Enhabit Cares: A Better Way to Care®, give and serve

Although Enhabit Home Health & Hospice is a home-based care provider focused on providing high-quality, compassionate care to patients at home, they also place a strong focus on giving back to different communities across the nation. One way that Enhabit gives back to others in their communities is through a nonprofit organization called the Enhabit Cares Foundation.

Enhabit Cares has been providing financial assistance to those in need since 2008, focusing on four distinct areas of giving. These include emergency relief grants for Enhabit employees and their families, community assistance grants to facilitate local community service projects and patient assistance grants for Enhabit patients in emergency situations.

As of 2021, Enhabit Cares has donated over $6.5 million in grants to these four areas. The organization is funded by elected employee payroll deductions and one-time donations.

“At Enhabit, we believe that our philosophy of providing A Better Way to Care® extends beyond just the services we provide,” said Mike Verner, executive director of Enhabit Cares. “In fact, through Enhabit Cares, we are making significant impact beyond our services by extending compassion and providing meaningful assistance to our coworkers and others in need within our service area communities.”

Enhabit Cares has made a difference in the lives of many patients, employees and communities. Read below to discover a few lives that have been touched by the compassion of the Enhabit Cares Foundation.

Eager to extend a helping hand

Knowing that small elementary schools are oftentimes without sufficient financial resources, Area Manager Chance and his team in Oklahoma wanted to help students at Eufaula Elementary get better access to school supplies.

“Our branch has really made an effort to give back to our communities when we can and utilizing Enhabit Cares is a really great way to do that,” Chance said.

Enhabit Cares provided a $1,750 donation to help supply their school with necessary back-to-school items. According to Chance, Eufaula Elementary relies heavily on the surrounding businesses and community organizations to help fund back-to-school drives and fundraisers.

“Eufaula is a community that we have not yet had the opportunity to give back to and we wanted to show them who Enhabit Home Health & Hospice was,” Chance said. “Giving back to the school really resonated with our branch because we know the children are the future of our communities. If they can see us giving back, we hope that inspires them or their families to give back to their communities in the future.”

Now many more kids will be walking around the halls of Eufaula Elementary; pencils, pens and notebooks safely tucked in their arms; smiles on their faces knowing this year, they don’t have to go without school supplies.

Warming hearts and hands

Winter nights in Utah can be brutally cold, with temperatures getting down below zero degrees. For people who don’t have access to housing or reliable heating systems, these temperatures can pose a large problem, especially if they don’t have proper winter attire to get them through the cold nights.

Among those who don’t have houses to return to every night are individuals who have dedicated their lives to serving this country – veterans. According to Director of Business Development Shana, there is a large homeless veteran population in Utah.

Enhabit serves veterans through home health and hospice services every day, and they care largely about their wellbeing. Enhabit branches, like this one in Utah, routinely hold clothing drives and fundraisers. This helps ensure veterans without homes have reliable access to warm winter clothing.

“The VA is one of our largest accounts in Utah, and we have partnered with them for the past six years serving their hospice patients,” Shana said. “We were already holding a winter clothing drive for hospital patients and homeless veterans and so we figured joining forces with Enhabit Cares was the perfect pairing so they might get additional winter clothes.”

The branch coordinated a $1,000 donation to a local VA hospital through Enhabit Cares. This helped secure blankets, thermals and coats for homeless veterans across the city.

“The VA was incredibly grateful,” Shana said. “They gave us a tour of the donation area and showed us the needs. We felt like we were really making a difference with this donation and partnership. We like to add value where we can and this was a perfect opportunity.”

One last time