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The University of Nebraska Board of Regents approved two agreements last
week
taking significant steps toward the establishment of a University of Nebraska Medical
Center (UNMC) College of Nursing division in Norfolk.
The Omaha-based college has divisions in Lincoln, Kearney and Scottsbluff. The
Joint Affiliation and Operating Agreement and Academic Affiliation Agreement
establish formal agreements among the Board of Regents, Northeast Community
College (NCC) and Faith Regional Health Services relating to the establishment
of the nursing division.
The agreements implement the conditions, commitment and expectations in funding,
academic affiliation and operations. The agreement also stipulates termination
provisions for the Board of Regents and Northeast
Community College if financial or other conditions are not met. The Joint
Affiliation and Operating Agreement defines funding responsibilities by leaders
of Northeast and North Central Nebraska communities, including construction of a
facility. The Academic Affiliation Agreement spells out program curricula,
enrollment, clinical arrangements
and other academic matters.
Read
the full article.
— UNMC news release, March 7, 2008.
"The war on terrorism is fundamental to our future," Mike Johanns said Monday
morning of last week. Johanns, the United States Secretary of Agriculture for the last three
years and former governor of Nebraska, made a trip to south central Nebraska and
made a stop in Lexington Monday as part of his campaign tour. Last October,
Johanns learned that Chuck Hagel would not seek reelection to the U.S. Senate
and decided he would campaign for the position himself.
When asked what his focus would be if he wins the bid for office, Johanns said
that he wanted to work on providing opportunities for growth in Nebraska's rural
communities. "Agriculture is important," he said. He also
commented,
"Health care will continue to be an issue. I will support federal policies that
support our communities, our doctors and our hospitals." Johanns commented that
we are blessed in Nebraska to have excellent health care and...outstanding health services are never too many
miles away.
Read the full article.
— Danny Gruber, Lexington Clipper Herald, March 5, 2008.
LINCOLN, Neb. — Gov. Dave Heineman last week signed a proclamation declaring March
as "Wellness Month" in Nebraska. Throughout the month, the Governor will be
highlighting efforts that promote wellness in Nebraska, emphasizing wellness at
school, work, home and in local communities.
“It’s our goal to create a culture of wellness across the state,” Gov. Heineman
said. “By changing our mindset, we can surround Nebraskans with wellness and
improve our already good quality of life. This applies to everyone, young and
old.”
Dr. Joann Schaefer, chief medical officer for the state, said, “Surrounding
children with wellness at school, adults at work, communities where people live
and reminding folks of the importance of choices they make at home is the
cornerstone to achieving better health in Nebraska. Wellness emphasizes four
components: prevention, active lifestyles, good nutrition and stress
management.”
As a major employer in Nebraska, the state is trying to lead by example with LB
884, introduced by Sen. Tim Gay of Papillion, which would give the
administration more flexibility to design an innovative and dynamic wellness
component to the state employees’ health insurance program.
Read
more.
— Governor Dave Heineman news release, March 3, 2008.
The number of flu cases has continued to rise in Nebraska, but the flu season
could be close to peaking, state epidemiologist Dr. Tom Safranek said recently.
There were 1,187 confirmed cases reported last week at the state's tracking
labs, up about 15 percent from the previous week. Even though the number
continued to rise, the rate of increase was lower than it had been earlier in
February — a sign that the flu season could be leveling off, Safranek said.
Through Thursday, Feb. 28, the number of Douglas County cases was
higher than any flu season's total over the past 12 years, with the exception of
2003-2004. That season, 1,040 cases were reported.
Hospitals have admitted more people with flu-like symptoms this season than last
season. The Nebraska Medical Center reported that 40 people had been
hospitalized for the flu this season — more than double last season's count.
Safranek said there have been no flu deaths reported this season for people 18
and younger. Doctors and hospitals in Nebraska are required to report flu deaths
in that age group.
There is no statewide system for tracking flu deaths of people older than 18. A
tally is completed at the end of the year after death certificates are reviewed.
