Patient Assistance
Providence Southwest Washington Foundation
Know Me, Care for Me, Ease My Way
For some patients in our community, there are obstacles to making a safe and healthy transition home following a hospital stay. Bridging these gaps not only prevents delays in discharge but also helps us provide an available bed for the next patient sooner. The Sr. Rita (Thurston County) and Sr. Carolyn (Lewis County) Patient Assistance Funds help meet that need.
Support is provided in the form of transportation to and from chemotherapy, radiation, and hospital appointments/stays; clothing for discharged patients who lost theirs during treatment for a medical emergency; a safe bed/place to stay, for those with nowhere to go, while they focus on healing; mobility equipment, such as walkers, for those with no other means; car seats, formula and diapers for newborns who came earlier than expected; and food and supplements to help those without sufficient nutrition heal properly.
These needs are not new to our patients, but they are growing. Financial hardships because of job loss, furloughs and reduced or lost benefits are on the rise. Providence caregivers at Providence hospitals are experiencing barriers to properly care for
their patients’ transition home almost daily. They work tirelessly to find other resources but regularly turn to the foundation’s Sister Carolyn Patient Assistance Fund (Lewis County) and Sister Rita Patient Assistance Fund (Thurston County)
to bridge those gaps to a safe return home and a healthy recovery.
Our Impact
Since 2014, donations to the Sister Carolyn and Sister Rita funds have provided over $40,000 in critical funding in support of our patient’s wellbeing by providing food, transportation, clothing, durable medical equipment, and temporary boarding for patients with no safe place to go home to while they heal.
Clothes Closet
People sometimes come into the emergency room in clothing that is damaged or destroyed. The Clothes Closet at both Providence Centralia Hospital and Providence St. Peter Hospital can provide patients who are ready to be discharged with those essential items. This critical resource comes in handy several times a day.
Transportation
Not everyone has reliable transportation to get to and from their medical appointments, procedures, and hospital stays. We help bridge the transportation gap between patients and the care they need in providing a bus pass, gas card or taxi fare to help discharged patients get home safely.
Respite Care
Sometimes, patients don’t have a safe place to recover following a hospital stay. As a result, these patients spend days, or even weeks, longer in the hospital than medically necessary. Through our patient assistance funds we can provide temporary lodging at a nearby motel or shelter while the patient heals and soon can be on their way to a healthier life.
Our Philanthropic Needs
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Sister Rita Patient Assistance Fund
Provides critical needs to patients in Thurston County, especially during discharge, by helping families with food insecurity obtain meals, providing transportation, clothing, and temporary lodging while recovering. -
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Sister Carolyn Patient Assistance Fund
Provides critical needs to patients in Lewis County, especially during discharge, by helping families with food insecurity obtain meals, providing transportation, clothing, and temporary lodging while recovering.
Second Chances
The best health care does more than save lives. It changes them.
“The people at Providence took me in, fed me, clothed me, fixed me and reinvigorated me. In more ways than one, they saved my life and my soul.”
Those are Gary’s words. At 53 years old, he had been living in a rural part of the county in a tent on a tree farm for five years. This past January, shortness of breath and chest pain brought him to Providence. He was sick, homeless and unemployed. He owned only one pair of socks, one pair of shoes and a change of clothes. He lives without heat, hot water, a phone, lighting or running water. His only income was food stamps and to use these he had to walk 2 miles to town to get supplies. Gary had lost hope that anything would change.
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