Patient Safety Grants

Patient Safety Grants for Hospitals, Healthcare Systems and Clinics

This year, the Cardinal Health Foundation will award $1 million in grant funds to support initiatives by healthcare institutions which provide direct patient care to enhance patient safety and quality of care. The Cardinal Health Foundation will issue grants up to $50,000 commensurate with the scope of the patient safety project.

In 2007, the review committee awarded 34 grants averaging $30,000 per grant.

Please submit online the organization’s patient safety grant letter of intent by Friday, October 31, 2008. Hard copy or email proposals will not be accepted. Letters of intent received after this deadline will not be considered.

Visit the following link to submit the letter of intent in a PDF or Word document. Only these two formats will be accepted.

www.cardinalhealth.com/community

Following review of the letters of intent submitted under the Cardinal Health Patient Safety Grant Program, those selected by our external review committee, comprised of clinicians and clinical experts, will be invited to submit a full proposal. Invitations to select organizations will be extended on Monday, January 12, 2009 with a final proposal deadline of Friday, February 20, 2009. Grant awards will be announced in Spring 2009.

The primary criteria for the awarding of these grants will be that they address one of the National Quality Forum’s seven priority areas (www.qualityforum.org). The Foundation is especially interested in the following two areas in 2009:

Eliminating healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), specifically MRSA (methicillin-resistant 1. staphylococcus aureus) and
C. difficile infection prevention and management; with the goal of taking ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), surgical site infections (SSI) and blood site infections (BSI) to zero.

Medication safety and reconciliation. These initiatives can range from prescribing correct medication to ensuring the right 2. medication gets to the right patient at the right time and assuring information is communicated and understood at key transition points. Use of technology is encouraged.

About AMDA Foundation/Evercare® Awards

ImageIn 2008, the AMDA Foundation partnered with Evercare to create the AMDA Foundation/Evercare® Awards for “Improving the Quality of Life for Persons Living in Nursing Homes” awards program. The three awards were presented at the AMDA Symposium in Salt Lake City on March 6, 2008. The 2009 AMDA Foundation//Evercare® Awards will be presented at the national AMDA Symposium in Charlotte, NC, March 5-8, 2009.

These awards will be based on programs nursing facilities have implemented and demonstrated to improve the quality of life for their long term care residents. Three awards of $10,000 each will be provided. At least one of the awards will be given specifically for improved advanced care planning and/or palliative care programs. The three facilities chosen for the award are expected to present a scientific poster of their quality improvement program at the 2009 AMDA Annual Symposium in Charlotte, NC. In addition, one program will be chosen to give an oral presentation at the Annual Symposium.

Types of programs might include:

* Patient safety initiatives – reducing falls, medication errors
* Reduction of avoidable ER visits and acute hospitalizations
* Improved consistency of staffing
* Improved comprehensive advanced care planning
* Improved palliative care programs

All nursing home facilities are eligible for the awards. Facilities may be for profit or not for profit and/or individual facility, regional chain, or national chain. In order for the program to be eligible, the program must be internally generated and funded by the nursing home facility; have demonstrated measurable outcomes and objectives and have proven sustainability and ability to be replicated in other facilities.
Applying Online - The application deadline is November 10, 2008. All completed applications must be submitted electronically. To submit your online application you'll need to first attend to the following preparation:

Document Uploads

The 2009 AMDA Foundation/Evercare® Awards Online Application requires that you also obtain, complete as necessary and upload the following documents:

* Current copy of state/federal survey results;
* Letter of Support from the medical director for the facility/institution;
* A completed AMDA Foundation/Evercare® Awards Project Proposal; and
* A completed AMDA Foundation/Evercare® Awards Detailed Budget.

Documents of the following types are acceptable for uploading: ms-word; pdf; rtf; ms-excel; ms-powerpoint; ms-works; text; and zip. Documents for uploading must not exceed 6,144KB in size (6 megabytes).

American Medical Directors Association Foundation
11000 Broken Land Parkway, Suite 405
Columbia MD 21044

Telephone: 410-992-3134
Fax: 410-740-1318

The American Medical Directors Association Foundation and Pfizer have partnered to sponsor the Quality Improvement Awards, a program designed to encourage the development of innovative projects that will help to make a distinct impact on the quality of long term care.

Types of Projects Supported

The Awards will support initiatives that focus on facility staff education, quality improvement programs, research on interventions and treatment, and health literacy to directly enhance the quality of care provided to patients in Long Term Care settings.

Proposals may be submitted for a general Quality Improvement project or in any one of the five therapeutic areas listed below. The therapeutic areas are: pain management, dementia, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, or urinary incontinence.

Education

* Proposals in this category should focus on facility staff education and/or training programs.
Due to a current Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality grant on assessment of Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG) implementation, the Foundation will not fund projects related to implementation of AMDA CPGs.

Quality Improvement Programs

* Proposals should focus on training and mentoring facilities or organizations in continuous quality improvement (CQI) or specific QI projects covering areas of interest to the Foundation.

Research Projects

* Research projects should be approximately one year in length and conducted in a single facility. Results should be generalizable.
* Examples could include an investigation into the characteristics of residents in the long term care setting whose weight loss is unavoidable, or a study looking at critical factors with hearing aid use.