On Feb. 8, a 67-year-old Fremont, Neb., women died at Omaha's Methodist Hospital
of complications from influenza. In Iowa over the past several months, three
children tested positive for the flu shortly before their deaths, said Dr.
Patricia Quinlisk of Iowa's Department of Public Health.
Read the
full article.
— Michael O'Connor, Omaha World-Herald, February 29, 2008.
.
Compared to other large health insurers, United Healthcare has the worst
reputation for dealing with hospitals, paying hospitals promptly and reducing
hospital paperwork, according to a
survey of hospital leaders released today by public affairs firm DAVIES. The
survey queried hospital CEOs, chief financial officers and directors of managed
care about United, CIGNA, Aetna, Coventry/First Health, Wellpoint/Anthem, and
the state or regional non-profit Blue Cross or Blue Shield plan. “All insurance
companies are big and most are regarded as tight-fisted by providers,” said
DAVIES President Brandon Edwards. “But the survey indicates that United takes
things to a different level: providers see them as untrustworthy and dishonest.
This was an unanticipated finding.”
— AHA News Now, March 6, 2008.
Last Thursday the House voted 268-148 to approve the Paul Wellstone Mental Health
and Addiction Equity Act (H.R. 1424). The AHA-supported bill would require group
health insurance plans offering mental health coverage to provide mental health
and substance use disorder benefits on a par with medical and surgical coverage.
It also would place a ban on the growth of physician-owned hospitals where the
physician investor self-refers, a prohibition that the AHA has long advocated.
The House bill would require insurers to cover more conditions than a mental
health parity bill passed in the Senate, (S.558) and is opposed by some business
and insurance groups. The two bills must still be reconciled.
Read a
related Letter to the Editor recently released by the NHA in response to a
Forbes magazine article about physician-owned hospitals.
— AHA News Now, March 6, 2008.
(AP) — States estimate that proposed changes to Medicaid would cost them about
$50 billion in federal aid over the next five years, nearly four times the
administration estimate, according to a Democratic congressional report. The
nation's governors have vigorously protested the proposed Medicaid changes. They
say it would amount to a shift in costs that would have to be made up by the
states. Federal officials said the changes are designed to ensure that providers
don't bill the program for more than the costs of providing care and that states
pay their fair share of the program. Overall, the federal government will spend
more than $1.2 trillion on Medicaid over the next five years. The administration
projects that if all the changes it seeks were enacted, the federal government
would save about $13 billion over those five years.
— Nebraska Chamber of Commerce Daily Update, March 4, 2008.
FRANKLIN, Neb. — Franklin County residents soon will have outpatient services that
compete with larger communities thanks to a $4.1 million construction project
approved for the Franklin County Memorial Hospital.
A groundbreaking ceremony for the project is set for 3 p.m. March 17 for hospital
staff, community members and city and county officials.
“We currently have the professional staff of physicians and nurses that competes
with any larger hospital,” said Jerrell Gerdes, administrator for Franklin County
Memorial Hospital.
“With the expansion of our facility and hospital campus, we now can offer our
patients top-of-the line outpatient services,” Gerdes said.
Among the outpatient services will be a 12 foot by 16 foot aqua pool that offers
resistance current, dressing rooms and showers. The cardiac rehabilitation area
will be expanded to provide extended services, as well as space to house the CT
scanner inside. Currently, the CT scanner is housed in a trailer in the
hospital’s parking lot.
The final hurdle for the construction project was approved Tuesday (March 4)
when the Franklin County Supervisors approved issuance of the $3.95 million in
general bonds for the hospital. Franklin County Supervisors unanimously approved
the issuance of bonds as well as the purchase agreement with UMB Bank NA to
purchase the bonds for sale to investors.
Gerdes said the hospital expansion has already received a $1 million gift from
an anonymous donor, as well as pledges from several other donors.
Read
the full news release.
