Investing in healthcare and community health

Health is not just about healthcare. In fact, social factors are greater predictors of health and well-being than clinical health. According to research reported in a 2016 issue of American Journal of Preventive Medicine, medical care accounts for only 10 to 20 percent of the contributors to health outcomes. The other 80 to 90 percent are social determinants of health, including health-related behaviors, socioeconomic factors and environmental factors.  

The Cardinal Health Foundation recently issued three invitation-only requests for proposals to nonprofit organizations that address food insecurity and/or housing instability – complex social issues that greatly influence population health. By supporting organizations that help to increase access to healthy foods and prevent homelessness, we can not only improve health outcomes, but also the overall health of the communities in which we work and live.

Housing is so important to health that those without a home die decades younger than those with a home. While the average life expectancy in the U.S. is almost 80 years old, chronically homeless individuals can expect to live only to their 60s. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Annual Point-in-Time Count tells us that, on average, 500,000 people each night experience homelessness in this country.

Evidence also supports an association between hunger and poor health outcomes. According to the USDA, there is a strong connection between hunger and chronic diseases like high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes. And the more meals individuals miss, the more hunger affects the mind and body. In 2017, 40 million Americans experienced food insecurity.

We anticipate announcing successful applicants early in 2020.

More than 10 years ago, we launched initiatives focused on improving patient safety. We first recognized patient safety as an issue with our support of the creation of Children’s Hospitals’ Solutions for Patient Safety (SPS) – a network of now 130 hospitals sharing data and best practices with the mission of eliminating serious harm across their hospitals. Recently selected for the John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Awards, SPS has saved an estimated 10,000 children from serious harm and has eliminated more than $151 million in healthcare costs.

We continued our commitment to patient safety through our E3 (Effectiveness, Efficiency & Excellence in Healthcare) grants. Through these grants, we invested in hundreds of healthcare organizations as they launched or expanded initiatives to improve patient outcomes and reduce healthcare costs. You can view a summary of recent E3 grantees’ work here. Please note: We are not currently offering patient safety or E3 grants.