Strategies for Community Connections; Connecting Hospital Leaders – June 2007

An HRET - AHA Quality Center Action Learning Lab – June 2007

VHA Inc. Initiative Helps Hospitals Improve Operating Room Efficiency and Patient Care – June 2007

AMA Consortium Approves 10 New Physician Quality Measures – June 2007

Nation’s Largest Medicaid Program Spotlighted – June 2007

Program Targets SC Youth Suicides – June 2007

Program to Help Consumers Advocate for Health Coverage – June 2007

Scorecard Ranks States on Health Care Access, Cost, Quality – June 2007

Health system performance varies widely across states, according to a scorecard released today by a Commonwealth Fund commission. The state scorecard assesses health system performance on 32 measures of access and quality, avoidable hospital use and costs, equity and healthy lives. If all states performed as well as the top quartile, the panel estimates the nation annually would save billions of dollars and have 90,000 fewer deaths under age 75 from preventable conditions and half as many uninsured people. To improve performance across states, the commission calls for universal health coverage, more information on practices and policies that contribute to high or varying performance, and national leadership and collaboration across public and private sectors.

Checklist Helps Hospitals Plan for Flu Pandemic– June 2007

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has developed a checklist to help hospitals prepare for a flu pandemic. The checklist includes sections for assessing a hospital’s pandemic flu planning and decision-making, and progress toward a written pandemic flu plan. The agency calls the checklist “one of several tools for evaluating current plans,” and recommends each hospital adapt the list to its unique needs and circumstances.

Heart Attack Care Improved Without P4P– June 2007In a study in tomorrow’s Journal of the American Medical Association, hospitals participating in a voluntary quality-improvement program for heart attack patients performed as well on quality measures for heart attack care as participants in a federal pay-for-performance demonstration. Both groups of hospitals saw improvement over the three-year period on scores for care processes rewarded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ demonstration. However, there was no significant difference between the groups’ scores. Similar improvements also were seen in patient mortality and care processes not subject to financial incentives, the authors said. The study compared measures for 105,383 patients at 500 hospitals participating in the voluntary CRUSADE initiative with measures for patients at 54 CRUSADE hospitals that participated in CMS’ Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration

Signatures Needed on Congressional Letters Opposing INPATIENT Cuts – May 2007Rule would cut nearly $25 billion over five years.  Hospital leaders, Ask your legislators to sign letters opposing proposed inpatient PPS cuts Immediately!   Call or e-mail your legislators and protect Hospital services at risk.  Read More.

Joint Commission announces 2008 National Patient Safety Goals - June 25, 2007The Joint Commission today announced the 2008 National Patient Safety Goals and related requirements that will apply specifically to accredited hospitals and critical access hospitals.  Major changes in this sixth annual issuance of National Patient Safety Goals include a new requirement to take specific actions to reduce the risks of patient harm associated with the use of anticoagulant therapy, and a new goal and requirement that address the recognition of and response to unexpected deterioration in a patient's condition. (more)

• SHCA members help launch The "Five Wishes" Directive June 16 - 2007
  Aging with Dignity, the United Health Foundation, AHA and other national and local organizations will distribute 500,000 advance directives in the coming year in a campaign to help patients and families make important advance decisions about their end-of-life care. The "Five Wishes" directive, now available in 20 languages, addresses an individual's medical, personal, emotional and spiritual needs before a health care crisis.

  
  

  Link to The Five Wishes Website

  
  

  AHA News Coverage

• 2007 Sixth Quality Colloquium at Harvard University Announces Patient Safety Certificate Program June 7 - 2007

  This opportunity is geared toward those who are interested in organizing comprehensive quality improvement education programs for health care delivery systems, conducting practice assessment, improvement, and cost reduction projects, and championing the facility's quality efforts from a clinical foundation.Fast Facts:

  • This is an Executive Education Course on Patient Safety, Healthcare Quality Enhancement and Medical Errors Reduction for Healthcare Executives, Clinicians and Patient Care StaffClasses Held in Harvard University's Annenberg Hall and Saunders Theatre, Cambridge, MAColloquium Hotels: The Inn at Harvard and Harvard Square HotelAugust 19 - 22, 2007
  • www.qualitycolloquium.com

  Download this entire press release.

• Notice: CMS Issues Revisions to the Hospital Interpretive Guidelines for Informed Consent

  CMS has issued revisions to the Hospital Interpretive Guidelines regarding informed decision-making and informed consent in Appendix A of the State Operations Manual. These changes are effective immediately.

  The revised Interpretive Guidelines discuss the applicable requirements for each CoP and also includes examples of practices which hospitals are encouraged to adopt but may not be required by the CoPs. Read more...
• VA Opening 38 New Clinics - May 29, 2007
  
  World-Class Health Care Brought Closer to More Veterans
  WASHINGTON - To bring the world-class health care of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) closer to where veterans live, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson today announced plans to open 38 new community-based clinics in 22 states.

• CMS issues guidance on hospital emergency services requirements - April 30, 2007
  The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued guidance making it clear that nearly all hospitals, including specialty hospitals and others without emergency departments, must be able to evaluate persons with emergencies, provide initial treatment, and refer or transfer these individuals when appropriate.  The guidance does not apply to critical access hospitals (CAHs), which are small, rural hospitals that are subject to separate regulation.
  
