News and Announcements

With essential hospital staff facing childcare challenges due to schools and daycares closing, the Illinois Children’s Healthcare Foundation (ILCHF) recently awarded the Illinois Critical Access Hospital Network (ICAHN) a $500,000 grant to help its rural hospital membership.

ICAHN, which is comprised of 51 critical access and six small, rural hospitals throughout Illinois, will use these funds to help those most in need, offering the opportunity to reimburse childcare expenses to essential hospital employees that meet the grant’s criteria between the months of April and June 2020.

More than 30 ICAHN member hospitals applied for ICAHN’s Essential Hospital Staff Child Care Support (EHSCCS) Initiative and will be receiving grant funding.

“These next two months will be challenging, and we are grateful that ILCHF understands the trying times rural areas are facing with the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Pat Schou, ICAHN Executive Director. “Their generosity will help many rural hospital workers, from dietary to business office, nursing to housekeeping.”

The EHSCCS Initiative will be used to help reimburse hospitals that open their own childcare centers, work in collaboration with another community or religious organization to open state of emergency childcare centers, or to individually provide support to the employee who sends his or her children to a child care worker that obtains an approved background check and fingerprinting.

Hospitals participating in the grant thus far include: Clay County Hospital, Flora; Crawford Memorial Hospital, Robinson; Crossroads Community Hospital, Mt. Vernon; Culbertson Memorial Hospital, Rushville; Ferrell Hospital, Eldorado; Franklin Hospital, Benton; Genesis Medical Center, Aledo; Gibson Area Hospital & Health Services, Gibson City; Graham Hospital, Canton; Hamilton Memorial Hospital, McLeansboro; Hammond-Henry Hospital, Geneseo; Horizon Health, Paris; Illini Community Hospital, Pittsfield; Iroquois Memorial Hospital, Watseka; Jersey Community Hospital, Jerseyville; Lawrence County Memorial Hospital, Lawrenceville; Memorial Hospital, Carthage; Mercyhealth, Harvard; Midwest Medical Center, Galena; Perry Memorial Hospital, Princeton; Red Bud Regional Hospital, Red Bud; Sparta Community Hospital, Sparta; St. Francis Hospital, Litchfield; Wabash General Hospital, Mt. Carmel; Warner Hospital & Health Services, Clinton; and Washington County Hospital, Nashville.

ILCHF’s single vision is that every child in Illinois grows up healthy. Working through grantee partners across the state like ICAHN, the Foundation focuses its grant-making on identifying and funding solutions to the barriers that prevent children from accessing the ongoing health care they need.

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