ST VINCENT CHARITY MEDICAL CENTER

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM SERVICES: St Vincent Charity Medical Center is Cleveland's faith-based, high quality healthcare provider. Or caregivers are devoted to treating every patient with clinical excellence and compassionate care. Our three main program services are 1) Healthcare Services, which includes Behavioral Health/SUD, Psychiatric Emergency Room, and Primary Care services; 2) Community Services, and 3) Outpatient Pharmacy. The Outpatient Mental Health Clinic was created in 2021 to meet the growing need for mental health outpatient services. The Outpatient Mental Health Clinic continued throughout 2023. The care team includes Psychiatry, psychology, social work, counseling, care coordination and medication management. The clinic focuses on caring for the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health of the patient. The facility continued to operate a Psychiatric Emergency Room to assist in treating and finding additional mental health assistance for these clients. Late 2022, the Joint Commission surveyed the Psychiatric Emergency Department and the Outpatient Rosary Hall due to the transformation of our facility to an Outpatient model. These services continue under the accreditation the Joint Commission awarded. St Vincent Charity caregivers including physicians, nursing, pharmacy, legal, external affairs and government affairs, continues to participate in the Northeast Ohio Hospital Consortium. ( A Community Health Center and physician-led collaborative of healthcare organizations working together to significantly reduce the impact of the opioid epidemic in the region by sharing and implementing evidence-based practices; promoting policy changes; and increasing prevention efforts.) St Vincent is involved in the community. The Central Neighborhood struggled with COVID challenges and the lack of a grocery store. In response, St Vincent continued its monthly food distribution, in partnership with the Greater Cleveland Food Bank. It is important for us to address the need for healthy food since 80% of the factors that influence health happen outside the walls of a health center. The distribution provides fresh fruits and vegetables, shelf stable products, clothes, community resources, boxed lunches and health screenings. In 2023, 1317 individuals were served. Thirty-seven percent of the households served in 2023 received food assistance for the first time at our pantry. It is important to make these services available since 9 in 10 Central Neighborhood residents are eligible to receive food bank benefits. The Mission Kitchen was established in February 2021 for the people of Central Neighborhood, especially those living in the Olde Cedar Estate Housing. Olde Cedar Estate Housing is the poorest section of housing in Cleveland and the oldest in the United States. The dream of taking food to the people in the neighborhood came from our director of food services when COVID limited the access to the cafeteria to patients and staff. St Vincent could no longer allow our neighbors to come in and buy a very reasonably priced breakfast. We started delivering oven ready meals to the residents of Olde Cedar Estate Housing once a month along with delivering meals to the Friendly Inn. We served clients at the Friendly Inn until the program closed due to change in ownership. The Friendly Inn is a social service center that serves residents in the Central neighborhoods. St Vincent opened the cafeteria to the neighborhood for a free hot meal once a month. The Cafeteria served about 100 plus people for the monthly meals. St Vincent Charity has a food pantry and a Jesus Room (Clothing and shoes) for the caregivers and patients in need. The clothing is available at the Refresh Pantry and days of the Mission Kitchen events. The Central Neighborhood of Cleveland continues to have the lowest median income in Cuyahoga County. Less than half of the 4,722 households in Central had access to the internet in early 2022. St Vincent remains committed to digital-C's effort to improve internet capacity and access for the residents of the Central Neighborhood and other under-connected and un-connected communities. Digital-C is a Cleveland not-for-profit program that connects the underserved community to the internet. Since 2017, St Vincent has hosted a digital-C internet Transmitter on the roof, which expands the internet coverage area. Digital-C began rolling out technologies and hardware to bring internet access to 500 additional homes in the Central Neighborhood due in part to Cuyahoga County's 2022 Central surge initiative. As further evidence of St Vincent's support of increased access in the community, we continued to enhance public awareness of PC's for People. (A not-for-profit organization whose mission is to provide refurbished PCs, training, and support to households that cannot afford that type of equipment and support services.) St Vincent had a medical-legal partnership with the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland assisting with clients of the Behavioral Health and Addiction service lines. In addition, they assisted with clients in all of St Vincent's service lines and along with the clients of Joseph Home. The Legal Aid Society has withdrawn and is no longer on location since there are not enough patients with needs, due to our facility downsizing. The Legal Aid Society continues to answer phone calls and is available for service by phone. They stated they would expand services at our facility if the need arises. St Vincent received grant funding from Cigna Health to host an outdoor Halloween Health fair for the Central Community. The event included blood pressure screenings, flu shots, distribution of household goods and food as well as Trick-or-Treat goodies. Lunch was provided to all in attendance. Each women received a bag of personal items. More than 200 individuals were served. St Vincent continued the No Tears for Christmas Program. Caregivers purchased and wrapped gifts for neighborhood children. The gifts were delivered to the Bingham Preschool and William Patrick Day Preschool. More than 90 children received Christmas gifts through the program. St Vincent also has an outpatient pharmacy. This department provides access to the neighborhood for their prescription needs. This department makes a positive difference due to the transportation limitations of citizens in the Central Neighborhood.