Rural Health Network of South Central NY announces Bristol Myers Squibb Grant

Rural Health Network SCNY (RHN) recently announced they received a $500,000 grant from Bristol Myers Squibb to kick off the Community Health CORE project. 

The project will address health disparities in access to care for medically underserved rural families in Broome and Tioga Counties, and is a collaboration between RHN and Ascension Lourdes Hospital Primary Care Network. The program model integrates Community Health Educator and Community Health Worker support into the clinical care team to address root causes of health concerns, connect people to primary care, and close care gaps related to therapeutic areas of oncology and hematology. 

“Eighty percent of health outcomes are driven by non-clinical root causes related to environment, skills, and knowledge,” said Mary Maruscak, director of Community Health Education at RHN, adding, “Addressing those root causes is integral to health improvement. Our Community Health team will take a person-centered approach to encourage self-management and self-advocacy in partnership with the clinical team from Lourdes. It’s the ideal combination of wrap-around services to set patients up for better health in the long term.” 

“RHN is excited to be partnering with Ascension Lourdes on the Community Health CORE Project,” stated RHN Executive Director Mark Bordeau. 

He added, “This project has tremendous potential. The collaboration between Ascension Lourdes Primary Care providers and RHN’s Community Health Educators and Community Health Workers will be valuable in providing integrated medical care and positive outcomes to the individuals we serve.”  Bordeau goes on to state, “The Rural Health Network is very thankful to Bristol Meyers Squibb for supporting this innovative project”.  

Bristol Myers Squibb’s foundation and corporate giving program focuses on several therapeutic areas of interest including cardiovascular, immunology, oncology, and hematology.