Radiology Partners’ employee relief initiative has raised nearly $2 million since launching last year, giving out grants totaling $450,000, the company said Tuesday.
The El Segundo, California-based imaging giant first launched its RP One Fund in April 2020 to help partner practice employees hit hardest by the pandemic. Since then, Rad Partners has doled out numerous grants to radiologists and other teammates experiencing “emergent financial hardship,” according to an announcement.
Company leaders have since expanded RP One’s parameters to now cover individual financial challenges, emergencies and disasters that go beyond COVID-19.
“Amid a global health crisis, we are committed to supporting each other,” Ari Fleischauer, head of human resources, said in a statement.
Rad Partners established the fund with a $1 million donation last year after radiologists and other employees raised the initial $100,000 through cash contributions and donating paid time off. A committee of physicians and other employees is tasked with considering each request and releasing funds to those in need. RP One also recently achieved 501(c)(3) status.
The private equity-backed outfit bills itself as the largest radiology practice in the U.S., employing 2,500-plus rads across 35 states. Beyond the states, Rad Partners also used its relief funds to help those affected by COVID-19 in South Asia. As of this month, its “Aid to India” effort has raised $66,000 in support of local nonprofits Wadhwani Initiative for Sustainable Healthcare and Asha.
“I was deeply saddened by the COVID outbreak in India this spring and summer, and while I wanted to provide direct support, I felt helpless by the sheer magnitude of cases, deaths and devastation,” said Associate Chief Medical Officer for Clinical Value Krishna Nallamshetty, MD, who with a group of Indian American radiologists presented the idea to RP leadership.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.