Rural Healthcare Program

Rural Healthcare Program is sponsored by The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.

This program supports efforts to improve rural healthcare through grants to hospitals for diagnostic and radiology equipment and simulation-based training.

Rural Healthcare - Helmsley Charitable Trust Helmsley Charitable Trust 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.

Investing in Telemedicine 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.

Bringing specialized care to hospitals We bring specialized care to emergency rooms and enable virtual training for healthcare workers on the frontlines of COVID-19 care. Expanding Access to Behavioral Health Services Expanding behavioral healthcare expertise across the rural Midwest Our investments have helped build a 24/7 telemedicine behavioral health team. We fund training fellowships as well as telehealth.

Investing in new, innovative solutions We support a pilot initiative that uses video conferencing to help law enforcement connect people with mental health professionals during an emergency. Supporting new behavioral health centers 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.

Ensuring Availability of Modern Equipment and Technology Wherever It Is Needed Investing in lifesaving equipment 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. Meeting people where they are with critical care 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.

Helmsley Charitable Trust Awards $2 Million to Support PET/CT Scanner Project at St. Anthony Rosebud Sioux Tribe to Build $4. 6M Behavioral Health Treatment Facility Montana State Receives $2.

5 Million Grant for Simulation Labs in New Nursing Education Buildings Healthcare Brew: With a $3. 2M Grant, Rural Hospitals May Avoid Generic Drug Shortages In an article for Healthcare Brew, Cassie McGrath reports on Helmsley and the Civica Foundation’s new pilot program to make generic medications more affordable and accessible for rural and critical access hospitals. Read the full article.

Inside Philanthropy Features Helmsley Support for Local News in Rural America Local news plays a critical role in keeping communities informed about the issues and policies that matter to their health and wellbeing. But with local news outlets on the decline, rural communities are at risk of being cut out of important conversations.

A recent Inside Philanthropy article by Martha Ramirez details how philanthropies like the Helmsley Charitable Trust support journalism… The Helmsley Charitable Trust Awards $5M Grant to Support New Kaiser Permanente Hawaii Cancer Center at Moanalua HONOLULU, HI, May 19, 2026 — Kaiser Permanente Hawaii today announced that The Leona M. and Harry B.

Helmsley Charitable Trust awarded a $5 million grant in support of the Kaiser Permanente Hawaii Cancer Center, currently under construction at Moanalua Medical Center.

The grant will provide significant funding for infusion bays and patient care areas within a new, expanded hematology and… Op-Ed: How Philanthropy Can Strengthen Systems to Improve Rural Health Outcomes In philanthropy, innovation is sometimes thought of as investing in new technologies or breakthrough medical procedures.

While less visible, however, investments in systems that coordinate people, protocols, and institutions already in place can yield significant and measurable improvements in outcomes.

“For philanthropic organizations, this work underscores an important lesson: meaningful improvements in health outcomes often depend less on new interventions and more… Helmsley Charitable Trust Commits $20M to Intermountain Health to Expand Pediatric Behavioral Health Services in Nevada LAS VEGAS, May 13, 2026 — The Leona M. and Harry B.

Helmsley Charitable Trust has committed $20 million to Intermountain Health to expand pediatric behavioral health specialty services in Nevada — one of the largest philanthropic investments of its kind in the state’s history. The commitment will support the expansion of world-class pediatric behavioral health services, addressing gaps in access to advanced specialty care within… Civica Foundation Receives $3.

2M Grant from Helmsley Charitable Trust to Help Protect Rural Hospitals From Critical Drug Shortages LEHI, Utah, May 7, 2026 — The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust has made a $3.

2 million grant to the Civica Foundation to fund the Civica Rural Hospital Program, a new initiative to significantly expand access to essential generic medicines for rural and critical access hospitals across nine states.

Launching today, the Civica Rural Hospital Program is… Rural Healthcare by the Numbers The State University of Iowa Northern Marianas College Grand Teton National Park Foundation The State University of Iowa Northern Marianas College Grand Teton National Park Foundation Associate Program Officer Associate Program Officer Leave this field empty if you're human: