GRANT TO HELP FUND MATERNITY PROGRAM

Mary Washington Hospital Community Benefit Fund Awards Grant to the Rappahannock Area Health District 

January 9, 2014

(Fredericksburg, Va.)—Recently, the Mary Washington Hospital Community Benefit Fund awarded the Rappahannock Area Health District (RAHD) a $100,000 grant for its “Complicated Obstetrical and High Risk Maternity Care Program.”

This program provides maternity services to economically challenged women who may be uninsured or have difficulty accessing health care. Many RAHD patients have other medical or obstetrical conditions which make their pregnancies high risk. This grant will provide those patients with the counseling and case management they need during their pregnancies. Lack of this specialized care can result in higher infant and maternal fatalities, higher rates of preventable ER visits and hospitalizations, premature births and low birth weights.

According to Dr. Brooke Rossheim, Health Director of the RAHD, “We are very appreciative of Mary Washington Hospital’s Community Benefit Fund support of RAHD’s Maternity Program. The Program sees a large number of high-risk patients, and this funding helps to ensure these patients receive the care they need.”

The Mary Washington Hospital Community Benefit Fund provides funding for the obstetric clinicians and nurses who staff the maternity program. The RAHD’s maternity clinics serve the residents of Spotsylvania, Stafford, Fredericksburg, King George and Caroline County. An estimated 950 to 1000 patients per year come to the clinic for care.

For more information about the many programs offered by the RAHD, visit https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/LHD/rappahanl/.