News Release

Proviso Partners in Health awarded grant by Institute for Healthcare Improvement

Grant and Award Announcement

Loyola Medicine

MAYWOOD, IL - The Proviso Partners for Health was awarded a grant from the Institute of Healthcare Improvement (IHI) to support their efforts to improve community health. Proviso Partners for Health (PP4H) is comprised of Loyola University Health System, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine and Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing as well as Proviso-Leyden Council for Community Action (PLCCA), Proviso East High School, Triton College, Cook County Department of Public Health and several other community organizations.

"We are thrilled with the energy that has resulted from PP4H and look forward to the resources and support from IHI," said Joanne Kouba, PhD, RDN, LDN, associate professor and director of dietetics education programs at Loyola University Chicago Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing.

PP4H is one of 24 communities that is part of the spreading community accelerators through learning and evaluation (SCALE) imitative which is made possible by a $4.8 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

"The SCALE initiative will help to share the knowledge and experience of health equity solutions that benefit community transformation," said Lena Hatchett, PhD, assistant professor and director of Community and University Partnerships at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.

SCALE helps communities further their capability to improve the health of targeted populations and develop ways to share and spread community-driven approaches across the country.

"After reviewing hundreds of impressive applications, we are pleased to welcome these 24 communities to the SCALE initiative and to bring them together to deepen their ability to create effective improvement and to generously share what's currently working in various locales," said Soma Stout, MD, MS, principal innovator in SCALE and external lead, health improvement, IHI.

"We are excited to be awarded the grant and look forward to supporting PP4H," said Armand Andreoni, director of community benefit at Loyola University Health System.

SCALE is designed to jumpstart an unprecedented community-to-community learning system right out of the gate in that the initiative matches four "mentor communities" - those with a recent track record of achieving better health - with 20 "pacesetter communities" that are seeking to accelerate their pace of change. PP4H has been named a pacesetter community and will support policy, systems, and environmental change through the Proviso East High School Wellness Committee, Mujeres Unidas Job training, and the Proviso East Entrepreneurial garden.

"PLCCA understands the health disparities in the community we serve, therefore we are excited to know we can build health equity within our community by evaluating the positive results of healthy environmental change," said Andrew Martin, vice president PLCCA.

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About Loyola University Health System

Loyola University Health System (LUHS) is a member of Trinity Health. Based in the western suburbs of Chicago, LUHS is a quaternary care system with a 61-acre main medical center campus, the 36-acre Gottlieb Memorial Hospital campus and more than 30 primary and specialty care facilities in Cook, Will and DuPage counties. The medical center campus is conveniently located in Maywood, 13 miles west of the Chicago Loop and 8 miles east of Oak Brook, Ill. At the heart of the medical center campus is a 559-licensed-bed hospital that houses a Level 1 Trauma Center, a Burn Center and the Ronald McDonald® Children's Hospital of Loyola University Medical Center. Also on campus are the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center, Loyola Outpatient Center, Center for Heart & Vascular Medicine and Loyola Oral Health Center as well as the LUC Stritch School of Medicine, the LUC Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing and the Loyola Center for Fitness. Loyola's Gottlieb campus in Melrose Park includes the 255-licensed-bed community hospital, the Professional Office Building housing 150 private practice clinics, the Adult Day Care, the Gottlieb Center for Fitness, Loyola Center for Metabolic Surgery and Bariatric Care and the Loyola Cancer Care & Research at the Marjorie G. Weinberg Cancer Center at Melrose Park.

About Loyola University Chicago Health Sciences Division

The Loyola University Chicago Health Sciences Division (HSD) advances interprofessional, multidisciplinary, and transformative education and research while promoting service to others through stewardship of scientific knowledge and preparation of tomorrow's leaders. The HSD is located on the Health Sciences Campus in Maywood, Illinois. It includes the Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing, the Stritch School of Medicine, the biomedical research programs of the Graduate School, and several other institutes and centers encouraging new research and interprofessional education opportunities across all of Loyola University Chicago. The faculty and staff of the HSD bring a wealth of knowledge, experience, and a strong commitment to seeing that Loyola's health sciences continue to excel and exceed the standard for academic and research excellence. For more on the HSD, visit LUC.edu/hsd.


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