Accelerating the Rate of Change in Health Care: Cardinal Health Foundation Announces Patient Safety Grants, Launches Learning Collaborative

DUBLIN, Ohio, July 29, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The 13 winners of the first multi-year E3 Patient Safety Grants from Cardinal Health Foundation are striving to improve health outcomes for high-risk patients more quickly than the industry norm.

"Cardinal Health Foundation has committed two- to three-year grants totaling nearly $2 million to help organizations improve the effectiveness, efficiency and excellence of patient care," said Dianne Radigan, vice president of Community Relations at Cardinal Health.

Each organization will focus on engaging patients and/or their caregivers in self-care, and improving medication safety use for patients during transitions of care, such as transition from the hospital to the home.

As they develop their programs, recipients also will participate in a learning collaborative facilitated by the Alliance for Integrated Medication Management (AIMM), which is designed to help organizations more quickly implement evidence-based practices.

The multi-year learning collaborative will focus on transformational leadership, quality improvement and patient engagement. AIMM coaches will provide training and guide grantees through an accelerated quality improvement process that will enable them to leverage their work and achieve more significant results.

AIMM's Executive Director Todd Sorensen, PharmD, said, "The collaborative is designed to facilitate and support practice transformation under an accelerated timeframe. Grant recipients will learn from each other and accomplish more than they can on their own."

Since 2008, through its E3 Patient Safety Grant Program, the Cardinal Health Foundation has invested $16 million to hundreds of healthcare organizations across the country. "We support a wide array of patient safety work, but the focus is always on accelerating the rate of change with two goals: improved patient outcomes and reduced healthcare costs," Radigan said.

Because of the complexities in healthcare and healthcare systems, it takes an average of 17 years for evidence-based practices to be fully implemented into healthcare practices, according to The National Institutes of Health.

"Within a year or two, our past grantees are affecting change, eliminating errors and creating lasting improvement," Radigan said. "They are reducing readmissions to hospitals, reducing lengths-of-stay and, most importantly, saving lives."

2016 E3 Grant Recipients

• Boston Children's Hospital (Boston, Massachusetts): Optimizing Medication Safety for Children with Medical Complexity at Hospital Discharge
• Community Health Center of the Black Hills (Rapid City, South Dakota): Improving Patient Safety through Medication Adherence
• Dignity Health-Northridge Hospital (Northridge, California): Coordinating Chronic Disease Transitional Care
• Home Health VNA (Lawrence, Massachusetts): Building a Multi-Dimensional Approach to COPD Management for Patients Admitted to Home Health Care
• Minnesota Hospital Association (St. Paul, Minnesota): Creating a Universal Protocol for Hospital Discharge to Reduce Medication-Related Readmissions and Adverse Events
• Mountain Area Health Education Center (Asheville, North Carolina): Creating a Regional Pediatric Care Collaborative for Children with Asthma
• National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics (Alexandria, Virginia): Implementing the Ohio Care Message Project
• Nemours Children's Health System (Wilmington, Delaware): Adding a Hospital-based Pharmacist to Patient Navigation Team to Improve Pediatric Discharge
• Royal Oaks Hospital (Windsor, Missouri): Optimizing Medication Safety for Children with Medical Complexity at Hospital Discharge
• Senior Services of Southeastern Virginia (Norfolk, Virginia): Hampton Roads Care Transitions Program: Expanding Medication Management and Care Transitions for Seniors
• University of Maryland School of Pharmacy (Baltimore, Maryland): Using e-Health to Improve Transitions of Care
• Virginia Mason Medical Center (Seattle, Washington): Partnering with Pharmacists to Increase Medication Safety for Heart Failure Patients across the Continuum of Care
• Wilkes University in collaboration with Commonwealth Health-Moses Taylor Hospital and Commonwealth Health-Regional Hospital (Wilkes-Barr, Pennsylvania): Providing Pharmacy Service at Discharge for Patients with Multiple Chronic Diseases

For more information on Cardinal Health Foundation's E3 Grant Program, visit http://cardinalhealth.com/patientsafetygrants.

About the Cardinal Health Foundation
The Cardinal Health Foundation supports local, national and international programs that improve health care efficiency, effectiveness and excellence and the overall wellness of the communities where Cardinal Health's CAH nearly 37,000 employees live and work. The Cardinal Health Foundation also offers grants to encourage community service among its employees and works through international agencies to donate much-needed medical supplies and funding to those who need them in times of disaster; because Cardinal Health is #AllInForGood. To learn more, visit www.CardinalHealth.com/community and visit the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/CardinalHealthFoundation.  

About the Alliance for Integrated Medication Management
The Alliance for Integrated Medication Management (AIMM) is a non-profit organization working to support wide-spread adoption of team-based medication management services into the care of high-risk, high-cost patients suffering from multiple chronic health conditions. AIMM partners with healthcare providers, schools of pharmacy, payers, and other stakeholders to drive change in our health care system from the ground up by creating accountability for patient safety and health, improving quality of care, and championing new payment models to coordinate care for high-risk and complex patients who can benefit from a comprehensive medication management approach.

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SOURCE Cardinal Health Foundation