Copic Insurance Company is marking its 40th anniversary by highlighting the ongoing work of the Copic Medical Foundation. Established in honor of Harold “Hal” Williamson, the foundation has awarded more than $12 million since 1991 to support improvements in patient care and medical outcomes.
For its 2025 grant cycle, the foundation is focusing on efforts to reduce fragmentation across health care settings. According to Gerald Zarlengo, MD, Chairman & CEO of Copic Insurance Company, “As part of our larger commitment to patient safety, our 2025 focus for grant funding is reducing fragmentation across care settings. A top concern in the field of patient safety, breakdowns in care from a fragmented health care system can lead to readmissions, missed diagnoses, medication errors, delayed treatment, duplicative testing and procedures, and reduction in quality of care leading to general patient and provider dissatisfaction.”
The foundation is seeking applications that offer scalable or replicable solutions aimed at improving patient safety. “We’re excited to fund approaches that take on these safety concerns. For the Foundation’s grant funding, contributing to a solution means supporting scalable or replicable solutions, focusing on the testing of new ideas or growing existing solutions, and then seeing avenues for larger application. This will be our last grant cycle focused on reducing fragmentation across care settings. The Foundation will evaluate and revise our focus area for the 2026 grant cycle, to be posted in fall 2025,” Zarlengo said.
Applications for the 2025 funding cycle are open from November 1, 2024 through January 15, 2025. Eligible programs include those that improve patient safety through systems changes or tools that enhance care delivery as well as pilot programs targeting medical error reduction. To qualify for consideration, projects must show potential for adoption within the health care community and be sponsored by a designated 501(c)(3) organization or have an identified fiduciary.
Grant applications are due by January 15, 2024 at 5 p.m., with notifications expected by March 31, 2025. Further details are available at www.copicfoundation.org.
Previous Colorado-based recipients include Mile High Health Alliance’s “Orange Flag” Project (which provided emergency department staff with data about high-utilization patients), Children’s Hospital Colorado Foundation’s ImPACT Navigation Hub (a resource hub helping young adults transition from pediatric to adult care), West Mountain Regional Health Alliance’s Community Resource Network West Mountain (an information exchange platform supporting individuals experiencing homelessness), and Metropolitan State University of Denver’s interprofessional education pilot aimed at reducing fragmentation between EMTs and nurses.
