Kaiser Permanente Honored With International Medical Corps Global Citizen Award
Humanitarian, medical relief response efforts, plus total health commitment praised
Humanitarian, medical relief response efforts, plus total health commitment praised
OAKLAND, Calif., Nov. 16, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Kaiser Permanente has been honored by International Medical Corps with its 2015 Global Citizen Award. The award recognizes Kaiser Permanente's significant support of IMC's response to last year's Ebola epidemic in West Africa, the largest Ebola outbreak in history, as well as other global humanitarian and medical relief efforts.
"Kaiser Permanente is proud to support the life-saving and life-changing work International Medical Corps is conducting around the world," said Raymond Baxter, PhD, Kaiser Permanente's senior vice president of Community Benefit, Research and Health Policy.
Kaiser Permanente's $1 million grant to IMC's Ebola relief efforts funded mobile support teams in Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Volunteers from Kaiser Permanente, including physicians Hernando Garzon, MD, and Steven Whiteley, MD, personally deployed within West Africa to treat patients and train local caregivers.
"With Kaiser Permanente's support – and that of other organizations – International Medical Corps volunteers were able to accelerate the Ebola response and save countless lives in the process," said Cynthia Telles, PhD, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. and Hospitals board member and chair of its Community Benefit Committee.
International Medical Corps is a global, nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives and relieving suffering through health care training and relief and development programs. Hundreds of Kaiser Permanente clinical and logistics employees and physicians volunteer each year for humanitarian relief and even more on medical missions, including those led by IMC. Kaiser Permanente clinicians and employees have served in international locales ranging from Armenia to Nepal to the Philippines to Vietnam.
"Kaiser Permanente's commitment to improving the total health of its members and the communities it serves, its dedication to expanding health access in its communities, and its longstanding investment in disaster relief and recovery aligns with International Medical Corps mission to offer health care and training to people at the highest risk and help communities return to self-reliance in the aftermath of an emergency," said Nancy Aossey, IMC's president and CEO.
About Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America's leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, our mission is to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve more than 10 million members in eight states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the-art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health. For more information, go to: kp.org/share.
Contact: Marc Brown, 510-271-6328
[email protected]
Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20151113/287367
Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130718/SF49717LOGO
SOURCE Kaiser Permanente
Share this article