Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement Welcomes New Federal Funding

OTTAWA, April 21, 2015 /CNW/ - The Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement (CFHI) welcomes the renewed federal funding of $14 million over two years, announced in Budget 2015. This commitment by the Government of Canada represents an investment in healthcare innovation that will improve care for patients and provide better value for taxpayers.

This funding renewal ensures that CFHI can continue to develop and spread innovative solutions to pressing healthcare challenges – including best practices in palliative care – and improve the delivery of healthcare services for all Canadians. This is the fifth round of federal funding that CFHI has received since it was established in 1997.

"Renewed funding for CFHI will allow us to continue implementing better ways of working in healthcare and spreading them across Canada," said Maureen O'Neil, President of CFHI. "I want to thank Health Minister Rona Ambrose and all parliamentarians for their continued support of patient focused healthcare innovation."  

A not-for-profit organization, CFHI helps health systems deliver better healthcare more efficiently. Working with partners that include hospitals, long term care facilities, health regions, provincial-territorial health ministries and provincial agencies such as quality councils, CFHI supports healthcare delivery innovation, helping teams from different jurisdictions work together on common improvement priorities and providing opportunities for delivery systems across provinces and territories to share and implement innovations. This collaboration is unique within Canadian healthcare.

"I joined CFHI's voluntary Board of Directors because I believe that by working with patients we can transform healthcare for Canadians," said Leslee Thompson, Chair of the Board of Directors at CFHI and Chief Executive Officer at Kingston General Hospital. "This federal investment will allow CFHI to continue partnering with patients and healthcare delivery organizations to generate measurable improvements in patient care and outcomes."

CFHI is able to demonstrate measurable results, having developed, implemented and spread innovations that could save healthcare systems over $1 billion annually. A benefit-cost analysis, completed as part of a 2014 corporate evaluation, showed that just six CFHI-supported projects have avoided more healthcare costs than CFHI's entire budget from 2006 to 2013.

That same corporate evaluation, conducted by KPMG, concluded that "CFHI is accelerating improvements in the areas of healthcare efficiency and patient value, patient and family-centred care, and coordinated healthcare. CFHI is also promoting best practices in healthcare delivery, both operational and organizational, that are found to be useful and are being implemented by its stakeholders."

The Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to accelerating healthcare improvement by working with provinces, territories and other healthcare partners to promote efficient healthcare that delivers better outcomes. CFHI supports the development of innovations that could save provincial-territorial healthcare budgets over $1 billion per year. CFHI is funded through an agreement with the Government of Canada.

SOURCE Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement

Paulette Roberge, Senior Communications Specialist, Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement, W: 613 728 2238, ext. 288, C: 613 790 1070, E: [email protected]