Wake Forest Baptist Health has received two grants totaling $910,800 from The Duke Endowment to support two new projects focused on food insecure households and a home telemonitoring resource for patients discharged from the Wake Forest Baptist ICU recovery clinic.
The first Endowment grant will assist the Food is Health project, which will aim to expand access to healthy food for children and families who are patients at Wake Forest Baptist and are experiencing food insecurity. This project will establish an efficient approach to integrating and financing evidence-based, non-medical health care services that may be sustained through a combination of Medicaid, institutional and grant funding.
“Especially amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and reports of increasing food insecurity, the Food is Health project has the potential to positively impact the health of our community during these uncertain times,” said Kimberly Montez, M.D., principal investigator for the Food is Health grant and assistant professor of pediatrics at Wake Forest Baptist.
The second Endowment grant will fund the Wake Forest Baptist post-ICU Telehealth Program. This program will work to improve access to post-ICU care by increasing patient access, reducing financial concerns and transportation barriers and delivering certain care through video telehealth services while the patient is at home. Through this program, patients’ physical function also will be monitored by activity trackers.
“Through funding from The Duke Endowment, this program will improve access for patients in post-ICU care by increasing patient contact to practitioners knowledgeable about the ICU recovery process,” said Rita Bakhru, M.D., principal investigator for the post-ICU Telehealth program and assistant professor of pulmonary, critical care, allergy, and immunologic medicine at Wake Forest Baptist.
“We are very appreciative of this critical funding from The Duke Endowment,” said Lisa Marshall, chief philanthropy officer at Wake Forest Baptist. “With their philanthropic partnership for Food is Health, we are able to invest in improving the health of our most underserved and vulnerable community members. The post-ICU Telehealth program investment allows us to model a new form of care that ultimately can transform the post-ICU experience for patients everywhere.”
Those who would like to learn how they can help support these community initiatives can contact Wake Forest Baptist’s Office of Philanthropy and Alumni Relations 336-716-4589 or visit www.wakehealth.edu/philanthropy.
Media Contacts
Eryn Johnson, eryjohns@wakehealth.edu, 336-905-1442
Joe McCloskey, jmcclosk@wakehealth.edu, 336-716-1273