Anonymous donor helps homeless patients at Fresno hospitals — but there’s a catch
An anonymous donor is contributing up to $500,000 to help Community Medical Centers cover the cost of providing basic supplies like shoes, clothes or other items that poor or homeless patients may need upon their discharge from the hospital.
The donation announced Monday at Community Regional Medical Center in downtown Fresno comes with a catch, however: it depends on other donors in Fresno and the Valley to make matching contributions to fulfill the entire half-million-dollar pledge, said Katie Zenovich, CEO of the Community Medical Foundation.
Each dollar raised in other contributions to Community Medical’s Safe Discharge Program through Jan. 31, 2020, will be matched dollar-for-dollar by the anonymous donor, Zenovich said. If the drive is successful, the combination will add up to $1 million – or possibly more. “We’re hoping we get to the million dollars or even beyond because we know the need is not going away,” she said.
Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno and Clovis Community Medical Center had a combined 44,000 visits from poor or homeless patients in 2019. “Some of them come to us without any shoes or without a shirt on their back,” Zenovich said. And after they are treated, “you can’t send someone home in just a paper gown.”
The donations will help the hospital cover costs that annually add up to about $1 million and aren’t reimbursed by any insurance or government funding. That includes shoes, clothes, food, transportation home or to a shelter, a wheelchair or walker if necessary, and an initial supply of medications upon the patient’s discharge from the hospital.
“This includes everything we can do to put them on a path to have a better recovery and hopefully not wind up back here in the hospital,” Zenovich said. Currently, the hospitals’ staff holds shoe, clothing and food drives to help homeless patients; the hospital company absorbs the rest of the costs.
There are two ways to donate to match the anonymous contribution:
- By phone: call the Community Medical Foundation at 559-724-4343.
- Online: visit www.communitymedical.org/foundation.
Donors need to specify that they want their contribution to be used to help match the anonymous donation for safe discharge. “We want the community to make this work,” Zenovich said. “Spend this guy’s money. If you give a dollar, it will be $2. If it’s $100, it will be $200 and we’ll get there pretty fast.”
