NEWS - Health & Hospitals

SBJ Staff Report

July 11, 2011 - Memorial University Medical Center (MUMC) in Savannah had received a $42,000 in grant funding from the Cardinal Health Foundation to further enhance operating room safety and efficiency.

The grant will be used to provide a customized version of the World Health Organization’s surgical safety checklist for all obstetric surgeries at MUMC. Memorial will also hire a safety and compliance nurse coordinator to oversee the full implementation of the checklist, including staff and physician education and on-going monitoring.

In 2011, the Cardinal Health E3 Grant Program awarded more than $1 million in grant funding to help nearly 40 healthcare providers in 20 states improve the excellence, effectiveness, and efficiency of their care. This competitive grant program specifically encouraged providers to submit funding requests for programs that seek to improve medication management or operating room safety.

The Cardinal Health Foundation supports local, national, and international programs that improve healthcare quality and build healthy communities.

MUMC has a severly over-crowded emergency room environment that is handling thousandsof patients more a year than the space was designed for, according to presentations this past year to the MUMC board of directors by the hospital’s management team.

Plans are been drawn up to expand the space and to enhance patient andstaff security, as well, but the plans have not yet veen implemented due to financial strains.

MemorialUniversityMedicalCenteris a two-state healthcare organization serving a 35-county area in southeastGeorgiaand southernSouth Carolina. The system includes its flagship hospital, a 530-bed academic medical center; Memorial primary and specialty physician networks; a major medical education program; business and industry services; and NurseOne, a 24-hour call center.