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Cardinal Health Awards $1 Million to Fund Patient Safety Initiatives

34 Organizations Receive Grants from Largest and First-of-Its-Kind Fund in Private Sector

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 10, 2008 — To support initiatives that enhance patient safety and quality of care, Cardinal Health announced today grants totaling $1 million for new and innovative programs at 34 hospitals, health systems and community health clinics across the country. This program is the largest and first of its kind given by a health care company.

The awards were announced today by Cardinal Health Chairman and CEO R. Kerry Clark at a briefing at the National Press Club on Quality as a Path to Improving the Cost of Health Care in America.

Grants ranging from $5,000 to $50,000 will provide funding for programs that implement creative and replicable methods to improve the quality of patient care. Initiatives that received funding include a regional, collaborative program to reduce Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) in New Mexico, an initiative to create the largest national clinical outcomes database to define, measure and benchmark the highest standards of practice in anesthesiology and a hospital in New Jersey using pre-labeled and pre-filled insulin pens to reduce errors in insulin administration.

More than 10 percent (700 organizations) of the nation’s hospitals applied for the grants. In choosing recipients, Cardinal Health looked for projects that respond to a clearly identified, high priority safety issue; collaborative programs; projects that apply new thinking and approaches to development of solutions; model programs that can be replicated at other organizations and demonstrable and sustainable measures to ensure that improvements last over time.

“I believe the health care industry can use quality improvements as a strategy to achieve lower costs and provide safer care for our citizens,” said Clark. 'Fixing health care is not a simple task, but we have it within our control to take simple steps that can have a dramatic effect.”

According to the Institute of Medicine, medication mistakes injure more than 1.5 million patients each year, causing nearly 100,000 deaths and costing the health care industry more than $3.5 billion. The 34 grant recipients are tackling these and other quality issues to improve patient safety.

Patient Safety Grant Projects include:

Name	Location	Initiative
Avera McKenna Hospital & University Health Center	Sioux Falls, S.D.	Saving lives in rural communities

Cambridge Health Alliance	Boston	Redefining and redesigning hospital discharge

Catholic Healthcare Partners	Cincinnati	Configure medication use system using Pyxis automation technologies

Children’s Hospital Central California	Madera, Calif.	Mind the gap: healthy literacy initiative

Children’s Hospital of Michigan, Wayne State University	Detroit	Monitoring of end tidal CO₂

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital	Cincinnati	Partnering with families to improve patient safety

Community Medical Centers	Fresno, Calif.	Patient quality / safety monitoring program

DCH Regional Medical Center	Tuscaloosa, Ala.	Early predictor of critical health status using SWAT intervention

Fairmont General Hospital	Fairmont, W.Va.	Anticoagulation clinic

Geisinger Clinic	Danville, Pa.	Adverse drug event assessment using electronic health record

Holy Cross Hospital	Silver Spring, Md.	Crew resource management

Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania	Philadelphia	The role of end tidal CO₂

Indianapolis Health Information Exchange	Indianapolis	Smart pump informatics: comparing Alaris database

Lee Memorial Health System Foundation	Fort Myers, Fla.	Structured response through integration of best practice nursing interventions and tools to prevent hospital-acquired pressure ulcers

Mackinac Straits Hospital and Health Center	St. Ignace, Mich.	Coumadin therapy monitoring

MeritCare Health Systems	Fargo, N.D.	Advanced medical home with pharmacist intervention

Montefiore Medical Center	Bronx, N.Y.	Electronic decision support for prevention of venous thromboembolic disease

Nationwide Children's Hospital Foundation	Columbus, Ohio	Fall prevention program in hospitalized children

New York Presbyterian Hospital	New York	Educating family caregivers - catheter related infections

North Shore – Long Island Jewish Health System	Great Neck, N.Y.	National clinical outcomes database in anesthesiology

Our Lady of Mercy Medical Center	Bronx, N.Y.	Warfarin: Overseeing current practice and implementing measures for safe use

Palomar Pomerado North County Health Development	Escondido, Calif.	Adverse Drug Event evaluation project


Providence Hospital	Mobile, Ala.	Antibiotic prophylaxis in cardiac surgery: The effects of obesity on serum levels during surgery

Rady Children's Hospital & Health Center	San Diego	Improving pediatric anticoagulation safety

Rush University Medical Center	Chicago	Prospective model for identifying patients at risk for catheter-associated urinary tract infections

Saint Barnabas Medical Center Foundation	West Orange, N.J.	Insulin therapy risk reduction program

Santa Clara Valley Medical Center Foundation (2)	San Jose, Calif.	(1) Improve the survival rate of very low birth weight infants; and (2) Building a safe bridge between inpatient and outpatient settings for anticoagulation

Sunrise Community Health	Evans, Colo.	Integration of patient care: Pharmacy and EHR

University Medical Center of Southern Nevada	Las Vegas	Antibiotic stewardship/infection control program

University of California	San Diego	Safety and health improvement project

University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center	Albuquerque, N.M.	Regional collaborative program to reduce MRSA in New Mexico

Wellmont Health System	Kingsport, Tenn.	Safest hospital initiative

Whidbey General Hospital Foundation	Whidbey Island, Wash.	Infection control bundles

In addition to the corporate commitment to patient safety, the Cardinal Health Foundation has provided more than $10 million for significant health care initiatives since its inception in 2002. Many of these have a special focus on patient safety including:

Serving as a lead sponsor for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's 100,000 Lives and 5 Million Lives Campaigns.
Funding important patient safety initiatives in partnership with leading national and regional organizations, such as the National Quality Forum, the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists and the Maryland Patient Safety Center.
Development of a national poison prevention campaign focused on medication safety in partnership with SafeKids Worldwide.

About Cardinal Health

Headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE: CAH) is an $87 billion, global company serving the health-care industry with products and services that help hospitals, physician offices and pharmacies reduce costs, improve safety, productivity and profitability, and deliver better care to patients. With a focus on making supply chains more efficient, reducing health care-associated infections and breaking the cycle of harmful medication errors, Cardinal Health develops market-leading technologies, including Alaris^® IV pumps, Pyxis^® automated dispensing systems, MedMined™ electronic infection surveillance service, VIASYS^® respiratory care products and the CareFusion™ patient identification system. The company also manufactures medical and surgical products and is one of the largest distributors of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies worldwide. Ranked No. 19 on the Fortune 500, Cardinal Health employs more than 40,000 people on five continents. More information about the company may be found at www.cardinalhealth.com.

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