CHAIRMAN'S MESSAGE

April 2012

When asked how she felt about her having her expectations for aging gracefully derailed by cancer, Gilda Radner commented, “I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned the hard way that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next.” Here we are, grantmaker and grantees, two years after the passage of the Accountable Care Act, still not sure what will happen next but making the best of it by creating and funding sustainable programs that will result in better outcomes for patients regardless of the legislation’s final status.

UniHealth Foundation’s grantmaking reflects the priorities of the hospitals and nonprofit healthcare providers we serve as they struggle to prepare for inevitable changes in healthcare delivery and reimbursement systems. Our aim has been to make grants that make sense—that can reduce or contain costs while improving quality of care and outcomes for patients. Several recent grants are funding partnerships among hospitals, Federally Qualified Healthcare Centers and social service providers to develop systems of care for patients with chronic diseases who are frequent users of the emergency room but have no access to primary care. Their goal is to curtail avoidable hospitalizations and promote wellness. Other grants are funding efforts to enhance the way primary care physicians are trained to better prepare them to work as members of multi-disciplinary teams responsible for patient care across a continuum of providers. And still others are supporting the implementation of telehealth services to expand access to specialty care in medically underserved communities.

We are continually amazed by the energy and persistence of healthcare providers who in an environment of uncertainty stay focused on their healing missions. We wish our collective crystal ball was less murky and that we could predict the future, but too many variables make that impossible. So we will strive to remain a flexible and responsive grantmaker, true to our mission and privileged to partner with nonprofit hospitals and healthcare providers who share it.