CARIBOU, Maine — The Cardinal Health Foundation recently announced the recipients of their Effectiveness, Efficiency and Excellence in Healthcare or E3 grant. One of the 38 recipients of the year’s grant is the Caribou-based Jefferson Cary Foundation.
A non-profit charitable foundation established in 1993 it is named after Dr. Jefferson B. Cary whose charitable bequest funded the original Cary Memorial Hospital, now known as Cary Medical Center.
The primary purpose of the Jefferson Cary Foundation is to establish a permanent fund, commonly called an endowment fund, to generate income to support the expansion of services, purchase new technology and fund special projects at Cary. The trustees of the Jefferson Cary Foundation have set a goal of $500,000; once this goal is reached, the income earned can then be used. The true value of the endowment is that it is a permanent and ongoing source of support for the hospital and its programs.
According to Erin Maggied, a lab tech at Cardinal Health, the grant will be used to improve certain aspects of health care in the Caribou area.
“This grant will be used to improve health care in Caribou,” said Maggied. “The Jefferson Cary Foundation is one of nearly 40 health care institutions across the country to receive this grant to improve effectiveness, efficiency and excellence in patient care.”
Cary Medical Center will be receiving a $31,000 E3 grant this year, and the hospital hopes to put that money to good use right away. Cary’s Director of Community Relations and Development, Bill Flagg spoke about the grant and what the hospital would be using the funds for.
“Our plan for this grant is an educational program for patients to help them understand how to stay compliant with their prescription medications,” said Flagg. “This will be done through community programs like the ‘Healthy You’ program. We’re actually going to train volunteers to help patients who may have questions or concerns. Mostly, it will involve providing patients with information on their prescription medication. We’re also going to have some very high-end automated pill dispenser units particularly for people with dementia or other issues. These pill dispensers will have alerts and alarms reminding them that they need to take their medications.”
“Primarily, these funds will be used to establish an educational program to help patients understand why it is important for patients to take their medications as prescribed by their doctor,” Flagg added. “The failure to take medications as prescribed is a major cause for readmission to hospitals within the first 30 days of a patient’s discharge.”
Flagg explained that Cary is also following a trend started by a hospital in Bridgton, which is the “blue folder program.” Flagg explained that the concept of the program is simple, but very effective.
“There was a program started at Bridgton Hospital, in which they hand out these blue folders to patients, who are recommended by case managers in the hospital because they may have some difficulty keeping all their information together,” said Flagg. “The patients are instructed to bring their blue folders with them to their doctors’ appointments. It’s a very simple idea, but Bridgton has already started to see results as far as patient medication compliance and patients making their regular medical appointments. We’re going to incorporate this as part of our program too.”
“Cardinal Health has a vested interest in helping health care providers save days, dollars and lives by working collaboratively to improve the quality of care nationwide. We congratulate this year’s winners and commend each organization for their work to achieve meaningful, long-term improvements,” said Dianne Radigan, Cardinal Health press spokesman.
Flagg added that on behalf of the entire hospital, they are very pleased to be one of only two hospitals in Maine, along with Eastern Maine Medical Center, to receive this E3 grant.
“They obviously saw that this grant could be used very effectively to meet our needs, and it really shows the excellent work that we’ve been doing at Cary.” said Flagg.
