Richard King Mellon Foundation & Henry L. Hillman Foundation Support Expansion of AHN’s COVID-19 Vaccination Program

PITTSBURGH – The Richard King Mellon Foundation and the Henry L. Hillman Foundation have gifted Allegheny Health Network (AHN) $250,000 and $125,000 respectively to help support the organization’s COVID-19 community vaccination program. AHN is playing a central role in the region’s vaccine distribution process and to date has vaccinated more than 110,000 people across the Network’s footprint.

“Each dose of the vaccine that we administer represents hope for the recipient and their loved ones, and for our communities in general as we all yearn for an end to this tragic pandemic and the return to a more normal way of life,” said Allie Quick, AHN chief philanthropy officer. “Meeting the health needs of the community during the pandemic, including the launch of our vaccination program, has required significant resources, and we are extremely grateful to the Richard King Mellon Foundation and the Henry L. Hillman Foundation, as well as those of other individual donors, for their incredibly generous support of those efforts.”

AHN caregivers have vaccinated thousands of high-risk individuals, including health care workers, emergency medical service providers and those who fall in the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s Phase 1A. The Network has led the greater Pittsburgh and Erie regions in hosting the single largest mass vaccination events to date during the pandemic, and the largest public vaccination events of any kind since the U.S. smallpox vaccinations of the 1950s. AHN has vaccinated more than 12,000 individuals from the greater Pittsburgh area at PNC Park. Last weekend in Erie, the Network vaccinated 2,200 people at the Erie Insurance Arena.

AHN has also placed a high priority on ensuring equitable distribution of the vaccine to reflect the population demographics of western Pennsylvania. The Network has held numerous vaccination clinics specifically targeting marginalized communities that have been hit hardest by the pandemic, including Black and Latino citizens, and efforts are made with every large vaccination event held by the organization to include appropriate numbers of people who live in communities that rank high on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Social Vulnerability Index – which measures factors such as socioeconomic status, housing type and transportation access.

As supply of the COVID-19 vaccine increases, AHN is also preparing to activate a mobile vaccination program that will make access to the vaccine even more convenient in those same marginalized communities. The program will be modeled after the organization’s hugely successful COVID-19 mobile testing program that was launched last spring. The initiative was the first of its kind in the region; last year, the program provided testing for more than 2,300 individuals across eight community sites.

Both the Richard King Mellon Foundation and the Henry L. Hillman Foundation have provided generous funding to AHN’s COVID-19 efforts throughout the early stages of the pandemic.

“AHN has put together a thoughtful and effective strategy to ensure convenient and equitable access to COVID vaccines that will only continue to improve as supply increases. Their plans include large-scale events, increased access points in areas where transportation may be a challenge and an individualized approach to make patients comfortable with receiving the vaccine. We appreciate their efforts and the work of the many volunteers, whose commitment to their community’s health, makes it all possible,” said Dave Roger, president of Henry L. Hillman Foundation.

“I love coming to PNC Park with my family for Pirate games, but I can’t imagine a better reason to be at the ballpark than to see several thousand people receiving the vaccine,” said Sam Reiman, director of the Richard King Mellon Foundation. “Our trustees so far have awarded more than 175 COVID grants, for everything from testing and PPE to efforts to overcome the pandemic’s social and economic impacts. But the equitable distribution of these vaccinations is the singular key to keeping people safe and to jump starting our economic recovery. The Foundation thanks AHN and the Pirates for this superb initiative."

With the continuing limited supply of the COVID-19 vaccine, AHN is currently holding appointment-only vaccination clinics. As vaccine supply is available for scheduling, high-risk patients who have an AHN MyChart account will be alerted, and the Network will activate its online scheduling portal for those who are eligible to receive the vaccine based on the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s eligibility phases. To ensure both speed an equitable distribution of the vaccine, AHN will continue to target the most vulnerable populations.

To learn more about COVID-19 vaccination at AHN, visit www.ahn.org/coronavirus/vaccine.  

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