AHRQ Awards Nearly $4 Million in Challenge Grants to Help Hospitals Improve Patient Safety

11/3/2003

From: Ron Rabbu, 301-427-1862 or rrabbu@ahrq.gov Karen Migdail, 301-427-1855 or kmigdail@ahrq.gov both of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 -- The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality today announced the award of almost $4 million to fund 13 projects designed to improve patient safety. Six of the grants will assess patient safety risks to patients and devise ways to prevent them; the remaining seven will implement safe practices that show evidence of eliminating or reducing known hazards to patient safety.

"These grants not only will help hospitals put proven remedies in place to reduce errors, but also will provide a wealth of information on where risks still occur and what can be done to eliminate them," Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson said. "Efforts like these will help hospitals and other parts of the health care system make meaningful progress to improve the quality of care for patients."

The 13 grants build on the Agency's 3-year, $165 million investment in patient safety research. AHRQ currently has over 100 other research projects that comprise an extensive, user-driven patient safety research agenda designed to improve patient safety and enhance quality of care. Below is a list of the institutions that have received a challenge grant, the city and state in which the project will be conducted, and the federal dollars awarded.

"We see these challenge grants as an exciting opportunity to provide hospitals the resources to identify and confront the causes of medical errors," said AHRQ Director Carolyn M. Clancy, M.D. "The findings of this research will help us reach our ultimate goal of ensuring that Americans receive high-quality, safe health care."

The Agency will provide up to 50 percent of the total cost of the projects, while grant recipients will be required to provide a minimum of 50 percent of the total costs. However, some grant recipients will be providing far more than the minimum. For example, for the implementation project awarded to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan will provide up to $10 million in incentive payments to hospital participants in Michigan, in addition to the commitments made by participating Michigan hospital teams and the Michigan Health & Hospital Association.

These cooperative agreements are being announced in collaboration with the Patient Safety Task Force established by Secretary Thompson to coordinate research efforts across HHS. The Task Force is composed of AHRQ, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and the Food and Drug Administration.

------

Risk Assessment Grants

Boston Medical Center, Boston, MA: $200,000

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN: $200,000

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA: $199,968

Veterans Medical Research Foundation, San Diego, CA: $187,895

Oregon Department of Human Services, Portland, OR: $165,205

University of Chicago, Chicago, IL: $139,400

Implementation Grants

Sacred Heart Medical Center Foundation, Eugene, OR: $498,720

University of Missouri (Columbia), Columbia, MO: $470,620

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD: $454,590

Kaiser Foundation Research Institute, Oakland, CA: $443,767

University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA: $400,000

Cincinnati Foundation for Biomedical Research and Education, Cincinnati, OH: $327,721

University of Wisconsin (Madison), Madison, WI: $270,175

Total Awards: $3,958,061