County over the next
three years. This grant is one of eight funded across the
state under MFH's new Priority Area Grant effort - Better
Self-Management of Diabetes - which also opened in 2006 and
encourages high-quality care for individuals with this chronic
disease.
Gibson Recovery Center,
Inc., in Cape Girardeau, has received a $19,800 grant
through MFH's Strategic Organizational Development program,
to improve its organizational and management efforts, resulting
in better patient outcomes and client satisfaction.
Southeast Missouri Hospital
in Cape Girardeau received $67,032. This two-year grant enables
the hospital to provide smoking cessation assistance to their
employees and those of four local organizations. This is part
of MFH's Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Initiative, a nine-year,
$40 million funding effort, now in its third year of grantmaking.
"We are pleased to provide grants
to these organizations as they work toward helping area residents
through various MFH programs," says Dr. James R. Kimmey,
MFH's president and CEO. "Our two new funding opportunities
- Primary Care Access Initiative and Better Self-Management
of Diabetes - also add to MFH's efforts to ensure all Missourians
have adequate access to high-quality health care options,
and thus live healthier lives."
Established in 2000 through the for-profit
conversion of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Missouri, MFH is the
largest non-governmental funder of community health activities
in the state. MFH is in its fourth year of grantmaking, issuing
more than $195 million in grants and awards to date. It is
dedicated to serving the uninsured, underinsured and underserved
in 84 Missouri counties and the City of St. Louis.
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