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Hennepin Health Foundation Safety Net Fund
When our patients at Hennepin County Medical Center face urgent needs, the Safety Net Fund is ready to respond. Warm pajamas and diapers, a winter coat, transportation home for a patient exhausted from chemotherapy, medication that must be taken before insurance takes effect — all are examples of the pressing patient needs met through the Safety Net Fund.
The Safety Net Fund also helps patients by helping to put in place important programs and equipment to meet their needs. When staff at Hennepin need funding for a new program or quality enhancement, the Safety Net Fund provides a grant in response to a well-conceived proposal.
Indeed, the Safety Net Fund has helped Hennepin launch innovative programs in children’s literacy, prenatal care and Native American advocacy. The Safety Net Fund is also a source of funding for critically important equipment, such as Hennepin’s emergency cart for use in large crowds when there is no access route for an ambulance.
For 50 years, the Safety Net Fund has been a primary focus of the Service League. Now, as the Service League folds into the Hennepin Health Foundation, the Service League will continue its essential work supporting patients and families through the Hennepin Health Foundation.We are pleased to announce that the Service League has pledged to raise $50,000 for the Safety Net Fund by year-end.
During this severe economic downturn, the Safety Net Fund is needed even more. Our patients have nowhere else to turn when medical concerns devastate an already precarious family budget.
As noted by Arthur Gonzalez, Dr.P.H.,
CEO at Hennepin: “The Safety Net is about our mission, and that is truly a prime example of what is the best of Hennepin."
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All Safety Net programming works to enhance or supplement the hospital environment, services, or programs. These include:
- Promoting a healing environment
- Funds for urgent patient needs. Contributions from our donors have helped to:
- Wrap a newborn in a sleeper and blanket for the trip home
- Meet the co-pay so that a mental health patient could get his medication
- Transport a young woman who was abused by her boyfriend home to her family in
another state
- Provide small gifts to the grandchildren from a dying grandmother on her last Christmas
- Supply funds for a young mother to buy formula for her baby
- Place a craft activity in the hands of a long-term patient
- Rent a walker for a woman when insurance wouldn't cover it
- Put shoes, a jacket and gloves on a homeless man
- Present experiences of art and music to calm and soothe a worried father
- Support the volunteer giving a hand massage that brought a woman to joyful tears
"because no one had touched her or cared for her like that in years."
- Emergency clothing needs
- Employee amenities such as convenient purchasing of stamps and bus cards, reduced rates on entertainment tickets, and discount programs
- Start-up funding for positions such as On-Call Weekend Chaplain, Child life Specialist, Healing Environment Coordinator, and Native American Advocate
- Offering crafts, activities, and reading materials to patients
- Providing patients with access to the CARE Channel, a nature and music-based television channel
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