Health Literacy

* Health literacy projects should focus on ways to enhance improving healthcare communications between long term care patients and their family/caregivers/surrogates. Devising such systems are particularly important given the diminished literacy skills, cognitive capacity and communication skills of many long term care residents, especially those with dementia.
* Examples could include projects that focus on the following: innovative ways to communicate given literacy and functional limitations (e.g., cognitive impairment, hearing or vision loss); different strategies for communicating given technological advances (e.g., e-mail, video-conferencing); and, methods of communicating with patients and families surrounding functional and disease-focused issues, taking into consideration diminished literacy skills and cultural differences.

Awards
Awards of $10,000-$15,000 each will be made to three winners in this competition to support their projects. Two awards will support Quality Improvement projects focusing on one of the five therapeutic areas, and the third award will support a General Quality Improvement project. Awards are intended to cover salary support, consultant fees, materials, and travel to the AMDA Annual Symposium to present project results.

Application Procedure

The application deadline is October 31, 2008. The AMDA Foundation/Pfizer QI Application must be completed and submitted online through our online application process. Note that registration is required since this online application involves submitting and uploading documents in electronic form.

AMDA Foundation.
11000 Broken Land Parkway · Suite 405 · Columbia, MD 21044
Phone: 410-992-3134 · Fax: 410-740-1318

CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Margretta Madden Styles
Credentialing Scholars Grants Pro gram
The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) is
sponsoring research grants to scholars investigating the
relationship of credentialing in nursing to outcomes in
health care. Up to $25,000 is available in 2008.
The purpose of the Margretta Madden Styles
Credentialing Scholars Grants Program is to stimulate
and support research on the impact of credentialing
processes in nursing for consumers, healthcare
employers and employees, policymakers, nurses,
and the nursing profession. Credentialing research in
nursing is needed to address many questions. This
broad topic, which encompasses credentialing via
licensure, certification, accreditation, and other formal
recognition programs, provides numerous opportunities
for scholarly inquiry. For example, studies are needed to
examine how credentialing standards and credentialing
processes link to nursing competence, professional
practice, patient satisfaction, patient care and safety,
and the overall success of healthcare providers and
organizations.
Both experienced and beginning researchers are
invited to apply. The applicant investigator must be
a licensed registered nurse who has obtained a
baccalaureate or higher degree in nursing. Applications
based upon thesis or dissertation research will also
be accepted provided that the research proposal has
been approved by the applicant investigator’s thesis or
dissertation committee.
Visit www.nursecredentialing.org/inside/grants.html to view and
download the 2008 application requirements and forms.
All applications must be postmarked on or before October 15, 2008.
Grant awards will be announced by January 15, 2009.
The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), a subsidiary of the American Nurses Association (ANA),
provides individuals and organizations throughout the nursing profession with the resources they need to achieve
practice excellence. ANCC’s internationally renowned credentialing programs certify nurses in specialty practice
areas; recognize healthcare organizations for promoting safe, positive work environments through the Magnet
Recognition Program® and the Pathway to Excellence Program™; and accredit providers of continuing nursing
education. In addition, ANCC provides leading-edge information and education services and products to support
its core credentialing programs.

Outstanding Clinical Laboratory Contributions to Improving Patient Safety
The award consists of a plaque and a $5,000 cash award.

This award (formerly known as the Outstanding Clinical Laboratory Contributions to Patient Safety Award from 2005-2007) recognizes outstanding clinical laboratory contributions to improving patient safety through the use of innovative technologies, application of quality processes and their management, enhanced utilization of resources and/or the novel use of operational metrics.

Sponsor: Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, Raritan, NJ

AACC Awards Program
Michele Horwitz
AACC Membership Program Director
1850 K Street NW - Suite 625
Washington, DC 20006-2213
(phone) 202-835-8723 or 800-892-1400 x1723
(fax) 202-835-8723
mhorwitz@aacc.org

Research Grants

There are many problems in GI and solutions are needed for the well being and safety of our patients. Research offers solutions. Nurses, from all practice settings, identify questions for study and apply for funding. Research grants are funded according to the scope and budget of the project presented.

Grants are awarded through the existing process for SGNA research grants. Applications for the grants should be submitted to SGNA, using SGNA research grant applications – deadlines are February 15, July 15, and October 15 of each year.
SGNA Research Priorities include, but are not limited to:
Conscious Sedation
Expanded Role of the GI Practitioner
Infection Control
Safety
Patient Education
Nursing intervention related to GI disease processes

Are you interested in a research grant? Are you eligible?
Research grant criteria:
- Investigators must be able to complete data collection within one year of receiving the grant
- Applications are reviewed by the SGNA Research Committee.
- Research grant recipients must submit progress reports every 6 months.
- Research grant recipients are expected to submit a manuscript for possible publication in Gastroenterology Nursing, SGNA’s official journal.

Research grant recipients will be invited to present the research findings at the SGNA Annual Course.

Mentoring for novice researchers is available from the SGNA Research Committee and SGNA Research Special Interest Group. Mentoring is also available for publishing by the Editor of Gastroenterology Nursing.