The federal government of the United States stimulates improving the quality of health care by awarding $25 million in grants for improving patient safety and reducing medical liability.

In September the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reserved $25 million to use for grants on these topics. Health systems can begin applying December 20, 2009 and will have through January 20, 2010 to submit an application. Grants will be awarded  competitively for $3 million for up to a three-year period. Applicants also may qualify for up to $300,000 for a one-year planning grant for innovation that is still in development.

Grant proposals concerning patient safety should be focused on one or some of the following:

• Incidence of selected patient safety events
• Reduction in antecedent or precipitating factors
• System changes and corrective actions taken (if any)
• Effectiveness of risk mitigation approaches implemented
• Increased transparency of patient safety events on a state or system wide basis

Click here for more information on the grant program

Source: fiercehealthcare.com