Kaiser Permanente will provide an $8 million endowment to the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) that funds new scholarship programs to allow healthcare professionals to participate in IHI healthcare improvement programs including conferences, training courses and collaborative learning sessions. IHI programs focus on issues such as clinical outcomes, patient safety, patient satisfaction, office and hospital redesign, health disparities, and healthcare access.
   
Kaiser Permanente said that approximately half of the scholarships funded by the endowment will be made available for IHI and Kaiser Permanente to distribute to non-Kaiser Permanente teams. The remaining half of the scholarships will be given to teams from Kaiser Permanente to support healthcare improvement efforts to benefit the organization's 8 million-plus members. Distributions from the $8 million endowment, including appreciation, will be used on an annual basis to continually fund the scholarship program.
   
Kaiser Permanente's $8 million endowment is part of a $10 million agreement that includes $2 million to fund IHI activities within Kaiser Permanente over the next two to three years. The activities may include leadership-level planning sessions, work with dedicated IHI faculty regarding patient safety, idealized design and workflow, leveraging information technology for improvement, and transfer of knowledge and improvement between organizations.