About St. Margaret Foundation
Helping St. Margaret Patients with the Essential Needs Not Covered by Insurance Yet Are Necessary to Heal, Remain Independent and Have Hope.
The Reason We Exist: When you're sick, fear of the unknown is debilitating enough without having to worry if you have a ride to chemotherapy or treatment, or if you can pay for the expensive medicine, home oxygen, hearing aids, walkers, insulin, and other items you need that aren't covered by insurance and that most of us take for granted. Your gift fills in those heartbreaking gaps of suffering with hope, healing and independence for patients of St. Margaret so they can go back to living their lives, not the crisis.
The Problem: In today's healthcare environment health insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid don't cover everything. This becomes tragic when a patient has limited resources and is now facing the most compromised time of their life. Our patients tell us that illness is scary enough without the worry of getting to their treatment or if they can get what they need to heal, stay well, and remain self-sufficient in their homes.
How You Can Help Fix It: Donors become the friend that eases the uncertainty and inaccessibility of what patients need by providing the necessary resources to fill in the gaps. After conducting focus groups with community members, hospital staff and physicians St. Margaret Foundation has defined three key focus areas:
1) Patient Access;
2) Patient Experience; and
3) Patient Education.
We do not pay hospital or doctor costs. We provide vital items and transportation that slip through the cracks of managed care.
What Happens When You Fix It: People can go back to living their lives not the crisis.
Our Promise: We give our donors the comfort of knowing their donations are used frugally. We stretch the resources to go as far as possible.
The Mission: To be a valued source of support for UPMC St. Margaret and the health and wellness of the communities it serves.
The Vision: That UPMC St. Margaret patients will focus on healing, wellness and quality of life without the suffering that goes along with worrying about transportation, and the costs of essential medicine and medical items not covered by insurance. In doing so, sometimes St. Margaret employees, the providers of compassionate care, are in crisis and also need help. We will help them with essential needs too.
Who do you help?
Jonathan lives alone and does not drive. He was recently diagnosed with cancer and needed radiation five days a week for 20 visits. His family lived out of town, and he didn’t have anyone to take him to the hospital or doctor’s office for his treatment. A St. Margaret Foundation donor funded Free Rides Shuttle takes Jonathan to and from his treatments.
Simone is on a fixed income and her walker helps her stay in her home, so she doesn’t have to move to a nursing facility. When her walker broke Medicare would not pay for a replacement for five years. St. Margaret Foundation donors provided Simone with a new walker to remain independent.
How do you help?
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$35 covered one flu shot
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$50 provided a blood pressure cuff
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$100 covered a one-month supply of home oxygen for a cancer patient
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$200 provided an air conditioning unit for a patient recovering from COVID
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$508 covered one month of medicine for a patient who was forced to pay out of pocket for necessary prescriptions because they hit the limit set by their insurance
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$600 provided a wheelchair for a patient waiting for Medicaid approval
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$860 covered drain bulbs for a patient with cancer with a catheter
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$1,617 provided one month of transportation for cancer patients traveling to and from radiation