Louisiana Public Health Institute receives $2 million GE Foundation grant

Aug 25 2010

The GE Foundation - the philanthropic organization of GE - announced today a $2 million grant to Louisiana Public Health Institute (LPHI), as part of GE's Developing Health program. This grant will underwrite a program led by School Health Connection (SHC) in Orleans Parish, LA, to provide students with increased access to healthcare through school-based health centers.

“This great partnership and grant funding will provide primary care access to a largely underserved population in the schools in Orleans Parish”

Developing Health is a 3-year, $25 million, GE program that aims to improve access to primary care in targeted underserved communities across the United States. The program aligns with GE's healthymagination initiative, a commitment to lower costs, improve quality and increase access in healthcare.

"The Developing Heath program seeks to help fill the gap for access to quality care in underserved communities," said Bob Corcoran, president, GE Foundation. "This specific grant to Orleans Parish will expand access to preventive, primary care, and primary mental health services for adolescents in the area. The Louisiana Public Health Institute is well positioned to expand the school-based health center network in Orleans Parish to meet the primary health needs of students and community members."

"When we launched healthymagination, GE made a commitment to offer meaningful solutions that address some of today's greatest health challenges: high costs, persistent quality issues and inadequate access," said Mike Barber, vice president, GE healthymagination. "Our commitment extends to providing solutions to the nation's most critical health needs in partnership with key health agencies, such as the Louisiana Public Health Institute. We believe this partnership, through Developing Health, will help advance our overall goal of delivering better health to more people in New Orleans."

The $2 million grant from the GE Foundation will enable LPHI and its partner organizations to build on previous philanthropic and government investments received following Katrina in order to stabilize access to healthcare in the New Orleans area. With 38,000 students across Orleans Parish alone, this grant has the potential to give thousands of students improved access to primary healthcare services.

"This great partnership and grant funding will provide primary care access to a largely underserved population in the schools in Orleans Parish," said Joseph Kimbrell, CEO, LPHI. "With each new school-based health center, we are helping to shape the future of healthcare delivery in New Orleans."

School-based health centers provide comprehensive preventive, primary care, and primary mental health services for enrolled school students. Given the close proximity to student activities, school-based health centers provide easy access to services for youth who frequently delay treatments or commonly seek emergency room care. By enabling this ready access to students, the school-based health centers will have the capacity to decrease the local emergency room overcrowding that the New Orleans area faces. In doing so, the school-based health centers are helping to achieve a larger goal in the New Orleans area, which is that of enabling access to healthcare through a model of community health centers. With the grant from the GE Foundation, School Health Connection, in association with local and state partner organizations, plans to increase utilization through growing enrollment and increasing use among eligible students, as well as extending services to neighboring schools, family members and nearby residents.

Developing Health, which is modeled after GE's successful philanthropic program Developing Health Globally™ is a partnership between GE Corporate Citizenship and the GE Corporate Diversity Council. Designed and launched in NYC in October 2009, the program has expanded to Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Louisville and New Orleans.

The program builds on the success GE's existing Developing Health Globally (DHG) program. Launched in Africa in 2004, this philanthropic program now extends to 14 countries across Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia. DHG aims to improve healthcare for some of the world's most vulnerable populations. DHG uses GE core competencies including technology, expertise and employee engagement to provide sustainable "enterprise solutions" that address some of the critical gaps that exist in developing-world healthcare facilities. For more information on Developing Health Globally, visit: http://www.ge.com/citizenship/performance_areas/communities_philanthropy_health.jsp. For more information on Developing Health visit: http://www.ge.com/foundation/developing_health.jsp.