KEARNEY, Neb. — A U.S. soldier from Shelton who is currently
serving in Iraq witnessed the birth of his first child Monday via live video
conference call. The conference call was possible thanks to special equipment at
Good Samaritan Hospital and the work of a non-profit organization, Freedom
Calls. Kyle Gilliland, Lance Corporal with the Marine Reserves, had the
opportunity to be in the delivery room with his wife Patty for the labor and
birth of son Kyson Wayne. Dad was present on a 20-inch monitor that allowed his
wife and medical personnel to talk to and see him in real time. Kyson was born
Monday at 3:30 p.m. and weighed 8 pounds, 9 ounces.
The family will reunite by video conference on Tuesday at 11 a.m., giving dad a
chance to see his wife and baby for the second time in two days. Freedom Calls
provides free video conference calls to soldiers serving in Iraq for important
life events, including births, graduations, birthdays and other family events.
This call was connected through Good Samaritan Hospital’s telemedicine equipment
to a satellite uplink. The satellite service is paid for by donations to Freedom
Calls (www.freedomcalls.org).
— Good Samaritan Hospital news release, March 10, 2008.
OMAHA — Twin sisters from Lincoln have been selected by Children’s Hospital
and the Children’s Miracle Network to represent Nebraska in the nation’s capital.
This month, Children’s will send Grace and Emily Nelson, age 4, to visit The
White House and Capitol Hill to share their story of medical victory.
The girls were born more than two months early and spent considerable time in
the Newborn Intensive Care Unit at Children’s Hospital in Omaha. They will join
child ambassadors from every state as part of Children’s Miracle Network
Champions Across America presented by CO-OP Financial Services. The program
honors courageous children like Grace and Emily who have triumphed despite
severe medical challenges.
Unlike a normal multiples pregnancy where each baby has her own water sac and
placenta, Grace and Emily shared the same space – one water sac and one
placenta. As they moved around in utero, their umbilical cords became
intertwined and knotted. Parents Jennifer and Dann Nelson of Lincoln were told
they had a 50 percent chance of having a live birth.
Read
the full news release, or read a related article in the
Lincoln Journal Star.
— Children's Hospital news release, March 4, 2008.
FALLS CITY, Neb. — Community leaders and local health care professionals will do next
month what hasn’t been done for 90 years in this city of 4,671: They’ll break
ground for a new hospital.
Yet five years ago, had you asked the Community Medical Center’s board of
directors if it would have supported such an endeavor, the answer would have
been, “Not likely.”
Built in 1918, the hospital was expanded and renovated five times between 1963
and 1996. The board planned to renovate again because members thought new
construction would cost too much. “The more we started looking at designs and
the issues, (renovating) wasn’t feasible,” said Rodger Merz, a local businessman
and chairman of the hospital board. Engineering and design studies put the cost
of renovation at more than $20 million.
In addition, board members learned remodeling would take an estimated five
years, which could have raised costs even higher, to say nothing of the long
disruption to hospital operations. And when it was done, Falls City would end up
with a medical center that was adequate, but not ideal.
“It isn’t a good use of our money to sink this much into our facility and not
get what we want to have,” Merz said.
So, after lots of meetings and number crunching, the board decided to build a
new $21-million, 68,000-square-foot hospital on the northern edge of town. They
plan to break ground April 24 and hope the hospital will open in late 2009.
Ryan Larsen, CEO of Community Medical Center, said the hospital will pay for the
project with private loans, savings and a fundraising drive. Because the
hospital is an independent, nonprofit institution, no tax dollars will be used.
Read the full article.
— Joe Duggan, Lincoln Journal Star, March 9, 2008.
The largest changes this year to Lincoln’s medical landscape will occur in the
city’s southeast quadrant with the planned August opening of the women's and
children’s tower at BryanLGH Medical Center East.
Here’s the lineup: First floor: Reception, lactation support, physician sleeping
room, education classroom, prayer/reflection, patient/family lounge and spa
area.
Second floor: Pediatric unit with 18 private rooms.
Third floor: Neonatal intensive care unit with 23 private rooms, one surgery
suite and radiology/respiratory therapy work areas.
Fourth floor: Labor and delivery with 15 private rooms, two surgery suites,
physician lounge/sleeping room and two triage areas.
Fifth floor: Ante- and postpartum unit with 15 private rooms.
Sixth floor: Postpartum unit with 17 private rooms.
