The Health Care Foundation has disbanded and has given its remaining funds to be used for patient transportation.
Board member Brian Gansauer says Salem Township Hospital received $35,000 and SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital around $30,000 since they had been helped earlier.
“Foundation has been around for 20+ years helping raise money help those that need help with medical bills and travel expenses back and forth to St. Louis. We’ve decided over the past 3-4 years that fund raising has become difficult to do. Finding staff to run the agency has been difficult to do. Have decided to dissolve the entity at the end of this year so with that we’ve taken the remaining funds making to donations, one to Salem Township Hospital, and one to SSM. Those funds are intended to be used for travel expenses for those patients.”
Salem Township Hospital President Jim Timpe explains how Salem hospital will use the money.
“Actually we have a contract with our security firm blue line they actually do a transport service so they are able to take patients, especially for behavioral health patients, to their next site or care and those are things that aren’t covered by insurance but we cover that. Now this grant will help us cover that for them.”
Timpe says the grant funds can also be used to cover room and board for overnight stays at hospitals out of the area.
The attorney for the Health Care Foundation, Marvin Miller, says the foundation had been left the money from a will specifically for the transportation help.
