Aetna Grants $175,000 to Chicago’s Stroger Hospital

Aetna and the Aetna Foundation will grant $175,000 to the trauma unit of Chicago’s John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital. The grant will fund development of a model program of culturally appropriate end-of-life care, including palliative care, that can be shared with urban trauma units nationwide.

Stroger’s trauma unit is the busiest in the Midwest, providing close to 5,000 patient encounters a year. Stroger Hospital is one of seven affiliates of the Cook County Bureau of Health Services, one of the largest public health care systems in the country. The Bureau provides a broad range of services from preventive and primary care to emergency, acute, inpatient, rehabilitation and long-term care to more than 1.5 million Cook County residents annually.

More than 200 patients die in the Trauma Unit at Stroger Hospital each year, and many (67 percent) die within a few hours of admission. Their average age is 32.

The Stroger grant is one of 14 grants totaling $2.25 million that Aetna and the Aetna Foundation awarded this year for programs that address racial and ethnic health disparities and end-of-life care.

For more information, visit www.aetna.com.