700-Plus Healthcare Facilities Respond to Cardinal Health’s Patient Safety Grant Challenge

DUBLIN, Ohio -- More than 10 percent of the nation’s healthcare facilities are seeking grants from Cardinal Health through a $1 million fund set up by the company to help improve patient safety. 

Company officials said more than 700 hospitals, health systems and community health clinics responded to their announcement in August about the grant program, which is the largest and first of its kind in the private sector.  To support initiatives that enhance patient safety and quality of care, Cardinal Health will grant up to $50,000 per facility to fund new and innovative programs that establish or implement creative and replicable methods to address challenges in providing quality patient care and to help drive improvements.

The company expects to fund up to 40 of the 730 grant requests.

“We know that healthcare providers are focused on safety and quality, but the overwhelming response to our grant program brings this issue into even sharper focus and highlights the interest to accelerate improvements,” said R. Kerry Clark, chief executive officer of Cardinal Health. “A focus on improving quality will also go a long way toward lowering costs within the entire healthcare system.  We are pleased to assist the healthcare community in making meaningful progress in this important endeavor.”

In selecting grant recipients, Cardinal Health’s selection committee will look for:

-- projects that respond to a clearly identified, high priority safety issue

-- projects that apply new thinking and approaches to development of solutions

collaborative programs

-- demonstrable and sustainable measures to assure that improvements hold up over time

model programs that can be replicated at other organizations

To be eligible for funding, facilities must be designated as 501(c)(3) by the IRS and were required to submit a letter of intent to submit a proposal by October 12. Approximately 100 to 150 institutions will be asked to submit a full proposal, with grants announced in March 2008.

Source: Cardinal Health