Hospital foundation awards grants
$120,800 given by St. Elizabeth Hospital Community Foundation
08 / 15 / 2007
Go to Newsroom
Maria Nelson, Media Relations
Affinity Health System
(920) 720-1752
(920) 554-0686 (pager)
APPLETON, Wis. – The St. Elizabeth Hospital Community Foundation has awarded $120,816 in grants to benefit Affinity Health System patients through programs and services in the Fox Cities.
Nearly $58,000 is being given to Franciscan Care & Rehabilitation Center in Appleton. The long-term care and rehabilitation facility will use the funds for the following:
- Create a resident-focused dining experience that provides residents with five meals daily, including an optional continental breakfast, brunch, a high-calorie afternoon snack, dinner and a high-protein bedtime snack. “Residents will be able to make their own decisions and choices concerning meals,” says Leslie Ewert, Food Service manager at Franciscan Care & Rehabilitation Center. “The facility will conform to what our residents want, instead of making our residents conform to our work schedules.”
- Refurbish and landscape an existing patio on the grounds that will allow residents to enjoy the outdoors.
- Provide transportation for Medicaid and low-income residents needing to go to medical appointments or social outings in the community.
Other grants awarded include:
- $4,680 to pilot a massage therapy program at the St. Elizabeth Hospital Cancer Center. Through the program, Affinity Integrative Medicine staff members will be available three hours per week to provide massage therapy services to cancer center patients. Massage is an effective therapy for pain, depression and immune system support for patients undergoing cancer treatment.
- $5,000 for clothing, toiletries and school supplies for children age 5 to 18 who are patients in the St. Elizabeth Hospital Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health inpatient unit. This unit serves children from as far away as Rhinelander and Dane County. Many of the children who are admitted to the unit have none of these belongings.
- $12,500 to provide additional closed-circuit television programming for
The foundation, through the Wallace Funds, awarded $2,000 in grants to Affinity Health System employees participating in medical mission trips that help the needy in other parts of the world.
The St. Elizabeth Hospital Community Foundation is dedicated to living out the healing ministry of Christ with a special emphasis on those in need, by generating, stewarding and distributing funds to enhance the quality of Affinity Health system’s services and programs, and other community health care initiatives in Outagamie and Calumet counties, and northern Winnebago County.
# # #
###
For the Editor:
Affinity Health System, a faith-based regional health care network, is the Fox Valley’s second-largest employer, according to the Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce & Industry. For the fourth consecutive year, Affinity has been named one of the nation’s top 64 health systems based on clinical performance according to Thomson Reuters, a leading provider of information and solutions to improve the cost and quality of health care. For ten consecutive years, Affinity Health System has been named to the SDI (formerly Verispan) Integrated Health Network Top 100, an annual assessment of the 100 most highly integrated health care networks in the nation. Both St. Elizabeth Hospital in Appleton and Mercy Medical Center in Oshkosh rank among the top 1 percent of hospitals nationwide in terms of quality and efficiency, as determined by the 2007 Premier | CareScience Select practice National Quality Award. Members of Affinity include Mercy Medical Center and Mercy Health Foundation, Oshkosh; St. Elizabeth Hospital and the St. Elizabeth Hospital Foundation, Appleton; Affinity Medical Group, a regional network of 25 family practice and specialty clinics – 22 of which are recognized as NCQA Level III medical homes, the highest level of recognition – in 14 communities; Calumet Medical Center, Chilton; and Affinity Occupational Health.