  
  Strategies for Community Connections - April 26, 2007
  In this issue, AHA shares two summaries: Physicians who care, St. John Health-Warren, Michigan; Choose your weight to a healthier lifestyle, Good Samaritan Health System - Lebanon, Pennsylvania.
  
  
  Strategies for Community Connections - April 18, 2007
  In this issue, AHA shares two summaries: Ambulance Service, Saline Memorial Hospital - Benton Arkansas;  Partnerships with Cherokee Nation - Tahlequah City Hospital - Reno, Nevada.
  
  
  HPN Daily Update - April 16, 2007
  Rare case of dental patient-to-patient hepatitis B virus transmission recorded.
  
  
  Strategies for Community Connections - March 30, 2007The work hospitals do extends beyond hospital walls, from free clinics to job training to immunizations and much more.  As a resource for hospital leaders, AHA is sharing examples of how hospitals are making America healthier, community by community.
  
  
  CMS Proposes Payment reforms for inpatient hospital services in 2008
  The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule that takes steps to imprive the accuracy of Medicare's payment under the acute care hospital inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS), while providing additional incentives for hospitals to engage in quality improvement efforts.  (more)
  
  
  10 Patient Safety Tips For Hospitals
  Medical errors can occur at many points in the health care system, particularly in hospitals. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has funded more than 100 patient safety projects since 2001. Many of the findings can immediately be put into practice in hospitals by following 10 simple tips.  (more)
  
  
  Rich Umbdenstock’s Statement on Phase II of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Patient Safety Initiative
  The Institute for Healthcare Improvement's (IHI) campaign has been instrumental in hospitals' ongoing efforts to improve patient safety.  That's why we welcome the next phase of the campaign as hospitals continue the important work of making care better and safer for all patients.  There is no more important priority for America's hospitals than patient safety. (more)
  
  
  Discount Medical Plan Leaps Continental Boundaries  
  December 2006:  Partnership assists uninsured U.S. patients to obtain hospital services abroad for up to 80% savings. With the number of uninsured Americans fast approaching 50 million, two American companies, Cinergy Health, Inc. and MedRetreat, have announced plans to launch a combined effort offering North American consumers overseas medical tourism programs. Cinergy Health and MedRetreat have agreed that this new cooperative effort will help the vast majority of uninsured and underinsured Americans receive high quality healthcare abroad at rates that are 50% - 80% less than costs here in the U.S.  (more) 
  
  
  SAFETY IN ASCS - Putting Patients First  
  December 2006:  For years, patients have been kept particularly safe in ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs). The fact that most patients are relatively healthy, and there voluntarily rather than emergently, makes it easier to release them in the condition they arrived in. However, no system is absolutely perfect, and it is still possible to improve on an already good thing.  (more)
  
  
  The Patient Perspective
  November 2006: For the past four years, Scott Viera has driven an hour north of his home in Attleboro, Mass., to get treatments for colo-rectal cancer at Boston’s Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Headed upstairs for chemotherapy one day, the Friendly’s Ice Cream district manager and Roger Williams University wrestling coach noticed a recruitment poster for the patient and family advisory council. His interest piqued, the father of two soon met with the committee’s co-chairs. “They had the same philosophy I had—that the next person who walks in the door should have as good or better care than we have,” he says. Viera has attended the council’s monthly 2 1/2-hour meetings ever since, and now serves as the senior co-chair.  (more)
  
  
  MLA Receives NLM Contract to Conduct Health Information Literacy Research
  A study by the National Academy on an Aging Society reports that nearly half of all Americans adults (or over 90 million people) with low health literacy skills have limited ability to read and understand instructions on prescription containers, informed consent documents, insurance forms, and other health-impacting materials. To help combat the problem of low health literacy among patients, the Medical Library Association (MLA), with funding of $250,000 from the National Library of Medicine (NLM), will conduct a two-year research study into hospital health care provider and administrator awareness and understanding of health information literacy. The goal of the research study is to increase awareness of how medical librarians contribute to improving health information literacy among patients.  (more)
  
  
  Patients get guidance through medical maze
  September 19 2006:  As care becomes more complicated, consumers often are in need of a sympathetic helper.  When Jonna Templar was introduced to patient advocates at St. Luke’s Hospital in 2004, she doubted that she would require their services.  But Templar, who last month delivered her second child at St. Luke’s, said she was amazed at how much she had relied on her advocate, Brenda Bush.  (more)
  
  
  Smart sponges to reduce surgical accidents in US
  31 Aug 2006 - A new barcode system used on surgical sponges will be trialled by the Veterans’ Administration West Los Angeles Health Care Centre this month, to improve patient safety. The system is designed to improve patient safety by preventing used sponges being left in patients after surgical operations.
  
  
  CMS releases inpatient PPS final rule
  The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services today released its hospital inpatient prospective payment system final rule for fiscal year 2007. Based on the AHA's preliminary read, the final rule includes significant technical corrections and methodological changes to the diagnosis-related group provisions that were recommended by the AHA that will mitigate the adverse impact on many hospitals.
  
  
  CMS issues final FY 2007 rule for inpatient rehabilitation facilities
  The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services late today issued the final fiscal year 2007 rule for the inpatient rehabilitation facility prospective payment system.
  
  
• Allegiance Patient Feedback Solutions Help Healthcare Providers Meet JCAHO's 2007 Patient Safety Goals
  PatientVoice Allows Patients to Report Concerns About Patient Care and Safety Through Anonymous and Confidential Online System