Thundermist & South County Health Centers Cash In On Grants

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, RI — The Rhode Island Foundation on Thursday announced grants to improve South County behavioral and emergency health care and pharmacy services. South County Health received $64,347 to work with the Washington County Behavioral Health Collaborative, The Providence Center and Butler Hospital to reduce the number behavioral health-related visits to emergency rooms at South County Hospital and Westerly Hospital. Thundermist Health Center was awarded $61,875 to hire a pharmacist to provide chronic disease management, medication assessment and adjustment and advanced patient education. The pharmacist is expected to see 125 unique patients a year, with over 475 annual pharmacy education and medication management visits.

About the South County grant, “an estimated one in seven South County Hospital emergency room patients has a behavioral health diagnosis," said Lou Giancola, president and CEO of South County Hospital Health Care. "Treating behavioral health concerns as chronic diseases rather than as an occasional crisis will improve outcomes for patients. We are privileged to be working with our partners on the Collaborative to better serve those in our community with behavioral health needs.”

About the Thundermist award, the pharmacist will take on complex patients with multiple chronic conditions to ensure proper medication management and to ease the burden on primary care providers.

“We are pleased to have this opportunity to add a pharmacist to our clinical team. Research shows that engaging a pharmacist in patient education and care improves health outcomes, including decreasing sick days, increasing testing rates and generates higher quality-adjusted life years with lower costs,” said Jeanne LaChance, president and CEO.

The Foundation awarded the grants through its RIGHA Foundation Fund, which was created after Harvard Pilgrim Health Care acquired the former Rhode Island Group Health Association. Harvard Pilgrim Health Care continues to make annual contributions to the fund, which promotes the development of an effective primary health care system in the state.

“Philanthropic support can provide the seed funding necessary to take innovative programs like these to the next level. Our goal is to reduce the cost of delivering high quality primary health care to Rhode Islanders,” said Karen Voci, president of the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation.

Clinica Esperanza, Crossroads Rhode Island and the Rhode Island Free Clinic in Providence also received grants.

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