Friday, March 29, 2013
 
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Memorial Medical Center Foundation awards $380,000 in grants

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[March 29, 2013]  SPRINGFIELD -- The Memorial Medical Center Foundation has awarded more than $380,000 in health-related grants for community and health-system initiatives.

Twenty projects received amounts ranging from more than $2,600 to more than $60,500. Eight grants went to groups within the community -- seven to Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, one to the Elizabeth Ann Seaton Program and one to Kumler Outreach Ministries.

Thirteen grants were awarded within the health system, including two that were shared with SIU School of Medicine.

Since 1984, the foundation has distributed an estimated $7 million in health-related grants.

The deadline for the next round of grant applications is Nov. 1.

"These grant applications are outstanding initiatives that will help advance patient care, education and clinical research that will benefit the people and communities we serve," said Elena Kezelis, the foundation's executive director.

The grant recipients are:

  • SIU School of Medicine's Division of Plastic Surgery -- $60,500 to develop clinical use of stem cells in chronic wounds, burns, cancer resections and traumas in order to provide soft tissue coverage.

  • SIU School of Medicine's Division of Plastic Surgery -- $50,285 to study the feasibility of combining surgery and genetic treatment of cancer.

  • SIU School of Medicine's Department of Family and Community Medicine, SIU's Center for Clinical Research, and Memorial Medical Center -- $38,126 to measure the health literacy of cancer patients, identify literacy weaknesses, develop ways to address those weaknesses and explore the feasibility of a peer mentor program for patients.

  • Kumler Outreach Ministries -- $31,085 for its indigent pharmaceutical program.

  • SIU School of Medicine's Division of Infectious Diseases -- $27,391 to study a persistent hospital-acquired infection common in burn units and intensive care units in order to help determine a targeted approach to eradicating the infection.

  • SIU School of Medicine's Division of Orthopaedics -- $25,525 to evaluate a tissue replacement for anterior cruciate ligament injuries, the most common knee injury.

  • Memorial Medical Center's Division of Nursing, Memorial Heart and Vascular Services, Millikin University School of Nursing, SIU School of Medicine, and SIU-Edwardsville School of Pharmacy -- $23,762 to fund a pilot project to test an interprofessional teach-back approach on selected outcomes for heart failure medical adherence, 30- and 90-day hospital readmissions, emergency department use after discharge, quality of life, fatigue, and depression.

  • Elizabeth Ann Seton Program -- $20,000 to fund a mentoring program to reduce the likelihood of diabetes among low-income women in four counties.

  • Memorial Medical Center's Food and Nutrition Department -- $17,483 to support accreditation for a diabetes education program.

  • SIU School of Medicine's Division of Plastic Surgery -- $13,831 to help fund a collaborative study among several universities to determine the safest and most effective products to use in reconstructive surgery.

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  • Memorial Heart and Vascular Services -- $12,968 to fund a study to identify the nursing interventions that are the most helpful to patients with lung volume reduction and their families.

  • Memorial Medical Center's Employee Development Department -- $11,724 to purchase a cardiac patient simulation unit for nursing education to expand clinical simulation opportunities.

  • Memorial Medical Center's Post-Anesthesia Care Unit -- $9,940 to study the effects of a brief post-surgery family visit in the recovery room for patients receiving hip or knee replacement surgery.

  • Memorial Medical Center's Psychiatry Unit -- $8,415 to implement a comfort room to help soothe patients with dementia in a separate location from the stimulation of a psychiatric unit.

  • Memorial Medical Center's Post-Anesthesia Care Unit -- $8,119 to identify surgery patients who are at risk of experiencing an unexpected event while recovering from anesthesia.

  • Memorial Center for Learning and Innovation -- $7,214 for programmatic and equipment needs of the new facility.

  • Memorial Medical Center's Nursing Outcomes Improvement -- $5,820 to fund a critical-care conference in 2013 featuring an expert who will discuss how to improve outcomes for ventilator-associated pneumonia, reducing hospital-acquired infections, preventing pressure ulcers and preserving skin integrity.

  • Memorial Medical Center's Division of Nursing -- $4,420 to fund a study to identify patient preferences and best practices to meet the hygiene needs of excessively overweight patients while they're hospitalized.

  • Memorial Medical Center's Pharmacy -- $2,680 to purchase four iPads to improve services provided to patients and medical staff by providing portable access to the electronic medical record, drug information and educational tools for patients and their families.

  • Memorial Medical Center's Nursing Research Council -- $2,641 to provide partial funding for Memorial's annual Nursing Research Conference in April.

The Memorial Medical Center Foundation secures financial support and awards grants for health-related services that benefit people served by Memorial Health System, its affiliates and other not-for-profit community organizations.

The foundation makes grants only to central Illinois organizations with 501(c)(3) classifications in communities served by Memorial Health System. Grants are not awarded to individuals.

For more information about the foundation's programs and services or its grant application process, call 217-788-4700. Information and grant applications are also available on the foundation's website at MemorialMedicalFoundation.com.

The foundation's officers are J. Christopher Smith, chairman; Dr. Elvin G. Zook, vice chairman; Bridget L. Lamont, secretary; Gary D. Neubauer, treasurer; Robert W. Kay, assistant treasurer; and Edgar J. Curtis, president.

Other board members are R. Lee Allen, Geri Lynn Arrindell, Julie Cellini, Ann Coombe, Virginia Conlee, Dr. David L. Griffen, Jennifer Isringhausen, Roy Newman, Rob Pietroburgo and J. William Roberts.

[Text from file received from Memorial Medical Center]

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