Massachusetts Medical Society Foundation raises $100,000 for Gulf States physicians
Mass. Medical Society completes month-long fund-raising campaign to help Gulf States physicians restores medical practice, deliver health care
Waltham, Mass. (PRWEB) November 3, 2005
The Massachusetts Medical Society & Alliance Charitable Foundation announced today that its matching-gift fund-raising effort for the month of October to help physicians in the Gulf States rebuild their medical practices has raised more than $100,000.
The funds will be split among the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, acting as the fiscal agent for the Louisiana State Medical Society, and the Mississippi State Medical Association Foundation. Those organizations will identify physicians who need assistance and determine the amount of funds to give each physician.
The impact of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath produced a regional health care crisis, as patients couldn’t find their doctors, medical records were lost, and physician practices were destroyed. Preliminary data from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill indicated that nearly 20,000 physicians were affected by Hurricane Katrina, with more than 6,000 physicians engaged in patient care dislocated because of flooding and related damage.
The Foundation established the Disaster Relief Campaign with an initial contribution of $10,000 from the Medical Society and $1,000 from the MMS Alliance, the organization of physicians’ spouses. Donations from individual physicians, medical practices, physicians’ organizations, Alliance members, and medical society staff, along with matching gifts from the Medical Society and the Alliance, brought the total to $100,303.
Established in 2000, the Massachusetts Medical Society and Alliance Charitable Foundation is a supporting organization of the Massachusetts Medical Society, the statewide association of physicians. The MMS Alliance is the organization of physicians’ spouses committed to promoting good health among the citizens of Massachusetts and to advancing the health and well being of the medical family. Since its inception, the Foundation has made more than $780,000 in allotments, supporting such services as medical care for the uninsured and underserved, childhood injury prevention, rape crisis and services for battered women, and homelessness prevention.
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