While there is increasing evidence about patient safety issues and potential solutions in hospital or acute care settings, there is a need for more evidence on the nature of patient safety issues in all healthcare sectors and settings to guide effective approaches to improving patient safety and the quality of healthcare services in Canada. Specifically, there is limited data and understanding about the burden of safety problems and adverse events among Canadian home care clients and in the home care setting.

To help identify the scope of the patient safety challenge in home care, the Canadian Patient Safety Institute has partnered with other sponsoring organizations – including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Institute of Health Services and Policy Research (IHSPR), Institute of Aging (IA), and Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health (ICRH); The Change Foundation; and the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (CHSRF) – who are committed to supporting research that generates new knowledge and that contributes to improving the safety of home care services for Canadian home care clients.

As a collaborative initiative, the sponsors are pleased to announce the following Request for Applications (RFA): “Patient/Client Safety in Home Care in Canada”.

Funds Available

As of the competition launch date, the total amount available for this initiative is $1.2 million.

Update (March 2, 2010): Please note that the total available for this competition has increased to $1.2 million (up from $1.1 million) with the addition of a new partner, CIHR’s Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis.  Of the $1.2 million, $1 million is directly available to the successful research team and the remaining $200,000 will be used by the sponsoring organizations for knowledge translation activities coordinated by this group with the successful research team.

Key Dates

Completed packages must be received at the CPSI office no later than April 8, 2010 at 12:00 p.m. MT. Applications must be complete and include all required supporting documents.

You must send your completed application in two ways:

• The original fully signed application and four complete paper copies must be submitted to:

Home Care RFA
Canadian Patient Safety Institute
Suite 1414, 10235 101 Street
Edmonton, AB T5J 3G1

• An electronic copy must also be emailed to homecarerfa@cpsi-icsp.ca

Click on the links below for more information on how to apply:

• Patient/Client Safety in Home Care in Canada Competition Announcement
• To request an Application Form or to ask further questions, email homecarerfa@cpsi-icsp.ca

To ensure consistency of information provided, only questions received through email will be accommodated.