Kaiser Permanente awards $7.7 million as 217 grants during first quarter, 2011

Kaiser Permanente, one of the country's largest not-for-profit health care organizations, announced today that it has funded 217 grants nationwide, totaling approximately $7.7 million in the first quarter of 2011.

"Kaiser Permanente has a long-standing and unwavering commitment to community service," , said Raymond J. Baxter, senior vice president, Community Benefit, Research and Health Policy, Kaiser Permanente.  "The grants awarded in the first quarter of 2011 continue funding to vital programs that underscore our greatest priorities – access to health care and access to healthy foods grants paid in the first quarter of 2011 included, but were not limited to, the following."

Prenatal Care for Teenage Moms  

University Hospitals of Ohio launched the Centering Pregnancy program in 2010, as part of a $90,000 grant from Kaiser Permanente, to be distributed over three years. The program treated 190 teenage mothers in its first year and expects to enroll 500 in 2011.

"About 99 percent of the women enrolled are on Medicaid, and many of them would have received inconsistent prenatal care if not for this program," said Pam Hetrick, nurse midwife and director for the Centering Pregnancy program.  "I feel strongly that this service is what our patients need."

The Centering Pregnancy program enables young mothers to actively participate in their prenatal care and participate in group discussions with other mothers their age with similar due dates.  The young women take their own weight and blood pressure, and receive a fetal assessment performed by a nurse midwife.  The expectant mothers then participate in group discussions to share their experiences, concerns and questions about their pregnancy.

Community Clinics Improve Access to Care

La Clinica de La Raza, an Oakland-based community clinic that provides comprehensive health care to people in the San Francisco Bay Area, received the third installment of a $150,000 grant that was distributed over three years, for a new community clinic in North Vallejo, Calif.  The clinic opened in 2008 to provide medical care to members of the economically challenged community.

"Most of our patients are either on MediCal or uninsured, and the clinic has become the primary health care home for patients who were using the emergency room as their medical home," said Jane Garcia, chief executive officer, La Clinica de La Raza.

Patients of all ages now visit La Clinica North Vallejo for primary care services ranging from pediatric care to arthritis, said Jackie Jones, site manager, La Clinica de La Raza.  Payments for treatment at the North Vallejo clinic are on a sliding scale based on income.

"We are able to offer patients preventive care as well as ongoing treatment for chronic illnesses," Jones said. "Patients who were visiting the emergency room for acute issues that might have been neglected and had become more serious now have a clinic to care for them."

An example of those served by the clinic is a 67-year-old woman, who visited the facility for the first time last year after losing her job and ultimately her heath care coverage. Unable to afford the cost of paying her doctor full price to treat arthritis and chronic pain, she discovered the clinic and is now paying $20 for a physical compared to several hundred dollars for out-of-pocket primary care, or a visit to the local emergency medicine department.

"The clinic is her health care provider now," Jones said.

Community Garden for Fresh, Local Food

This quarter marks the second year of Kaiser Permanente funding to support the Community Supported Agriculture site owned and operated by Denver Botanic Gardens.  The garden, on the outskirts of Denver, is partly a working farm whose mission is to help the community be more aware of their food by engaging in the growing process, said Johanna Kelly, director of development, Denver Botanic Gardens.

"In its first year of operation, one acre of farmland produced 35 crops and 106 varieties of herbs and vegetables for 55 households," Kelly said. "This produce was packaged and distributed to members of the community. The extra produce was donated to local nonprofit organizations."  

The garden produced 10,000 pounds of produce in 2010, of which 2,000 were donated to local food banks and organizations serving the homeless. Beginning in 2011, a portion of the donated produce will go to Cooking Matters Colorado, a program of the national nonprofit organization Share Our Strength, that educates low-income families on how to plan, purchase, and prepare healthy, tasty, and affordable foods at home to ultimately fight against childhood hunger and the consequences of poor child nutrition. The CSA plans to expand its farm to as large as five acres by the end of 2012.