The Maine Health Access Foundation has awarded $670,000 in grants to 14 small Maine hospitals to improve medication safety.

Rumford Hospital and Bridgton Hospital each received $50,000. Rumford will use the money, in part, to teach its medical personnel about children's medications. Bridgton will use its money to train medical personnel, educate patients and set up processes to keep better track of patient medications.

"The last thing I want people to think is we're having an 'aha' (moment) and we think we ought to do this. We're doing a lot of it now," said Bobbi Cribby, Bridgton's director of clinical practice. "We think it can be better."

Medication safety - preventing overdoses, drug interactions and misuse - is an issue nationally, particularly as aging baby boomers require a greater number of drugs for everything from heart disease to arthritis. In Maine, medication safety has been a hot topic with doctors and hospitals throughout the state.

In September, the Maine Health Management Coalition, a group of doctors, hospitals, insurance companies and others, released a survey that looked at whether 41 Maine hospitals double-checked prescriptions and verified medications with patients, and how they handled other drug issues. Of a possible 100 points, about half of the hospitals scored 60 or higher.

Bridgton got a score of 73; Rumford's was 66.

Both hospitals said they've been working on medication safety for a while. Bridgton, for example, computerized patient records in 2006 to help track prescriptions.

Both hospitals believe they can do more.

"It's a huge challenge, a huge challenge for everyone today," Cribby said.

The Maine Health Access Foundation agreed. The nonprofit group created from the sale of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maine to Anthem had money to give. It decided to focus on medication safety at small, rural hospitals.

"Larger hospitals have the same issues they're confronting, (but) they tend to have more resources, more staff and, frankly, I think, more models nationally that they can draw on to help them cope with this problem," said Wendy Wolf, president of the foundation. "Small hospitals are challenged."

Fourteen hospitals applied for the grants and all 14 received money. Most got $50,000.

Bridgton will use the money to tell people about the importance of knowing their medications, keeping track of what they're taking and alerting their doctors and pharmacists to any additions. The money will also help Bridgton investigate how it can improve the way doctors, nurses, family practitioners and pharmacists gather information about prescriptions, ensuring that a patient's file is always up to date.

Rumford will focus its grant on medications given to children. On its priority list: Train medical personnel to handle pregnant women, infants and children in life-threatening emergencies and teach emergency room doctors about pediatric drugs.

"We wanted people to be a lot more comfortable around kids," said Jane Aube, Rumford's director of nursing.

The other 12 hospitals are Houlton Regional Hospital, Millinocket Regional Hospital, C.A. Dean Memorial Hospital in Greenville, Mayo Regional Hospital in Dover-Foxcroft, Penobscot Valley Hospital in Lincoln, Calais Regional Hospital, Sebasticook Valley Hospital in Pittsfield, Down East Community Hospital in Machias, Blue Hill Memorial Hospital, Mount Desert Island Hospital in Bar Harbor, St. Andrews Hospital in Boothbay Harbor and Redington-Fairview General Hospital in Skowhegan.