Enhancing healthcare efficiency, quality and cost-effectiveness
Useful links
Contact information:
Cardinal Healthc/o Community Relations
7000 Cardinal Place
Dublin, OH 43017
Email: communityrelations
@cardinalhealth.com
Enhancing healthcare efficiency, quality and cost-effectiveness
Healthcare institutions in the U.S. offer cutting edge medical care that brings healing and new life for many. However, at $2.2 trillion and $7,481 per person, U.S. healthcare costs more than twice the average of any other developed country and the Congressional Budget Office estimates up to one-third of that spending does not improve health outcomes. In addition, while progress has been made to reduce medical errors, there is still significant opportunity to impact quality. For example, medication mistakes alone injure more than 1.5 million patients each year costing the healthcare industry more than $3.5 billion annually.
The Cardinal Health Foundation is investing $10 million between 2008 and 2010 to impact healthcare efficiency, quality and cost-effectiveness with a special emphasis on medication errors, care coordination, operating room efficiency and infection prevention. Specifically, the Cardinal Health Foundation supports leadership, research, professional development and implementation of best practices.
Improving healthcare efficiency, quality and cost-effectiveness and preventing the abuse and misuse of prescription medications takes leadership who can assure there is collaboration, alignment, innovation and a commitment to results. That’s why we pursue partnerships with consensus-building organizations that convene experts from across the healthcare industry, including patients, to impact healthcare. We also partner with organizations that increase consumer awareness of these issues through communication campaigns and educational materials.
Funding in this area is by invitation only. Contact communityrelations@cardinalhealth.com to inquire further.
Supporting research and professional development
Lifelong learning is critical to a provider’s ability to create and implement innovative solutions. In 2009-10 the Cardinal Health Foundation will fund specialized education and leadership institutes that provide development opportunities for healthcare leaders, nurses, and pharmacists. We also will fund limited national research that identifies best practices to enhance healthcare efficiency, quality and cost-effectiveness, reduce medication errors and promote efficient use of the operating room.
Funding in this area is by invitation only. Contact communityrelations@cardinalhealth.com to inquire further.
Putting best practices into action
We help providers at the local and regional level implement best practices to make healthcare more efficient and effective, and to reduce the abuse and misuse of prescription medications.
- E3 Grants – Effectiveness, Efficiency and Excellence in Healthcare (formerly Patient Safety Grants): In 2007, Cardinal Health established the Cardinal Health Patient Safety Grant Program, an annual $1 million commitment to enhance patient safety and quality of care. In 2010, we are further focusing the content on healthcare efficiency, quality and cost-effectiveness. These highly-competitive grants will again range from $5,000 to $50,000 and be awarded to programs that develop and implement evidence-based best practices to improve medication systems, operating room efficiency and safety and care coordination. Applicants should draw on the National Quality Forum, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the Institute for Safe Medication Practices and the Association for periOperative Registered Nurses for the best thinking in this area.
E3 Grants - FAQs, criteria and application
2008 and 2009 Patient Safety Grant Program recipients
IHI Improvement Map linkThe deadline for the 2010 cycle is October 30, 2009. - Developing scaleable healthcare models in Ohio: We’re engaging healthcare systems, hospitals, the corporate community, government and individuals to create infrastructure and scaleable, outcome-based models that reduce healthcare-associated infections and medication errors in Ohio, our corporate headquarters. The initial goals are to reduce surgical site infections and adverse drug events in all eight Ohio children’s hospitals and to reduce MRSA and catheter-associated blood stream infections in Central Ohio hospitals, saving days, dollars and lives and to enhance a culture of safety throughout the system. Visit www.SolutionsforPatientSafety.org for more information on the status of this work.
- Awareness and education to reduce the abuse and misuse of prescription medications. We are partnering with local organizations that reach teens, parents and the elderly to assure appropriate messages are broadly delivered and acted upon. We are also supporting the development and pilot testing of toolkits for pharmacists as community educators around this topic.
