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As more Americans worry about a slowing economy, a new study highlights the
important role hospitals play in supporting a strong and stable economy. In
Nebraska, hospitals directly employ more than 40,000 people and serve as a major
source of private-sector jobs, or 8.42 percent of the state’s total employment,
according to a
report
recently released by the American Hospital Association. Nationwide, hospitals in
2006 employed more than 5 million people, ranking second only to full-service
restaurants.
Hospitals and their employees also purchase goods and services from other
businesses, supporting additional jobs and economic activity in their community
and across the country. In Nebraska, the health care sector supports nearly
80,000 jobs. This means hospital payroll and benefits have an approximate $3.3
billion effect on total labor income for the state. Nebraska hospitals make
significant economic contributions to the state’s economy—over an $8.8 billion
economic impact—the study shows. Across the nation, hospitals supported 13.9
million jobs and created $1.9 trillion of economic activity in 2006.
In addition to economic benefits, hospitals provide a number of invaluable
programs and services to communities to help meet their health needs. These
programs include health screenings, subsidized health services, programs to
address social needs of the communities, clinical research and other social
services. Hospitals also provide free or reduced cost health care services for
patients with limited financial means. According to the 2007 Nebraska
Hospitals Community Benefits Report, in FY 2006, Nebraska hospitals provided
nearly $697 million in unpaid community benefits, while caring for patients and
communities in the state and across the nation.
— Christy Rasmussen, director of communications, April 15, 2008.
Omaha, Neb – As the State of Nebraska’s Chief Medical Officer, Joann
Schaefer, M.D. knows a great deal about large-scale public health issues. The
same goes for Gary Gorby, M.D., the Chief of Infectious Diseases at Creighton
University Medical Center. Right now, both physicians are focusing on the big
job of recovering as patients themselves. Dr. Schaefer, 40, said she has known
for several years the need for a liver transplant may arise. In the last several
months it did. “In three months, I went from being extremely healthy to this,”
Dr. Schaefer said before the transplant. “Then eight weeks ago, I realized
something was not quite right.”
Her liver disorder caused cirrhosis, or scarring of the liver. That condition
created portal hypertension, a condition that caused serious complications for
Dr. Schaefer including fatigue, bleeding and fluid retention. “Her condition was
most likely inherited,” said Michael Sorrell, M.D., gastroenterologist and
co-founder of the liver transplant program at The Nebraska Medical Center. “Dr.
Schaefer’s grandmother had died from liver disease in her 50s,” Dr. Sorrell
said. “My doctor said it’s time for a transplant; my quality of life was not
going to get better,” said Dr. Schaefer.
Click here to read more.
The AHA, Federation of American Hospitals and Coalition of Full Service
Community Hospitals Friday urged Senate leaders to include in a farm policy
reauthorization bill (H.R. 2419) a ban on self-referral to physician-owned
hospitals. In the
letter to Senate negotiators, the hospital groups said, “We must make every
effort to ensure fair competition in health care and to protect the Medicare
program, the seniors it serves, and the health care networks in communities
across the country against the negative effects of physician self-referral to
hospitals in which the physician has an ownership interest.” They noted that the
House twice passed a ban on self-referral, once in August 2007 with the
Children’s Health and Medicare Protection Act (H.R. 3162) and more recently in
March 2008 with the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Parity Act of
2008 (H.R. 1424).
─ AHA News Now, April 14, 2008.
FREMONT, Neb.— In response to the growing need for outpatient
mental health services for senior adults, Fremont Area Medical Center (FAMC) has
announced the addition of “Senior Solutions”. The program provides
individualized treatment through group, family, and individual therapy for
adults 55 and over who suffer from psychiatric, emotional, or behavioral
disorders.
“Mental health disorders affect at least 20 percent of people 55 and older,” states Jayma Brown, Assistant Director of Acute Nursing. “Mental illnesses are as real,
common, and treatable as most physical illnesses, yet most of our senior
citizens don’t have access to needed mental health services and treatment.”
Click here to read more
LINCOLN, Neb. — The StarCare helicopter service, based at BryanLGH Medical
Center West, Lincoln, has received a three-year re-accreditation from the
Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems (CAMTS).
StarCare is Nebraska’s only air ambulance service providing teams of nurses
and a respiratory therapist/medic. All of the team members are also emergency
medical technicians. StarCare transports about 350 patients each year to Lincoln
and Omaha hospitals from within a 150-mile radius.
CAMTS is dedicated to improving quality of patient care and safety.
Accreditation signifies that the medical transport service is certified as
substantially meeting all of the organization’s standards.
— BryanLGH, news release, April 9, 2008.
YORK, Neb. — On April 9, the board of directors at York General Health Care Services
approved the construction of a new 30-unit assisted living facility. The cost of
the new facility is estimated at over $5.6 million. The new facility will be
built north of the York General Hearthstone (Skilled Nursing Facility) on North
Lincoln Avenue in York, Nebraska. Ground breaking will be this spring.
York General has the only assisted living facility (Meadowlark) in the York
area that accepts Medicaid reimbursement. The construction of a new, larger
assisted living facility that accepts all forms of reimbursement will better
address community needs. York General’s assisted living provides a residence
with 24-hour assistance, personalized supportive services, and activities for
persons 55 years and older. It is the right place at the right time and will
soon accommodate additional residents.
─ York General Health Care Services, news
release, April 14, 2008.
LINCOLN, Neb. — Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurses (WOC) Week, celebrated April 13-19, pays
tribute to health care professionals who specialize in the care of patients with
wounds, ostomies or continence disorders. Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital
recognizes Annielyn Ocampo as their WOC nurse. Ocampo’s primary responsibilities
are to coordinate and evaluate patient care, while serving as a resource for all
Madonna patients requiring WOC nursing care. Ocampo also serves as program
leader for the Long Term Acute Care wound program.
