Presence Mercy Medical Center honors FUSE with 2018 Inspire Award for Community Service
The Inspire Award for Community Service is presented annually as a way of recognizing community leaders or organizations that exemplify the values of Presence Health by going above and beyond to care for vulnerable populations in need.
Presence Mercy Medical Center in Aurora recently honored FUSE (Frequent Users System Engagement) with the 2018 Inspire Award at a ceremony May 16. Previous recipients of this award include: Kane County Health Department, Compañeros en Salud, Hesed House, and Triple Threat.
The Presence Mercy Medical Center Mission Committee - an advisory group of dedicated community members - nominated FUSE for its commitment to serving Aurora's population of homeless residents. People without housing are frequent users of homeless, health and criminal justice services, creating a costly revolving door that involves many people and organizations in our community. Developed to help address this issue, FUSE is a proven model for identifying "frequent users" of crisis public services.
FUSE is a collaborative initiative of local organizations - the city of Aurora, Presence Mercy Medical Center, Rush-Copley Medical Center, the Corporation for Supportive Housing, Hesed House and the Association for Individual Development - working together to identify homeless citizens and provide supportive housing solutions.
Mike Brown, president and CEO of Presence Mercy Medical Center, said, "We are proud to work collaboratively with our FUSE partners to help our neighbors in need find some comfort of home."
He added, "The Inspire Awards are Presence Health's way of acknowledging our community partners, who share our mission, implement positive change and inspire others to take action."
Founded in 1911, Presence Mercy Medical Center is a 292-bed, full-service hospital with a Level II Trauma Center. It is a certified Primary Stroke Center and known for its Cardiovascular Institute for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of heart disease.
Presence Health (www.presencehealth.org) has joined Ascension and is now part of AMITA Health. AMITA Health is a joint operating company formed by the Adventist Health System in Altamonte Springs, Fla., and St. Louis-based Ascension. With the addition of Presence Health, AMITA Health is now the largest health system in Illinois, comprising 19 hospitals and more than 230 sites of care. The newly combined health system has 900 providers in its medical groups, more than 26,000 associates and 7,000 physician partners and now serves over 4.3 million residents in the greater Chicago area.