Visiting Nurse Association of Greater Philadelphia Receives Grant Award from First Hospital Foundation

PHILADELPHIA, May 14 /PRNewswire/ -- The Visiting Nurse Association of Greater Philadelphia (VNA) has received a grant award from the First Hospital Foundation in the amount of $40,000.  The grant will be used to enhance the VNA's Wound Care Program and will enable the agency to purchase digital cameras so the home visiting clinicians can document patients wound progression and improve wound care delivery.

"We are grateful to the First Hospital Foundation for their most generous support as well as their vision and commitment to support the elderly in need," said Stephen Holt, President and CEO of the VNA. "An integral part of the VNA's mission from its beginning in 1886, our commitment to quality has grown even stronger over the years.  Today's technologies and resources have altered it in a way that helps us perform such service more effectively, more knowledgeably, more swiftly – reaching out to an even wider audience of those in need."

The grant from the First Hospital Foundation will provide the equipment and training for 100 VNA nurses who will use the technology as part of their home health care in 2010. Almost 80 percent of VNA patients require some form of wound assessment care.  Approximately 40 percent require extensive wound care services.

Visiting Nurse Association of Greater Philadelphia

The Visiting Nurse Association of Greater Philadelphia is a leading not-for-profit provider of comprehensive 24-hour in-home healthcare to residents of Philadelphia, Delaware, Montgomery and Bucks counties.  Since 1886, the Visiting Nurse Association of Greater Philadelphia has provided specialized services to Southeastern Pennsylvania residents regardless of their ability to pay.  For more information about the Visiting Nurse Association of Greater Philadelphia or the services it provides, visit www.vnaphilly.org or call 1-800-VNA-1160.

Hospice of Philadelphia

Hospice of Philadelphia, a service of the Visiting Nurse Association of Greater Philadelphia, provides home care, respite and inpatient services to patients with progressive illnesses.  Other services provided for patient comfort and family support include alternative therapies, bereavement care and pastoral counseling, which help promote the patients' and families' well-being.

SOURCE Visiting Nurse Association of Greater Philadelphia