INDIANAPOLIS – March 30, 2007, St.Vincent Foundation has received a $100,000 grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust to establish the “Fresh Start to Life” Prenatal Education Program at the St.Vincent Primary Care Center.
The Prenatal Education Program will provide health education, counseling and support at the Primary Care Center for 720 underinsured and uninsured women throughout Central Indiana. The program will evaluate the most at-risk women based on household income, language barriers, health knowledge and access to transportation. Those at the greatest risk based on these criteria will be chosen for the Prenatal Education Program.
“We are committed to making the appropriate resources readily available, so at risk expectant mothers in our community can have a positive pregnancy experience,” said Robert Lubitz, MD, vice president of Academic Affairs and Research at St.Vincent. “It is imperative that we provide the necessary education and care to improve maternal and child health outcomes for women. Our mission will ensure that newborns receive a healthy start to their lives.”
The new program will offer prenatal education and care coordination before and after a woman’s pregnancy to ensure that expectant mothers, new mothers and their children receive a full continuum of care at the Primary Care Center.
“The Trust’s funding to organizations Helping People in Need has a special focus of assisting women and children,” said Carol Peden Schilling, trustee for the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust and Nina Pulliam’s niece. “The grant to the St.Vincent Foundation combines Nina’s love of children with her affinity for women, particularly women who are dealing with life’s issues and need a helping hand. The Trust’s funding to the ‘Fresh Start to Life’ Prenatal Education program would have held a very special meaning to Nina, as it gives these precious babies and their mothers such a wonderful start to life together.”
According to the National Institutes of Health, babies born to mothers who receive no prenatal care are three times more likely to be born at low birth weight, and five times more likely to die of accidental death, than those whose mothers receive prenatal care.
The Primary Care Center’s Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinic is expected to see approximately 15,000 patients in 2007, an increase of over 2,500 patients from the previous year. About 30 percent of patients come to the OB/GYN clinic for first time prenatal care in their second trimester, which is considered late by St.Vincent physicians’ standards.
The grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust is one of several generous gifts raised for the Primary Care Center. Through the ambitious fundraising efforts coordinated by the St.Vincent Foundation, the Primary Care Center has received donations from St.Vincent associates, Bremner Healthcare Real Estate, CorVasc MD’s, David A. Noyes & Company, Hall Render, The Care Group and the St.Vincent Heart Center of Indiana.
An anonymous donor, W.C. Griffith Foundation, Cornelius Foundation, Swisher Foundation, R.B. Annis Foundation and the Ayres Foundation also donated to the Primary Care Center, totaling over $350,000.
Last August, St.Vincent broke ground on its 60,000 square-foot Primary Care Center on Naab Road to serve the primary care needs of the underserved population, and offer a state-of-the-art medical education and research center for physicians in training. The Center will provide full-service care for the entire family through its family medicine, internal medicine, women’s health and pediatrics clinics, and is expected to open this fall.
St.Vincent Foundation.
The St.Vincent Foundation is the non-profit philanthropic arm of St.Vincent Hospitals and Health Services. It supports the St.Vincent Indianapolis, Carmel, Women’s and Children’s Hospitals and other St.Vincent facilities in the metropolitan Indianapolis area.
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St.Vincent Health is a nonprofit, spiritually-centered health care system, sponsored by Ascension Health of St. Louis, Mo., the nation’s largest Catholic health system. St.Vincent Health is Indiana’s largest healthcare employer, with 16 health ministries serving 45 counties in central Indiana. The St.Vincent Health ministry includes St.Vincent Indianapolis Hospital; St. Joseph Hospital in Kokomo; Saint John’s Health System in Anderson; St.Vincent Carmel Hospital; St.Vincent Women’s Hospital; St.Vincent Pediatric Rehabilitation Center; St.Vincent Clay Hospital in Brazil; St.Vincent Frankfort Hospital; St.Vincent Jennings Hospital in North Vernon; St.Vincent Mercy Hospital in Elwood; St.Vincent New Hope; St.Vincent Randolph Hospital in Winchester; St.Vincent Stress Center; St.Vincent Williamsport Hospital; St.Vincent Children’s Hospital; and Seton Specialty Hospital.
GLHS is a member of the Sisters of St. Francis Health Services system. The Sisters of St. Francis began its mission in the United States with the founding of St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Lafayette in 1875, and through the course of more than 130 years, SSFHS has grown into a leading Midwest healthcare system with 10 hospitals in Indiana and two hospitals in Illinois.
