UC Doles Out $2.5M in Grants for Health Care Improvement Projects
The University of California has distributed a total of $2.5 million in grants to four projects aimed at improving health care and reducing related costs, the San Francisco Business Times reports (Brown, San Francisco Business Times, 3/10).
The funding was awarded to initiatives that already have received money from the UC Center for Health Quality and Innovation and have demonstrated improvements to health care delivery and costs (UC release, 3/10).
Details of Projects
The university system awarded $1.2 million over two years to expand a project at UC-San Diego that seeks to reduce length of stay and return visits for psychiatric patients in emergency departments. According to UC-San Diego, the Patient-Centered Recovery Program already has:
- Reduced psychiatric stays by 12%; and
- Reduced return visits within one month by 15% (KPBS, 3/10).
Meanwhile, researchers at UC-Davis were awarded $541,000 over two years to expand a smoking cessation program and incorporate electronic health records into the program.
In addition, a combined $787,900 has been awarded to researchers at UC-San Francisco for projects that aim to:
- Enhance communications between primary care physicians and specialists; and
- Develop "bundled payments" for hip and knee replacements (San Francisco Business Times, 3/10).