UNDERWRITERS
The Remaking American Medicine broadcast series and companion national outreach campaign would not be possible without the support of several generous underwriters. Their generosity is destined to have a sustaining impact on the issue of quality improvement long after the series broadcast has aired.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
The Foundation provided major underwriting
for Remaking American Medicine and the supporting National Partnership Program,
a fundamental element of the outreach campaign. The Foundation's initial engagement
of Crosskeys Media to produce Pursuing Perfection in Health Care, an educational
video series intended for the health acre community and based on the Foundation's
Pursing Perfection initiative, led directly to the development of the series and
the national outreach campaign.
Established in 1972, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, based in Princeton,
N.J. is the largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care
in the United States. They concentrate their grant making to programs and projects
that address the following:
- Assurance that all Americans have access to quality health care at reasonable cost.
- Improvement in health quality of care and support for people with chronic health conditions.
- Promotion of healthy communities and lifestyles; and
- Activities that reduce the personal, social and economic harm caused by substance abuse - tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs.
To learn more, visit www.rwjf.org
Amgen Foundation
The Amgen Foundation is the lead sponsor for Remaking American Medicine. Their generosity helped fund the series and has also underwritten the PBS Incentive Grants Program that is providing resources for stations to more fully participate in local coalition activities. In addition, the National Symposium on Quality Health Care Improvement, which will serve as the series premiere and launch event immediately before the broadcast is being made possible through Amgen.
The Amgen Foundation seeks to advance science education; improve patient access to quality care; and strengthen the communities where Amgen staff members live and work. Since 1991, the Foundation has made $70 million in grants to local, regional and national non-profit organizations that impact society in inspiring and innovative ways. It has also supported disaster relief efforts both domestically and internationally.
To learn more visit: www.amgen.com/citizenship/overview.html
The Nathan Cummings Foundation
The Remaking American Medicine national media/broadcast promotional campaign is being underwritten thanks to
the Nathan Cummings Foundation. The media campaign will generate viewer interest in the broadcast
while stimulating more coverage of innovations in quality improvement by health
care reporters.
The Nathan Cummings Foundation is rooted in the Jewish tradition and committed
to democratic values and social justice, including fairness, diversity, and community.
Established in 1985, they seek to build a socially and economically just society
that values and protects the ecological balance for future generations; promotes
humane health care; and fosters arts and culture that enriches communities. Several
basic themes run through all of its programs and inform the Foundation's approach
to grant making.
These include:
- Concern for the poor, disadvantaged, and underserved.
- Respect for diversity.
- Promotion of understanding across cultures; and
- Empowerment of communities in need.
To learn more visit www.ncf.org
The Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation
The Foundation made a grant to Remaking American Medicine that furthers the Foundation's focus on improving the education of health professionals,
particularly physicians. The Foundation's grant is being used to assist with production
of
Program Four - “Hand in Hand” -- which tells the story of patients and families who have formed a unique bond in a teaching hospital in Augusta, Georgia, to transform the institution into a nationally recognized facility, where partnership is a guiding vision to the care it delivers.
Since its inception in 1930, the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation has been dedicated
to improving the way in which health professionals are educated and trained, in
order to better serve and improve the health of the public. The Foundation supports
programs designed to improve the education of health professionals in the interest
of the health of the public, and to enhance the representation of minorities in
the health profession. Among their areas of particular emphasis in grant making
are:
- Projects to improve medical and health professional education in the context of the changing health care system.
- Projects that will increase diversity among health care professionals.
- Projects that demonstrate or encourage ways to increase teamwork between and among health care professionals; and
- Educational strategies to increase care for underserved populations.
To learn more visit www.josiahmacyfoundation.org
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
This federal agency has provided funding to the outreach campaign to further the
engagement of state-based patient organizations, health care purchasers and traditionally
underserved groups such as minority and rural populations in grass roots activities
around the broadcast series. Much of this work is being undertaken through local/regional
coalitions organized by Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs).
Initially created in 1989 as the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, AHRQ
is an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services. Its mission is
to support research designed to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness
of health care for all Americans. The research sponsored, conducted, and disseminated
by AHRQ provides information that helps people make better decisions about health
care.
To learn more visit www.ahrq.gov
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
CMS, a federal agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, is supporting
Remaking American Medicine and the national outreach campaign in two distinct
ways. CMS has authorized the involvement of all Quality Improvement Organizations
(QIOs) in the project and the supporting outreach campaign because of the unique
opportunities the broadcast presents to promote quality improvement, which is
central to the QIO mission.
Subsequent to the authorization, CMS awarded contracts to ten QIOs to create state
level projects that help them take advantage of their campaign participation.
In addition, CMS has contracted with Crosskeys Media to provide hands-on support
including helping QIOs more effectively tie in their quality work with the series
and campaign. To help facilitate QIO engagement with other like-minded institutions
working on the campaign, CMS provided core funding for the development of this
Web site. CMS's support provides the underpinnings to the development of local/regional
coalitions around the country.
CMS's Mission is to assure health care security for its beneficiaries. The agency
opens its programs to full partnership with the entire health community to improve
quality and efficiency in an evolving health care system. Their goals include:
- Protecting and improve beneficiary health and satisfaction.
- Fostering appropriate and predictable payments and high quality care.
- Promoting understanding of CMS programs among beneficiaries, the health care community, and the public.
- Promoting the fiscal integrity of CMS programs and be an accountable steward of public funds.
- Fostering excellence in the design and administration of CMS programs.
- Providing leadership in the broader health care marketplace to improve health.
To learn more visit www.cms.hhs.gov
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts
At Blue Cross Blue Shield, we are committed to improving the health and wellness of our 2.9 million members. We are committed to assisting physicians and hospitals in their mission to continuously improve the extraordinary quality of care that makes our state's healthcare world-renowned.
