​HSSA Announces Awards for its 2021 “Access to Care” Grant

Just in time for Christmas, HSSA's Board announces its 2021 Access to Care grant recipients. They are Catholic Charities of Eastern Washington ($19,250), Partners with Families and Children ($42,500), Spokane Prescription Assistant Network ($30,000), Spokane Regional Domestic Violence Coalition ($29,250), and YWCA Spokane ($29,000).

The Health Sciences and Services Authority (HSSA) of Spokane County has announced the organizations who will receive $150,000 in total grants in 2020 for the important access to health care work they do. HSSA said it received well over $780,000 in grant requests for its annual Access to Care grant, the highest amount ever requested.

HSSA also contributed $240,000 in March of this year for Covid-19 Relief grants to assist immediate needs related to the pandemic.

Following are the recipients of HSSA Access to Care grants for 2021:

Catholic Charities of Eastern Washington will receive a grant of $19,250 to for its Integrated Health Screening in Supportive Housing program. (Rob McCann, CEO, 509.358.4272).

Partners with Families and Children will receive $42,500 in 2021 to help it continue to meet the growing needs of our community’s most vulnerable population, children who are victims of physical and/or sexual abuse. (Carol Plischke, Executive Director, 509.473.4832).

Spokane Prescription Assistance Network will receive $30,000. It is one of the most cost-effective programs HSSA funds with a 18:1 return on investment. (Kelly Armstrong, MSW, 509.981.6420)

Spokane Regional Domestic Violence Coalition will receive $29,250 to support effort to coalesce educational outreach and marketing on the subject of domestic violence. (Annie Murphey, 509.481.3522).

YWCA Spokane will receive from HSSA $29,000 of bridge funding for one year to maintain tele-heath infrastructure for electronic medical record and billing services, and to sustain a HIPAA-compliant Zoom platform, and purchase four laptops. (Jeanette Hauck, CEO, 509.789.9302).

“HSSA’s mission includes increasing access to care through innovative and collaborative health care delivery that serves Spokane County citizens, in addition to funding scientific research and infrastructure to grow the life sciences industry in Spokane,” said Nancy L. Isserlis, HSSA Board Chair.

HSSA’s grant competition helps to meet one of its strategic goals to increase access to health services in Spokane County for at risk populations and represents a fund of about 15 percent of annual revenues designated for this purpose. Funds amounting to $240,000 were provided early this year for immediate Covid-19 relief.

“HSSA provides resources to those organizations in our County who do the important work with people who might otherwise not receive health care services,” Isserlis said. “HSSA’s Access to Care grant program also helps fund solutions to particularly difficult complex health problems,” Isserlis said.

HSSA’s other strategic initiative is to increase local health sciences research and the infrastructure that supports it and designates 75 percent of its revenues for that purpose. In the latter case, the research grants are open year-round for proposals at any time, and HSSA has invested over $5 million in health science research and infrastructure grants to date. HSSA was successful in achieving reauthorization for 15 years in the last legislative session, thanks to local legislative leadership and local partners, Isserlis said.

Together with its Access to Care grants, the organization estimates that it has created over 500 jobs and over $100 million in total economic activity. This includes well over $35 million in extramural federal grant funding to Spokane.