Grant Will Fund Patient Safety Initiatives

Sutter Health will provide $6 million to match a $6.1 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to expand and develop patient safety programs, the San Mateo County Times reports. Sutter announced the grant on Monday (Vesely, San Mateo County Times, 10/24).

The grant will fund patient safety initiatives through 2010 at Sutter-affiliated hospitals in the Bay Area. The facilities are:

Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley and Oakland;
California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco and its affiliate, St. Luke's Hospital in San Francisco;
Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley and its San Leandro Hospital campus;
Marin General Hospital in Greenbrae;
Novato Community Hospital; and
Mills-Peninsula Health Services in Burlingame and San Mateo.

Sutter officials plan to create patient safety nursing teams and initiatives to improve hospital results, which will be shared with its 26-hospital network and other facilities.

The grant is believed to be one of the largest distributed to a U.S. health care system for patient safety, according to Sutter (Rauber, San Francisco Business Times, 10/23). This is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.