In the spirit of the holidays, Dr. Gabbe shares some of the many ways OSU Medical Center faculty and staff give back to our community throughout the year.
Hi! During this season of giving, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on how our organization, through the efforts of many individual faculty and staff, has improved people's lives through outreach efforts for our community all year long. I agree with President Gee when he said "Working at Ohio State is more than just a job - it is a calling."
Last year our community benefit contribution totaled more than $124 million dollars. Community benefit is a combined total of the care we provide for those who can't afford it, the shortfall we absorb from what commercial and government payers don't cover, as well as free care and services we provide in the community. What makes us unique as an academic medical center is that we provide community outreach in all of our mission areas: clinical care, research and education and that our reach is not only to our local community, but also to the state, to the nation, and to other countries.
Did you know that you contribute as a group over $300,000 every year to the Bucks for Charity Campaign and almost $2 million dollars annually to Campus Campaign, which helps to fund special programs right here at the University?
Through your donations to Operation Feed each spring, you help to keep the food shelves stocked in 243 food pantries, soup kitchens and emergency shelters in Franklin and surrounding counties.
This year, our nurses came together during Nurses Week to collect donations and assembled over 300 care packages for our soldiers overseas. And they raised over $1,000.
Just this November, two of our staff members, Terry Fricker and Marsha Bendle, organized a drop-off for Shoebox for Soldiers. Staff dropped off shoeboxes filled with items for our overseas troops to enjoy for the holidays. The event turned out to be a great success, and we're thankful we could let our troops know we're thinking of them during this holiday season.
Currently we are collecting donations for the Caring for our Own program, to provide a better holiday for our staff and families who are experiencing unplanned hardships.
We give free care to the underserved in our community in many unique ways. One local example is the Asian Health Initiative which has been developed to improve the health of the medically underserved Asian population in central Ohio. We also sponsor La Clínica Latina to provide medical care for Latino residents in central Ohio along with service learning opportunities for College of Medicine and Nursing students. Both are based at our Rardin location on High Street north of campus. In addition, our students, residents and attending physicians volunteer their time to staff the Physician's Free Clinic.
In education, our Urban Residency Program provides training for Ohio State physicians to care for the unique needs of people living in urban areas. We're excited to be one of the first in the county to develop resources specifically for an urban population through this program.
Through the College of Medicine's Outreach and Engagement program we are able to reach out to community physicians, hospitals and other healthcare organization in more than 30 Ohio counties to provide training opportunities for our students and residents in rural and urban settings, to address community needs through health promotion and disease prevention programs and to help solve healthcare challenges facing underserved and vulnerable patient populations.
By collaborating with community groups and organizations we're able to accomplish so much more working together. For a list of our partners and other programs we participate in, please visit our external website under About Us, Serving our Communities.
One of the challenges of such a big and giving place is collecting all of your activities so they can be recognized and shared. I encourage you to share what you are doing to help our community, either as a volunteer, by facilitating a support group, or working with a community partner to deliver a unique service. Please go to the Community Benefits page on OneSource and complete the ‘Community Benefit Form' and send it to Deborah Frazier in our Finance area.
In closing, I want to personally thank each of you for the generosity and the kindness you show all year long and for all the wonderful things you do. Pat and I wish you peace and good health this holiday season.
We'll be taking a holiday break from the blog for the next few weeks, so I'll see you next year! And GO BUCKS!!!