[January 30, 2013] |
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F.R.E.E. Receives Premier Cares Award, $100,000 for Helping Uninsured Adults Gain Mobility and Independence
CHARLOTTE, N.C. --(Business Wire)--
The Foundation for Rehabilitation Equipment and Endowment (F.R.E.E.)
has been honored by the Premier healthcare alliance with the 21st
annual Monroe E. Trout Premier
Cares Award for helping adults achieve independence through mobility
when they have no other way to attain that independence.
Based in Roanoke, Va., F.R.E.E., a community-based, volunteer-led
organization that provides mobility-related rehab equipment to the
uninsured, received the Cares Award and $100,000.
Sponsored by Premier and its member hospitals, the Cares Award
recognizes exemplary efforts by not-for-profit community organizations
to improve the health of communities in need. The award was given during
Premier's annual Governance Education Conference, January 28-30 in
Scottsdale, Ariz.
Launched in Roanoke in 1999 by a small group of medical professionals
focused on rehabilitation therapy, F.R.E.E. now serves significant
portions of Virginia. Their vision is a state where every need for
mobility-related rehab equipment is fulfilled. F.R.E.E. works with
uninsured and underinsured adults who do not have access to mobility
equipment and who need to regain mobility lost by injury or illness. The
program helps these adults re-enter their communities as active,
contributing participants. In Virginia, this at-risk population is
growing as a result of increased unemployment and reductions in
employer-provided healthcare, a problem exacerbated by the difficult
economic conditions of the past few years.
"Each year through our Cares Award program, we honor six organizations
that are doing exceptional, innovative work to help a medically
underserved population in their communities," said Susan DeVore,
Premier's president and CEO. "This year's Cares Award recipient - the
F.R.E.E. Foundation - represents the spirit of what social
responsibility truly means. They, along with the five finalists and many
deserving applicants, really make a difference in their communities by
helping these medically underserved populations."
A panel of national healthcare leaders selects the Premier Cares Award
winner and five finalists, all of which receive cash awards for use in
further improving their programs. The Cares Award program spotlights
these community-based healthcare initiatives and helps other
organizations learn to replicate the best practice programs by featuring
information about them on the Cares Award website.
Following are this year's award finalists, each of which received
$24,000:
Avera eCARE Services of Avera - Sioux Falls, S.D.: a
visionary telehealth model that has provided rural healthcare
professionals around-the-clock access to specialty care physicians,
nurses and pharmacists since its first rogram began in 1993. Using
innovative technology, Avera eCARE helps rural facilities find the
evidence-based, high-quality care needed to offset workforce shortages
and increased demands for care in rural communities. (www.avera.org/ecare)
Courage Center - Minneapolis: a nonprofit rehabilitation
and resource center that serves children and adults experiencing
barriers to health and independence. Their mission is to empower people
with disabilities to realize their full potential in every aspect of
life. Courage Center specializes in treating brain injury, spinal cord
injury, stroke, chronic pain, autism and disabilities experienced since
birth. (www.couragecenter.org)
Every Child Succeeds of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
- Cincinnati: a home visitation program helping at-risk families
ensure an optimal start for their young children. ECS provides home
visits for first-time mothers who are young, low-income, single and/or
receiving inadequate prenatal care - factors that tend to put their
children at risk for delayed development, poor medical care, abuse,
neglect and low academic achievement. The program is free and voluntary,
begins during a mother's pregnancy and continues through the child's
third birthday. ECS operates in seven counties in southwestern Ohio and
northern Kentucky and has served more than 17,000 families through more
than 500,000 home visits since 1999. (www.everychildsucceeds.org)
LAC+USC Pediatric Asthma Disease Management Program - Los Angeles:
a comprehensive, mobile-based pediatric asthma disease management
program that delivers asthma specialty care to inner-city children at no
cost to their families. It was created in 1995 as a collaborative effort
among the California chapter of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of
America, LAC+USC Medical Center, Los Angeles County Department of Health
Services, and the Los Angeles Unified School District. The LAC+USC
currently operates four Breathmobiles, 34-foot mobile clinics staffed by
teams of asthma care specialists delivering routine, preventive,
team-based asthma care. The program cares for 18 school sites, with an
emphasis on the inner-city, low-income neighborhoods, and areas
surrounding major freeways. As of June 2012, more than 14,000 unique
patients have been treated at more than 75,000 patient visits.
The Children's Place - Kansas City, Mo.: an agency that was
created in response to increased incidences of child abuse. Concerned,
key community stakeholders opened The Children's Place in 1978, starting
with the Day Treatment Program, a comprehensive combination of
therapeutic classroom instruction paired with intensive child and family
therapy. The Children's Place has since added outpatient services in
1986 and parenting support services in 1998. Today the program is
regionally unmatched in depth of services and is considered a community
expert in early childhood trauma. Besides its three ongoing programs,
the agency provides hundreds of hours of community training to area
mental health professionals and prospective foster and adoptive parents.
(www.tcpkc.org)
About the Premier Cares Award
Premier has presented the Cares
Award annually since 1991, when it was created by Dr. Monroe E.
Trout, former CEO of American Healthcare Systems, one of Premier's
heritage organizations. The program has provided more than $3 million to
more than 100 organizations nationwide. The Cares Award winner receives
a cash prize of $100,000, while five runners-up receive $24,000 each.
The competition is open to not-for-profit organizations that have been
in existence for more than two years, are providing creative solutions
to health status improvement, can provide documentation of outcomes and
impact on a specific population, and have programs that can be
replicated in other communities.
About the Premier healthcare alliance, Malcolm Baldrige National
Quality Award recipient
Premier is a performance improvement alliance of more than 2,700 U.S.
hospitals and 90,000 other sites using the power of collaboration and
technology to lead the transformation to coordinated, high-quality,
cost-effective care. Owned by hospitals, health systems and other
providers, Premier operates a leading healthcare purchasing network with
more than $4 billion in annual savings. Premier also maintains the
nation's largest clinical, financial and outcomes database with
information on 1 in 4 patient discharges. A world leader in delivering
measurable improvements in care, Premier works with the Centers for
Medicare & Medicaid Services. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Premier
also has an office in Washington. https://www.premierinc.com.
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