The American Cancer Society (ACS) recently awarded UofL Health – Brown Cancer Center a $10,000 grant to help alleviate the financial burden of transportation costs for cancer patients in Kentuckiana. The grant will enable the Brown Cancer Center to assist more than 100 cancer patients with more than 300 rides to treatment in 2021.

For cancer patients, lack of transportation creates a significant barrier to receiving lifesaving treatment and is known to contribute to disparities in cancer outcomes. The ACS grant is part of a $2 million national transportation investment provided to health systems across the country.

Each year, the ACS typically serves under 6,000 cancer patients with transportation assistance through our existing transportation grants program. During 2020, the program provided more than 71,000 rides. But a gap remains in many communities for cancer patients for whom transportation is a challenge.

“ACS patient support services—such as these transportation grants—fill critical cancer gaps and are aligned to the ACS goal of improving lives of patients and their families,” said Kathy Goss, Ph.D., regional vice president of Cancer Control at the American Cancer Society. “The newly awarded grant funding provides a boost of support to help address currently unmet needs in the state of Kentucky and southern Indiana.”

“While patients who live close to the cancer center have several options to assist with transportation, many of our patients and their caregivers live just outside of the city limits and have few resources to assist with accessing services. This grant will have a tremendous impact on those individuals who would otherwise miss treatment, or be forced to seek subpar care, due to lack of transportation assistance in their communities.”

Transportation is the third most commonly cited barrier to accessing health services for older adults. Every year, 3.6 million people in the United States do not obtain medical care due to transportation issues. Transportation issues include lack of vehicle access, inadequate infrastructure, long distances and lengthy times to reach needed services, transportation costs and adverse policies that affect travel.

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UofL Health is a fully integrated regional academic health system with nine hospitals, four medical centers, Brown Cancer Center, Eye Institute, nearly 200 physician practice locations, and more than 1,000 providers in Louisville and the surrounding counties, including southern Indiana. Additional access to UofL Health is provided through a partnership with Carroll County Memorial Hospital. Affiliated with the University of Louisville School of Medicine, UofL Health is committed to providing patients with access to the most advanced care available. This includes clinical trials, collaboration on research and the development of new technologies to both save and improve lives. With more than 14,000 team members – physicians, surgeons, nurses, pharmacists and other highly-skilled health care professionals, UofL Health is focused on one mission: to transform the health of communities we serve through compassionate, innovative, patient-centered care.

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