The Deloitte Health Equity Institute has donated $1.1 million to Morehouse School of Medicine for an ongoing effort to improve maternity care.
Deloitte said its gift to the Atlanta medical school is part of a $1.5 billion commitment over the next 10 years to organizations that are advancing health equity. The first phase of the partnership will focus on addressing the underlying causes of health inequities, including the lack of representation among care providers and the need for new, innovative models to advance health equity for racially and ethnically diverse women.
“We know that reducing mortality and disparities in health outcomes can have a multiplier effect that uplifts many aspects of people’s lives — including their housing, food, and financial security,” Deloitte’s US Chief Health Equity Officer, Dr. Kulleni Gebreyes, said in a statement. “The work underway at Morehouse School of Medicine will help spread awareness across the country to activate change in the healthcare ecosystem to improve the lives of families and communities in which they live.”
Georgia’s maternal mortality rate has consistently ranked among the worst in the nation. State lawmakers have taken several steps in recent years to combat the problem, such as extending the amount of time low-income mothers can receive benefits under Medicaid from six months to one year after the birth of a child.
Morehouse School of Medicine created The Center for Maternal Health Equity in 2019 to address the disparate rates of maternal mortality and morbidities among Black women in Georgia and nationwide.
“By strengthening our relationship with the Deloitte Health Equity Institute, MSM will train an increased number of healthcare providers and reach even more of the most medically vulnerable and historically underserved patients, which will substantially improve the health and wellbeing of countless individuals and communities, reaching people where they are with what they need,” Morehouse School of Medicine President Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice said in a statement.