Affinia Healthcare Expands High Blood Pressure Efforts with New Funding
ST. LOUIS, MO – Affinia Healthcare has been awarded $30,000 grant to support efforts to reduce high blood pressure in patients. The American Heart Association (AHA) Going for Gold and Beyond grant will allow staff to improve outcomes for patients with high blood pressure and other related conditions.
The team executing the terms of the grant will consist of a pharmacist who will provide hypertension management and prescription education; a community health worker to address non-medical needs; and a behavioral health consultant for their services as needed. This grant will also allow eligible patients to receive food vouchers, blood pressure cuffs and for the first month, there is no copay for prescriptions if they are uninsured.
“Providing exceptional service to our patients goes beyond medical appointments,” said Affinia Healthcare President & CEO Dr. Kendra Holmes. “We want to provide a holistic approach to help improve health outcomes which means providing education, access to healthy food items and other necessary tools for our patients.”
About 55 percent of Black adults have high blood pressure, also known as hypertension. Black people also have higher rates of more severe high blood pressure than other ethnic groups and it develops earlier in life.
Services under this grant will be enacted in 2025. For more information about Affinia Healthcare, visit www.affiniahealthcare.org.
About Affinia Healthcare
Affinia Healthcare is an award-winning, nationally accredited health center, providing affordable primary and preventive health care for St. Louis, Missouri, area residents. Affinia Healthcare is a community health center, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and is accredited through The Joint Commission and National Committee of Quality Assurance organizations. Established in 1906 as the Holy Cross Dispensary, Affinia Healthcare today serves over 43,700 people per year, of whom more than 90 percent have incomes under 100 percent of the federal poverty level. Approximately 70 percent of patients served are Black or African American, 11 percent are Hispanic/Latinx, and over 4,000 are unhoused.
The Affinia Healthcare Foundation depends on a wide array of funding sources and individual donor contributions to support Affinia Healthcare’s mission of providing care for the most vulnerable and disenfranchised in our community. To make a donation to the Affinia Healthcare Foundation, visit www.affiniahealthcare.org/donate. For more information about Affinia Healthcare, call 314-814-8700, or visit www.affiniahealthcare.org.
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