Click here to read more.
OMAHA — The Nebraska Medical Center opened a full-service diabetes center Monday
for patient care, research and education for health care providers and diabetics
across the state.
The medical center announced recently that the facility, called simply the
Diabetes Center, brings together medical center physicians who specialize in
diabetes and eye care, an exercise scientist, a nurse specializing in wound
care, diabetes educators and others.
The Diabetes Center is on the first floor of the Specialty Services Pavilion
just southeast of the Durham Outpatient Center. The medical center spent $2.7
million to renovate the floor.
It is the only center of its kind in the region, said Dr. James Lane, the
center's medical director.
Read the
full article.
— Omaha World-Herald, April 10, 2008.
Alegent Health creates public affairs role and taps new leader
OMAHA, Neb. —Alegent Health announces the addition of Pete Festersen as vice
president of Public Affairs to further enhance the organization’s journey toward
achieving world-class leadership in health care locally, regionally and
nationally.
In this newly created position, Pete will work closely with executive
leadership to oversee advocacy issues for Alegent Health, create public affairs
strategy and integrate Alegent Health and our management team into public
boards, commissions and panel.
Read
more.
— Alegent Health news release, April 16, 2008
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released its hospital inpatient
prospective payment system (IPPS)
proposed rule for fiscal year 2009. In the rule, CMS announced a mandated
market-basket update of 3.0 percent for hospitals that report data for 30 selected
quality measures. Hospitals not submitting data would receive a 1.0 percent update. The
rule proposes to expand the number of required quality measures to 72 in FY
2010. Some of the proposed measures have been endorsed by the National Quality
Forum (NQF) and adopted by the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA), however, many have not. “AHA
has been at the forefront of public reporting of hospital quality information
and firmly believes that all measures included should be endorsed by the
National Quality Forum as appropriate national standards and adopted by the
Hospital Quality Alliance as useful for public reporting on hospital quality of
care,” said Nancy Foster, AHA vice president for quality and patient safety. “It
is unfortunate that CMS has chosen to propose measures that are neither NQF
endorsed nor HQA adopted.” CMS also proposes several changes to the method used
to compute the hospital wage index. In addition, the proposed rule would expand
the post-acute care transfer policy as it relates to transfers to home with the
provision of home health services to within seven days of discharge to home
instead of three – a cut of $50 million to hospitals in FY 2009. Comments on the
proposed rule will be accepted until June 13. A final rule will be released by
Aug. 1, and the policies and payment rates will take effect Oct. 1.
─ AHA News Now, April 14, 2008.
Hospitals participating in the Hospital Quality Alliance can preview their
latest quarterly data beginning this week at the
QualityNet Exchange Web site. The data
includes a new measure on pneumonia 30-day mortality, as well as updated data on
heart attack and heart failure mortality. The appropriate staff should review
all of the data and report any errors to their
Quality Improvement
Organization by May 13.
─ AHA News Now, April 14, 2008.
A University of Nebraska Medical Center infectious disease specialist, Andre
Kalil, M.D., was one of 11 experts from around the country to develop guidelines
for what physicians should do when critically ill patients develop a new fever.
The guidelines appear in the current issue of Critical Care Medicine, the
leading medical journal for health professionals in the critical care setting. Dr. Kalil was among a group of specialists invited to help develop the new
guidelines.
Read
more.
The state recently entered into two settlements with the drug company Merck.
The basis of the settlements is violations of price reporting of the drugs Vioxx,
Zocor, Mevacor and Pepcid under the Medicaid Rebate Statute. Nebraska’s share is
approximately $1 million for the state share of Medicaid payments. The Medicaid
False Claims Act requires reimbursements under this act to be deposited into the
Health and Human Services Cash Fund.
The Appropriations Committee’s recommendation amends the statute to transfer
on a one-time basis $1 million from the Health and Human Services Cash Fund to
the Rural Health Professional Incentive Fund. The increased cash will be used to
increase the number of loans for students agreeing to practice in a rural
shortage area and for loan repayments for practitioners practicing in rural
shortage area.
This legislation will fund $250,000 a year for four years. With the 50
percent local
matching funds, the additional amount available each year is $500,000.
— Nebraska Rural Health Association, E-News, April 2008.
As 78 million baby boomers approach age 65 beginning in
2011, the Institute
of Medicine (IOM) called for fundamental reform in the way the nation’s health care
workforce is trained and used. The report calls for financial incentives to
increase the number of geriatric specialists in every health profession, and for
Medicare and other insurers to remove disincentives that prevent health care
providers from adopting new models of care delivery. It also calls for training
to help family members and others care for aging loved ones, and suggests state
attorneys general recognize training programs for unpaid caregivers as a way
that non-profit hospitals can provide benefits to their communities.
─ AHA News Now, April 14, 2008.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) recently launched a Web
resource that allows users to review and share innovations in the delivery of
health services. The agency said the
Health Care Innovations Exchange provides a repository of successful
innovations for health care leaders, physicians, nurses and other health
professionals who seek to reduce health care disparities and improve care
overall. The site will be updated every two weeks and includes online forums
where participants can share information.
— AHA News Now, April 15, 2008.
Minority Health
Month activities planned for week of April 20-26
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
Alegent Health April Events Calendar
April 1-30, 2008
2008 Nebraska Healthcare Quality Forum
May 13, 2008 – Embassy Suites, Lincoln, 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.
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 Kim Larson, editor, at 402/742-8143 or email,
klarson@nhanet.org.
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