Grace Medical Home recently received a $150,000 grant as part of Direct Relief’s Innovation Awards in Community Health: Addressing Infectious Disease in Underserved Communities, generously funded by The Pfizer Foundation.
This support will enable Grace to increase vaccination initiatives for our adult patients against common inflections like seasonal flu. Additionally, it will help strengthen future vaccine delivery, including the COVID-19 vaccination, to reach our marginalized and vulnerable patient population.
Grace was the only clinic in Florida and one of only 11 clinics recognized nationally to receive this prestigious grant. Grants totaling $2.5 million went to safety-net community healthcare providers to support innovative approaches to infectious disease education, screening, testing, treatment, and care and to provide greater health equity among the country’s most vulnerable communities. Direct Relief managed the application and selection process in consultation with a panel of infectious disease physicians who provided a clinical review.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing systemic health inequities, resulting in vulnerable patients and their loved ones experiencing even greater hardship,” said Caroline Roan, President, The Pfizer Foundation and Chief Sustainability Officer, Pfizer Inc. “We are proud to support Direct Relief and its network of frontline safety-net clinics across the U.S. to break down barriers to good health in underserved communities and increase access to life-saving infectious disease prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care.”
“These awards are intended in part to allow providers to test and improve new care models and solutions, which is of utmost importance as healthcare is drastically changing due to COVID-19,” said Thomas Tighe, Direct Relief President and CEO. “We are humbled by the dedication of these largely unheralded safety-net health providers to improve the lives and health of the people they care for.”
