Improving Access to Quality Healthcare in the Upper Midwest and Beyond
For over fifteen years, Helmsley has been dedicated to making sure that the vibrant, tightly-knit communities of rural America have access to the highest quality healthcare.
We invest in telemedicine, fund programs that increase access to behavioral health services, and support hospitals and first responders to make sure they have the best equipment to treat their patients. We do this by working hand-in-hand with a range of partners across the region – including but not limited to non-profits, health systems, law enforcement agencies, universities, first responders, and public health services.
To date, we have worked closely with partners across nine states – Hawaii, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming – as well as two U.S. Pacific Territories, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands. The models that are proving to be successful in this region hold the promise to transform care in other rural communities across the country.
Telemedicine is an essential solution for addressing our country’s healthcare crisis, especially for rural America. We partner with organizations to make it more accessible for patients, healthcare professionals, and providers.
Our grants have helped develop the first-ever national telehealth certificate program to make sure telehealth care is high quality and consistent.
We bring specialized care to emergency rooms and enable virtual training for healthcare workers on the frontlines of COVID-19 care.
Our investments have helped build a 24/7 telemedicine behavioral health team. We fund training fellowships as well as telehealth.
We support a pilot initiative that uses video conferencing to help law enforcement connect people with mental health professionals during an emergency.
We’ve pledged $13M to help create an adolescent behavioral health center that will serve four states and include a first-of-its-kind behavioral health urgent care.
Our grants aim to provide connected-device Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) to every first responder, as well as state-of-the-art diagnostic tools to hospitals across the upper Midwest. We’ve also helped deliver nearly 400 LUCAS mechanical CPR devices to rural hospitals to help respond to cardiac events during COVID-19 as well as in the future.
We brought the first-ever Mobile Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) with a game-changing, super ambulance-mobile ER to the region.
In rural communities, law enforcement officers are often the first, and sometimes the only, people to the scene of a cardiac emergency. We funded 25,000 AEDs across 8 states to allow them to have this life-saving equipment.
Between 21% and 38% of all 911 calls are related to mental health, substance abuse, and crisis situations police are not adequately trained to handle. Virtual Crisis Care equips law enforcement officers with iPads that connect them to counselors, reducing involuntary hospitalizations and jailings in 80% of users.
Youth living in rural areas are at greater risk of suicide than those in urban areas. A $13M grant helped build the Helmsley Behavioral Health Center, which expanded mental health access, especially for adolescents, in South Dakota.
We invested in the world’s first ECMO truck, which brings rare emergency technology and practices beyond the walls of medical institutions. We’ve also granted $8.8M towards telerobotics research, potentially paving the way for remote surgeries across wide distances.
March 20, 2025
March 4, 2025
RAPID CITY, SD, March 4, 2025 – The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust is granting more than $2 million to Monument Health Children’s to purchase state-of-the-art neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) equipment. This investment will allow newborns and their families to access critical care close to home. The grant allows for the purchase of more than 20…
February 25, 2025
As a former Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA), HeartCorps service member TyLinn Dodd has always enjoyed helping others. In her role as a health educator serving out of the North Central District Health Department in O’Neill, Nebraska, TyLinn now brings important training to a vast nine-county area that spans the Nebraska plains. “I’ve always enjoyed taking care of people and helping…
February 19, 2025
As HeartCorps service member Ayden Keslar offered blood pressure checks at a Gillette, Wyoming soup kitchen, she noticed a stressed-out mother tending to her baby and teenage child. Ayden invited the mom to take a seat and listened attentively as she shared how tough it was to carve out time to take care of herself with diet and exercise. This…
February 18, 2025
NORTH DAKOTA, February 18, 2025 —The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust has granted $27.4 million dollars to help 69 North Dakota hospitals and health centers purchase 215 ultrasound imaging devices and train the state’s sonography workforce. Walter Panzirer, a Trustee of the Helmsley Charitable Trust, said the grants will help improve access to top-notch medical treatment for North…
February 1, 2025
Growing up in rural Indiana, Basil Heintzman saw first-hand the healthcare inequities faced by residents of smaller communities. When a family friend suffered a heart attack while toiling in a community garden, her dad decided to put him in his vehicle and rush him to the nearest large town, Bloomington, to get the care he needed to survive. The doctor…
January 13, 2025
Since its debut in 2022, the KFF Health News Rural News Desk has consistently provided robust, factual journalism that has proven essential to exposing challenges, catalyzing solutions, and elevating voices too often unheard. The Helmsley Charitable Trust helped launch the initiative with a $3.9 million grant, and Helmsley is honored to continue this successful partnership with a $4.7 million grant…
$700 M+
committed
694
grants awarded
9
states reached
