With nearly 16 percent of the U.S. population living without health insurance — or 45 million people — the lack of access to quality care is a problem that continues to grow. It’s one of the reasons why GE, as part of its healthymagination initiative, committed to a 3-year, $25 million program last October to help increase access to primary care in 10 underserved locations across U.S. Today Milwaukee, Wisconsin became the second city in the U.S., following New York, to receive a grant from the GE Foundation Developing Health program to improve access to primary care. The $1 million will be split between four Milwaukee community health centers — all of which offer health services to patients that are not able to pay.
Measuring Milwaukee: Alicia Cheng of MGMT Design helped us visualize the state of health in Milwaukee County compared to averages in Wisconsin and the nation. Click on the image to enlarge it. This is GE’s 8th data visualization on health. You can view the other seven on the healthymagination website.
“All of us are honored to be recognized by GE for this funding and the supporting volunteers, which will allow us to increase access and improve our services for the more 30,000 patients and almost 115,000 visits we have annually,” said C.C. Henderson, president and CEO, Milwaukee Health Services, Inc, which runs two of the clinics receiving grants: Martin Luther King Heritage Health Center and Isaac Coggs Heritage Health Center. The other health centers are the Cesar Chavez Clinic and Parkway Clinic, which are part of the Sixteenth Street Community Health Center.
In addition to the grants, the GE employee volunteer programs will partner with each of the health centers to provide skill-based support and best practice sharing. The GE teams and clinic staffs will focus on addressing business–based process improvements to benefit patients and workflows.
All access pass: “So many people are struggling to maintain their health in our community,” said John Bartkowski, president and CEO, Sixteenth Street Community Health Center. “The number of people that we see without insurance or resources to pay for healthcare continues to grow on a daily basis.” Pictured from left at today’s press conference: GE’s Mike Barber; C.C. Henderson, President and CEO, Milwaukee Health Services, Inc; Gov. Jim Doyle of Wisconsin; John Bartkowski; GE’s Deborah Elam, VP and Chief Diversity Officer; and Dr. Tito Izard, Chief Medical Officer, Milwaukee Health Services, Inc.
Said Mike Barber, VP of GE healthymagination: “I’ve lived in Milwaukee all my life and understand well the area’s potential, and its challenges, particularly in the area of healthcare. By partnering with these clinics to increase access to primary care we can help more people get the care they need when they need it. This program and the volunteers supporting it are a living example of GE’s healthymagination strategy to help change the world’s approach to healthcare by touching more lives and improving quality of care.”
GE, the GE Foundation — which is the philanthropic organization of GE — and the GE Corporate Diversity Council modeled the new initiative on GE’s successful philanthropic program, “Developing Health Globally,” which directly impacts more than 4.8 million people worldwide by improving access to quality healthcare for some of the world’s most vulnerable populations.
* Read the announcement
* Learn more about the Developing Health initiative
* Learn more on the Developing Health Globally website
* Watch a video: “Developing Health: A clinic grows in Brooklyn” on GE Reports
* Read about our other data visualizations on GE Reports
* Read stories about GE’s other philanthropic efforts on GE Reports