— Lincoln Journal Star, February 25, 2008.
FREMONT, Neb. — Fremont Area Medical Center’s free health and
wellness fair, “Health Tracks on the Road,” will be in Dodge on Thursday, March
27, from 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. The event will be held at St. Wenceslaus Church
located at 743 2nd Street in Dodge, Neb. Representatives from FAMC will provide
free health screens and information on various health-related topics in a
relaxed and casual atmosphere. At 9 a.m., Dr. Jeffrey Rapp will be available
to answer health questions and offer additional information on screenings.
Also offered are: wellness blood profiles for $30; Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH)
test for $15; Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) Test for $15; and Glycated
Hemoglobin (HgbA1C or A1c) test for $15. These tests are being offered at a
reduced fee and cannot be filed through health insurance. Hepatitis C Antibody
testing will be also be offered at the event, at no cost. FAMC’s Health Tracks
on the Road is a free event, open to all ages, aimed at improving the overall
health status of Fremont-area residents. For more information about Health
Tracks on the Road, call 402/727-3404.
Omaha, Neb.— Creighton University Medical Center CEO, Linda Ollis, presented
$10,000 to
One World Community Health Centers on Thursday, February 28th. One World
Community Health offers culturally respectful health care to the underserved
populations in
Omaha. People speaking at least 17 different languages have been patients at the
clinic.
The $10,000 will go toward women’s and children’s services. Kristine McVea,
medical director of One World, said she was impressed with Creighton University Medical
Center (CUMC)
and Tenet for their generous contributions and support to the health center.
Read more.
Recently, the Nebraska Rural Health
Association released an alert of several grants that are of interest to
health care providers. To read the full list,
click
here.
On behalf of the National Healthcare Decisions Day Initiative, the Nebraska
Hospice and Palliative Care Partnership (NHPCP) requests your participation in
the inaugural National Healthcare Decisions Day on Wednesday, April 16, 2008. On
this day, all across the country, health care facilities, health care
professionals, chaplains, the legal community and others will be participating
in a collective effort to highlight the importance of making advance health care
decisions and to provide tools for making these decisions.
The Federal Patient Self-Determination Act requires that all Medicare-participating health care facilities inquire about and provide information to
patients on advance directives. It also requires these facilities to provide
community education on advance directives. Unfortunately, despite these
requirements and laws giving patients a choice about their health care, it is
estimated that only a small minority of Americans (approximately 37 percent of
Nebraskans) have executed an advance directive. Moreover, fewer than 50 percent
of severely or terminally ill patients have an advance directive in their
medical records.
National Healthcare Decisions Day (NHDD) seeks to address the public’s
misunderstandings about advance health care planning and advance directives,
including that: a living will and a health care power of attorney are the same;
advance directives are only used for limiting care; a lawyer is needed to draft an advance directive and/or that it is hard to do;
or a severe illness or a catastrophic injury will never happen to them.
For more information, go to
http://www.nationalhealthcaredecisionsday.org/ or
www.nehospice.org.
The House Budget Committee recently voted 22-16 to approve a fiscal year
2009 budget resolution that
excludes the president’s proposed Medicare and Medicaid cuts. However, the
budget blueprint includes reconciliation instructions directing the House Ways
and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over Medicare, to report legislation
that decreases spending or increases revenues by $750 million over five years.
The resolution also includes reserve funds for budget-neutral legislation to
improve Medicare and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and prevent
or delay Medicaid regulations. Last Thursday, the Senate Budget Committee voted
12-10 to approve a budget
resolution that excludes Medicare cuts to hospitals, assumes the cost of
extending the moratoria on several Medicaid regulations, and provides reserve
funds for budget-neutral legislation to improve SCHIP and physician
reimbursement. The House and Senate resolutions, expected to go to their
respective floors next week, eventually must be reconciled in conference. The
president’s budget plan proposed more than $182 billion in cuts to Medicare over
the next five years, of which $135 billion would come from hospitals; as well as
$18 billion in Medicaid cuts.
— AHA News Now, March 6, 2008.
