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Eight Local Organizations Receive $275,000 in Grants to Improve Health Care Services throughout Maryland and District of Columbia Communities

Columbia, Maryland - July 2, 2008 - The Quality Health Foundation, the mission arm of Quality Health Strategies, recently announced the award of eight grants totaling $275,000. 

The mission of Quality Health Foundation is to provide charitable grants to organizations that wish to undertake improvement projects with funding based on the project’s potential to impact access to and quality of healthcare to individuals and communities. 

Selected from a pool of more than 50 applicants, the eight grantees include:

Columbia, Maryland - July 2, 2008 -The Quality Health Foundation, the mission arm of Quality Health Strategies, recently announced the award of eight grants totaling $275,000.

The mission of Quality Health Foundation is to provide charitable grants to organizations that wish to undertake improvement projects with funding based on the project’s potential to impact access to and quality of healthcare to individuals and communities.

Selected from a pool of more than 50 applicants, the eight grantees include:

Columbia Road Health Services - Washington, DC
The Columbia Road Health Services will receive a $50,000 grant to support the Diabetes Health Disparities Collaborative Initiative. This program improves access to healthcare by serving low-income, uninsured and immigrant patients without regard to ability to pay. Funds will also support social services, mental health and navigator services for diabetic patients in the program.
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Community of Hope - Washington, DC
The $50,000 grant will be used to cover the gap created by non-reimbursable patient costs. This program will also focus on preventive care that improves the overall health of the community and reduces the rate and cost of more serious health problems in the District of Columbia.
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Copper Ridge Institute - Sykesville, MD
Copper Ridge Institute’s $12,000 grant will help raise the bar of Alzheimer’s care and improve quality of life for home caregivers on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The grant will be used to provide education and skills training for the 100 caregivers located who are served through this program.
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Center for a Health Maryland - Baltimore, MD
The Center for a Health Maryland - an affiliate of the Maryland Medical Society, MedChi - will receive a $25,000 grant that will be used to assess the linguistic needs of patient populations in Maryland; identify existing interpreter resources and modes of accessing services; build web-based database linguistic resources; and evaluate usage and utility of these resources.
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Upper Chesapeake Health - Bel Air, MD
Upper Chesapeake Health’s grant of $41,000 will allow them to improve health outcomes by providing a primary care medical home that can provide personal attention for their ongoing medical needs and manage chronic illnesses before they become critical.
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Access Carroll, Inc. - Westminster, MD
Access Carroll, Inc. will receive a $47,000 grant to continue to expand services to the uninsured population of Carroll County, while specifically studying health improvement outcomes of patients diagnosed with pre-diabetes and diabetes mellitus.
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Somerset County Health Department - Westover, MD
The $25,000 grant will allow Somerset County Health Department to identify individuals at risk of developing diabetes in the Tri-County region of Wicomico, Worchester, and Somerset counties. This program focuses on the medically underserved populations and educating the underserved and at risk individuals in the region about diabetes.
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Smith Farm Center - Washington, DC
A grant in the amount of $25,000 will be used to support Smith Farm Center’s community health navigation program for African-American and African immigrant women living in the Greater Southeast area of Washington, DC.
read more...

“We are so pleased to award these outstanding organizations for their quality improvement practices,” said Sheldon Goldgeier, MD, Chairman of the Quality Health Foundation Board of Directors.  “The Quality Health Foundation is excited to develop a partnership with these organizations to bring quality healthcare to the underserved populations in Maryland and the District of Columbia.”

Media Note: High resolution images of the award recipients are available up request.

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About Quality Health Foundation
The Quality Health Foundation is the mission arm of the Quality Health Strategies, a national, not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving healthcare quality in 26 states.  Formed in May 2003, the mission of the Quality Health Foundation is to improve the health of individuals and communities.  To achieve this goal, we provide modest charitable grants to organizations that wish to undertake improvement projects to impact access to and quality of healthcare and human services to individuals and communities.  For more information, please visit the Quality Health Foundation on the web at www.qualityhealthfoundation.org.