Cardinal Health Establishes $1 Million Grant Fund for Initiatives That Improve Quality, Safety of Pa...( New Fund is Largest and First...)

New Fund is Largest and First of its Kind in Private Sector

DUBLIN, Ohio, Aug. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- To support initiatives that enhance patient safety and quality of care, Cardinal Health announced today it is granting up to $1 million to fund new and innovative programs at hospitals, health systems and community health clinics across the country. This grant is the largest and first of its kind given by a health-care company.

Grants of up to $50,000 will provide funding for programs that establish or implement creative and replicable methods to address challenges in providing quality patient care and to help drive improvements.

According to reports and research published by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), health care in the United States is not as safe as it should be -- and can be. At least 44,000 people -- and perhaps as many as 98,000 people -- die in hospitals each year as a result of preventable medical errors.

"The health-care community is keenly aware of the need to improve quality and patient safety," said R. Kerry Clark, Cardinal Health's CEO. "We see these grants as an opportunity to provide health-care organizations with additional resources to drive measurable improvements. We hope that our efforts will help hospitals make meaningful progress in this important endeavor."

In addition to the primary award criteria related to patient safety, programs can also be intended for operational or performance improvement, providing there is a strong impact on patient safety measures. 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