Dignity Health – Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health Center (GMH) announced that the UniHealth Foundation awarded $795,000 to fund its new Integrated Supportive Care (ISC) initiative, an evidenced based program that will transform the way GMH cares for chronically and seriously ill patients, both inside and outside GMH. UniHealth Foundation is a non-profit philanthropic organization whose mission it is to support and facilitate activities that significantly improve the health and well-being of individuals and communities within its service area.

ISC aims to meet the needs of GMH highest risk, most vulnerable patient population by proactively reaching out and providing supportive care to these high risk patients across various care settings from the hospital to the home, or to a skilled nursing or long term care facility. The main objective is to establish a structured approach to providing timely and medically appropriate care to patients so that their chronic conditions – conditions that will inevitably worsen with age and/or disease progression – do not develop into a health crisis that could have been prevented. Ultimately, this program strives to drastically reduce and/or eliminate medically inappropriate ER visits and hospital stays.

“This grant supports our patients and their families with the appropriate resources and education needed to manage chronic and severe illness, especially after discharge from the hospital. Ultimately, the goal is to reduce repeat hospitalizations and increase patients’ overall quality of life. We look forward to collaborating with a number of different community based providers that offer a 24/7 in-home nursing response and pharmacies that can deliver medication 24/7 – supporting medication compliance, which will reduce one of the most common reasons for rapid readmission to the hospital,” said hospital president Jack Ivie. “We are grateful to the UniHealth Foundation for their unwavering commitment to our hospital programs and to the overall health and wellness of the communities we serve.”