RCHI Receives Grant From Hermann Healthcare System

The Texas A&M University System Health Science Center’s Rural and Community Health Institute (RCHI) recently received a grant of $25,000 from Memorial Hermann Healthcare System. The grant funds will be used to further promote and deliver RCHI patient safety programs to rural hospital communities in Texas. This is the second time within the last three years that Memorial Hermann has generously supported RCHI’s efforts.
RCHI is an initiative of the A&M Health Science Center’s Office of the President. The institute’s Patient Safety Program has grown significantly over the past year and now encompasses three key service areas, including a Physician Peer Review initiative, development of a Patient Safety Database, and Quality of Care and Patient Safety Consulting.
The Memorial Hermann Healthcare System has established an Affiliates Program that supports a network of regional hospitals and specialty health care organizations. Many are in rural areas and are within 150 miles of Memorial Hermann’s home base, Houston.
Currently the Memorial Hermann affiliate network includes 23 facilities. RCHI is currently present in seven hospitals in the Memorial Hermann affiliate network. (In another example of geographic alignment between Memorial Hermann and the A&M Health Science Center, Houston is also home to the health science center’s Institute of Biosciences and Technology).
Dr. Nancy Dickey, president of the A&M Health Science Center and vice chancellor for health affairs for the A&M System notes: “From the start, Memorial Hermann has seen the vision of the Rural and Community Health Institute. With this gift we hope we can embrace more small and rural hospitals, with particular attention to those in the Memorial Hermann family.”
RCHI’s Kathy Mechler, R.N., who is involved in administering RCHI patient safety programs, said: “Support from organizations such as Memorial Hermann assist RCHI in growing and expanding our programs. This is the second grant awarded to RCHI by the Memorial Hermann Healthcare System. It is a wonderful opportunity to partner with an organization such as Memorial Hermann to promote quality of care and patient safety in rural Texas.”
Memorial Hermann, a not-for-profit health care system, provides quality comprehensive programs and services for a person’s whole life. Through its 11 hospitals located in the Texas Medical Center and the greater Houston area, Memorial Hermann offers the convenience of health care in neighborhoods where people live and work as well as easy access to the resources and technology of a university-affiliated teaching hospital.