United Hospital Fund is honored to receive three grants from The Mother Cabrini Health Foundation, totaling $1.15 million for work in 2022, in support of three innovative programs aimed at helping young children and older adults.
The awards were among more than 450 year-end 2021 grants from The Mother Cabrini Health Foundation (the Foundation), totaling $140 million, all in support of organizations and programs that address the health-related needs of low-income residents and underserved communities across New York State.
UHF was awarded $500,000 to support the third year of its Pediatrics for an Equitable Developmental Start Learning Network (PEDS Network), which is working to increase the number of young children receiving equitable primary care-based interventions that promote healthy development, address unmet social and developmental needs, and strengthen families.
The statewide PEDS Network is comprised of three levels of engagement: a fellowship program for early career pediatric clinicians to nurture the next generation of clinical leaders through the development of an equity-focused practice transformation project; an on-line resource center providing tools and strategies on improving child health equity; and a series of learning collaborative webinars highlighting and showcasing the strategies and efforts aimed at improving early childhood development in New York State.
In addition, the Foundation awarded UHF a $150,000 grant to support a small number of NYC-based pediatric primary care practices that are seeking to integrate an emergent literacy intervention strategy as part of the existing well child-visit schedule.
The Foundation also awarded $500,000 for a new UHF initiative aimed at addressing the problem of polypharmacy in long-term residents of nursing homes. Polypharmacy refers to the use of an inappropriately high number of medications that may increase the likelihood of drug-drug interactions and other adverse events such as falls, cognitive impairment, and hospitalization.
The one-year project, managed by UHF’s Quality Institute, will create a learning collaborative with six skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) to design and implement ways to better monitor and assess the appropriateness of medication regimens and implement deprescribing practices where indicated.
‘While it has been estimated that two-thirds of nursing home residents receive 10 or more medications daily, the key issue is ensuring that all medications are appropriate and the benefits of each medication outweigh the risks,” said Joan Guzik, Director, Quality and Efficiency, for UHF’s Quality Institute.
The learning collaborative will build on a current the Foundation-supported UHF project, Transitions from SNFs to Home.
“UHF is extremely grateful to The Mother Cabrini Health Foundation for its ongoing support of our mission to build an effective and equitable health care system for all New Yorkers,” said Anthony Shih, MD, UHF president. “These grants will help us to address critical issues for children and older adults.”