2010 Archives - Page 2 of 8 - New York Health Foundation

Nonprofit Finance Fund

In response to the economic downturn, the New York Health Foundation (NYHealth) worked with the Nonprofit Finance Fund to create a one-time technical assistance (TA) program to help NYHealth grantees build capacity in their financial management capabilities.

Grantees, especially those from smaller organizations, may lack experience developing and implementing long-term strategic fiscal plans that are critical to effectively sustaining their organizations and the projects that represent their mission. In 2010, NYHealth awarded the Nonprofit Finance Fund a grant to develop and lead a TA workshop for selected NYHealth grantees.

This project provided NYHealth grantees with technical assistance around fiscal planning methods to weather the economic storm. The Nonprofit Finance Fund’s Recession Fundamentals Workshop was a half-day seminar that gave the leadership of grantee organizations the necessary guidance and tools to withstand challenging economic times.

Topics of the workshop included:

Assessing organizational preparedness;
Evaluating fiscal risk exposure and tolerance;
Identifying and quantifying budget options; and
Communicating organizational financial stories to current and potential funders.

Brooklyn Community Foundation

On January 12, 2010, hundreds of thousands of people were killed, injured, and displaced from their homes as a result of the earthquake that devastated Port au Prince, Haiti.

The impact of this catastrophe extended beyond the shores of Haiti, affecting one of New York City’s growing, yet under-resourced, communities. New York City is home to one of the largest Haitian communities outside of Haiti—more than 140,000 individuals—the vast majority of whom live in Brooklyn and Queens. In response to this catastrophe and the needs of New York Haitian communities, NYHealth developed a three-part response strategy. The Foundation participated in two separate funding collaboratives led by Brooklyn Community Foundation (BCF) and Long Island Community Foundation (LICF). NYHealth also provided a grant to Haitian American Cultural and Social Organization (HACSO). NYHealth provided grants totaling $150,000 to support these organizations’ efforts to address the needs of Haitian communities in three areas of the State.

With NYHealth support, the Brooklyn Community Foundation and United Way of New York City established the NYC Haitian Community Hope & Healing Fund to address the short- and long-term needs of individuals, families, and communities in the New York City area affected by the earthquake in Haiti. The Fund provided financial support and critical resources to local nonprofit organizations in both Queens and Brooklyn. The fund focused on strengthening these local organizations to serve the increasing number of people who needed assistance with health and mental health issues; immigration; grief and trauma; job training; housing; English language acquisition; and more in the immediate aftermath and coming years.

Hudson River HealthCare, Inc.

The City of Yonkers is a medically isolated community with an inadequate primary care infrastructure.

As a result of financial stresses, Saint Joseph’s Hospital planned to close its Family Health Center, which would have created an immediate primary care access problem in Yonkers. With NYHealth support, Hudson River HealthCare, Inc. (HRHCare) took over and operated the St. Joseph’s Family Health Center and Residency program.

HRHCare has a long history of acquiring, transitioning, and successfully operating distressed clinics. Funds supported the transition team to implement a clinically and fiscally stable transfer of the Family Health Center, a key access point for an additional 8,500 Yonkers residents, as well as the training site for the Family Practice Residency Program. The integration of the residency program allowed for HRHCare to maintain community-based medical residents as a resource for primary care service provision.

Designation of the Family Health Center site as a federally qualified health center (FQHC) enabled it to receive higher reimbursement rates and achieve sustainability. This transition is expected to yield approximately $1 million in annual savings for the hospital. After the transition, HRHCare should be able to sustain the clinics through increased public insurance reimbursements as a result of its FQHC status.

Long Island Community Foundation

Long Island has a significant Haitian population; nearly 30,000 Haitians reside in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that struck the Haitian capital of Port au Prince in January 2010, the Long Island Community Foundation (LICF) experienced an influx of inquiries from local organizations that had seen a drastic increase in the need for mental health services among the Haitian community. In response to this catastrophe and the needs of New York Haitian communities, NYHealth developed a three-part response strategy. The Foundation participated in two separate funding collaboratives led by Brooklyn Community Foundation (BCF) and LICF. NYHealth also provided a grant to Haitian American Cultural and Social Organization (HACSO). NYHealth provided grants totaling $150,000 to support these organizations’ efforts to address the needs of Haitian communities in three areas of the State.

With NYHealth support, LICF created the Long Island Haitian Support Fund, which it used to make grants to organizations serving the Long Island Haitian population affected by the earthquake. Counseling was desperately needed, as many of Long Island’s Haitian residents had lost family members and friends in the earthquake; the influx of Haitians in Long Island also added to the need for immediate social and emotional support. LICF used the Fund to respond to two major areas of need: mental health counseling and facilitating enrollment for Temporary Protected Status.

New York University – College of Nursing

New York State has the third largest population of older adults in the U.S. Older patients account for 38% of all US hospital admissions; this is even higher in rural areas.

Older patients experience more complications during hospitalization compared to any other age group, which results in a lower survival rate, loss of independence, hospital readmissions, increased usage of rehabilitation services, and new placements in nursing homes.

As of October 2008, hospitals no longer receive payment from Medicare for eight complications, three of which—falls/fall injuries, pressure ulcers, and urinary tract infections—are known to occur more frequently in older patients and are found to be reduced when geriatric care models are used. Thus, avoidance of the costs for these complications is a priority for hospitals.

The NICHE program has emerged as a national leader in improving geriatric care. It has been adopted by nearly 300 hospitals nationally, including 18 in New York State. It provides evidence-based clinical protocols and operational tools that they have developed to improve elder care. It builds geriatric staff knowledge and competence within participating hospitals. With this grant, NICHE developed and adapted its approach for rural hospitals. It facilitated an online rural hospital learning community and a rural-urban collaborative via Web-based and other long-distance communication strategies. It recruited and implemented the program in 20 small, rural hospitals.

Rural Health Network of South Central New York, Inc.

Lack of access to services in remote areas of New York State is a problem facing many upstate, rural communities.

The Rural Health Network of South Central New York, Inc., a private, nonprofit organization that serves rural Broome, Delaware, and Tioga Counties, provided administrative oversight and other management services to multiple agencies to preserve and expand emergency and health services in the rural Southern Tier region with key partners Tioga County Neighbors Helping Neighbors (TCNHN) and the Susquehanna Regional Emergency Medical Services (SREMS).

This project allowed the Rural Health Network to provide administrative and management capacity that does not currently exist for either TCNHN or SREMS. For the TCNHN volunteer organizations, a shared full-time project coordinator provided resource development, data collection and evaluation, communications services, and volunteer recruitment, training, and retention support. For SREMS, the Rural Health Network provided four first-responder trained AmeriCorps members to support four volunteer emergency medical services (EMS) service organizations, and assisted with volunteer recruitment, communications, and fundraising.

TCNHN and SREMS both expend significant effort and resources on recruiting, organizing, deploying, and reimbursing volunteers. The centralization of administrative functions supported eight volunteer and nonprofit organizations in a more efficient and cost-effective way. This project leveraged modest Federal, State, and local resources to more efficiently and effectively provide services in a rural part of the State, which could become a model for other rural volunteer EMS services throughout New York State.

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Year: 2010