Rhode Island Hospital lands $50K medical best-practices grant

RHODE ISLAND HOSPITAL will receive $50,000 to execute its proposed arterial catheter safety program, one of 11 nonprofit hospitals and medical centers that received funding from the CareFusion Foundation under its 2014 Clinical Excellence Grant Program. / COURTESY RHODE ISLAND HOSPITAL
RHODE ISLAND HOSPITAL will receive $50,000 to execute its proposed arterial catheter safety program, one of 11 nonprofit hospitals and medical centers that received funding from the CareFusion Foundation under its 2014 Clinical Excellence Grant Program. / COURTESY RHODE ISLAND HOSPITAL

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island Hospital has received a $50,000 grant from the CareFusion Foundation, one of 11 nonprofit health care institutions nationwide to receive funding under the Clinical Excellence Grant Program held annually by the charitable giving arm of health care device manufacturer CareFusion Corp.

To apply for the one-time grant, the hospitals and medical centers were invited to submit a written proposal detailing their plan to develop best practices for improving medication safety. Lifespan won a share of the grant funding for its proposal of a program to improve arterial catheter safety at Rhode Island Hospital.

“The proper management of medications – from the physician order to the pharmacy to the nursing station to the patient bedside – is a critical issue for health care institutions nationwide,” said Dr. Carlos Nunez, chief medical officer for CareFusion. “Working with these nonprofit partners to develop and share best practices for medication management will advance the field at large and help providers deliver safer, more cost-effective care.”

In its first year, in 2013, the Clinical Excellence Grant Program focused on infection prevention. This year, CareFusion sought proposals for improving medication safety and efficiency, including reducing medication errors, improving clinician workflow, increasing pharmacy efficiency and driving medication-use compliance.

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To date, the CareFusion Foundation has awarded $1 million to advance health care best practices.

The complete list of 2014 Clinical Excellence Grant Program recipients and their winning program proposals is as follows:

  • Boston Medical Center – Optimize pain control and safety in patients prescribed opioids after surgery.
  • Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia – Evaluate diagnosis and management of neonatal sepsis.
  • Hartford Hospital (Hartford, Conn.) – Reduce medication waste through improved communication between departments.
  • Hektoen Institute (Chicago) – Improve antibiotic stewardship through an automated notification system to facilitate region-wide control of extensively resistant microorganisms.
  • Rhode Island Hospital – Improve safety of arterial catheters through the evaluation of an evidence-based intervention bundle.
  • MedStar Health (Baltimore) – Increase outpatient medication adherence through a technological reminder system tightly coupled with in-person and phone-based reminders.
  • Mountain States Health Alliance (Johnson City, Tenn.) – Reduce medication errors by increasing home medication reconciliation for patients admitted through the emergency department.
  • Palomar Health (Escondido, Calif.) – Reduce harm associated with infusion device alarms through development of best practices for medication storage and administration.
  • Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (New Brunswick, N.J.) – Improve outpatient medication compliance through personalized counseling by pharmacists.
  • Southwestern Vermont Health (Bennington, Vt.) – Reduce hospital readmissions by providing tools to high-risk patients to improve their medication adherence and ability to self-manage their care.
  • University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, N.C.) – Implement a standardized drug infusion concentration and dosing unit guideline for the state of North Carolina.

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