Community Memorial Hospital in Syracuse has received a $726,000 loan from USDA
Rural Development for the acquisition of new computers and software. This
technology will enhance medical record keeping and improve delivery of
information between the hospital and adjoining clinic.
— NITC eHealth Council, eHealth News, March 2008.
Creighton Health Services Research Program and the EHRNebraska program have
published a new report, Status of Health Information Technology in Nebraska:
Focus on Electronic Health Records (EHRs) in Physician Offices. This report describes
the status of electronic health record adoption in physician offices in Nebraska
along with other related implications for health information technology. The
researchers found that 30 percent of physicians in Nebraska are using electronic health
records, 50 percent are planning to implement an EHR system, and 20 percent have no plans for
adoption. Over 70 percent of the EHR users would recommend their EHR system to their
colleagues. Over 40 different EHR systems are currently in use in Nebraska. The
report is available at the EHRNebraska Web site (http://ehrnebraska.org/interact/)
and CHRP Web site (http://chrp.creighton.edu).
— NITC eHealth Council, eHealth News, March 2008.
SureScripts’ National Progress Report on E-Prescribing summarizes key
statistics on the status of e-prescribing adoption and utilization in the U.S.
The report estimates that 2 percent of total prescriptions in the United States were
transmitted electronically. Nebraska ranks 43rd in e-prescribing. In Nebraska,
.5 percent of total prescriptions were transmitted electronically in 2007. While 70
percent of
community pharmacies nationally are e-prescribing, only 34 percent of Nebraska
community pharmacies are e-prescribing. The ”National Progress Report on
E-Prescribing” is available at http://www.surescripts.com/report/. The Nebraska
report is available at
http://www.surescripts.com/Safe-Rx/nonsaferx-state.aspx?sid=27 .
— NITC eHealth Council, eHealth News, March 2008.
The American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) recently joined other national
nursing organizations in applauding bipartisan legislation to address a critical
shortage of nursing school faculty. The Troops to Nurse Teachers Act (S. 2705),
introduced March 5 by Sen. Dick Durbin, would develop partnerships between
military and civilian schools of nursing in which Nurse Corps Officers would
serve as nurse educators. In a
letter to
Durbin, the groups said the program “would provide a much needed increase to the
nurse faculty population and in turn, help develop the pool of future civilian
and military nurses.” U.S. nursing schools last year turned away tens of
thousands of qualified applicants, primarily due to a faculty shortage, the
letter notes. AONE is an AHA subsidiary.
— AHA News Now, March 7, 2008.
Supporting
Rural Family Caregivers: Satellite Broadcast
March 19, 2008
Nebraska Hospice and Palliative Care Partnership “Living a Good Life...at the
End of Life” Annual Conference
April 1 - 3, 2008 – Embassy Suites, Lincoln, NE
Memorial Health Care Systems Annual Health Fair, Seward, NE
April 2, 2008
National Healthcare Decisions Day
April 16, 2008
Elderfest '08 sponsored by Providence Medical Center
April 17, 2008 – Wayne City Auditorium, Wayne, NE
Rebuilding
Lives in Nebraska: 2nd Annual Brain Injury Conference
April 24 - 25, 2008 – Midtown Holiday Inn, Grand Island, NE
Nebraska Association of Medical Staff Services
(NeAMSS) 2008 Education Conference
April 25, 2008 – Georgetown Club, Omaha, NE
Click here for a list
of upcoming NHA audioconferences and webinars.
Visit the
Events page on the NHA Web site for more information on any of the events.
If you have an event you would like listed in Newslink or on the NHA Web site,
submit it to Heather Bullock, marketing and events coordinator, at
hbullock@nhanet.org. Send news items to Christy Rasmussen, director of
communications, at crasmussen@nhanet.org.
NHA Newslink is published by the Nebraska
Hospital Association, 3255 Salt Creek Circle, Suite 100, Lincoln, NE 68504-4761.
Phone 402/742-8140, Fax 402/742-8191. Contact Christy Rasmussen, director of
communications, at 402/742-8151, or email,
crasmussen@nhanet.org.
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