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After meeting last week with Veteran Administration Secretary Eric Shinseki, Senator Ben Nelson said he’s confident that significant progress will be made to address the Omaha VA Medical Center’s infrastructure problems to ensure that veterans receive proper care.
Read
more.
— Press release from the Office of Sen. Ben Nelson, August 7, 2009
The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services - Division of Public Health Office of Vital Records
has announced important changes to birth, death and fetal death certificate registration.
- With the passage of LB 195, physicians assistants will be permitted to complete birth, death and fetal death records when authorized by their supervising licensed physician. This statute will go into effect August 30, 2009.
- Upon activation of the influenza notification component of the Electronic Death Registration System (EDRS), the Office of Vital Records (EDRS)
will enable EDRS linked funeral establishments to notify the Division of suspected flu cases.
WASHINGTON—The Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Health Resources and Services Administration
(HRSA) released $13.4 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to combat the national nurse shortage. The funds are expected to help 500 nursing students become faculty, and 100 nurses to repay their student loans by serving in facilities with a critical shortage of nurses.
“Over the next decade, nurse retirements and an aging U.S. population, among other factors, will create the need for hundreds of thousands of new nurses,” said HHS Deputy Secretary Bill Corr. “The awards from these two HRSA programs will help us meet projected demand for their services."
Read more.
— Dept. of Health and Human Services, August 12, 2009
MeritCare of Fargo and Sanford Health of Sioux Falls, SD, plan to serve about
two million people in five Midwestern states under a planned merger. Leaders of the hospitals faced the general public on for the first time since merger talks began nearly five months ago and repeated promises that no workers would lose their jobs and no services would be cut. They added that the merger should help both hospitals recruit more doctors to the area, including some of the smaller satellite clinics.
— Associated Press, August 13, 2009
FALLS CITY—More than 9,500 rural residents of Falls City and Richardson County
will benefit from the new $24 million critical access hospital and physicians
clinic currently under construction in Falls City. Funding is provided by the
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development, Stillwater National
Bank, Community Medical Center, Inc. and through donations. Hospital CEO Ryan
Larson stated that the building project would not be possible without USDA Rural
Development funding.
LINCOLN—Saint Elizabeth
Regional Medical Center was successful with
one very significant
patient safety
initiative and will be included in the
American Medical
Association’s book
Community Connections
Ideas & Innovations. Saint Elizabeth is included because of the
work done in their Critical Care Unit bringing the
number of patients who acquire a specific
serious infection down to zero—for
nearly three years.
Read more. — Perspectives, Summer 2009
NORTH PLATTE—Beginning this month, Great Plains Regional Medical Center (GPRMC) will institute a Hospitalist Program—one that is unique to the area—with the goal of offering
patients the best possible care during their stay at the hospital. A hospitalist
is a residency-trained internal medicine specialist whose focus is to provide
care to hospitalized patients.
Read more.
— GPRMC Web site, August 13, 2009
WASHINGTON—During a town hall meeting Tuesday on health care reform, Senator Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) stated his opposition to legislation that would cover illegal aliens. Specter has been a long-time champion of amnesty for illegal aliens, he was the author of the 2006 amnesty bill (S. 2611) that was widely rejected by the American people. Specter's opposition to including illegal aliens under the proposed reforms is a clear indication of how strongly the public opposes the idea.
Read more.
— PR Newswire, August 12, 2009
WASHINGTON—August will be a make-or-break month for the drive to revamp the health care system, as members of Congress use the recess to either sell the need for an overhaul to voters or continue attacks on the insurance industry, the chief of the insurers' main lobbying arm said. Karen Ignagni, president of America's Health Insurance Plans, said that recent broadsides against the industry by President Barack Obama and other leading Democrats are designed as a distraction as the health care debate becomes more contentious.
Read more.
— AP/Yahoo News, August 11, 2009
LINCOLN—During a town hall meeting in New Hampshire, President Barack Obama slammed talk of euthanasia "death panels" and Medicare cuts, urging supporters to confront the opposition. At President Obama's first town-hall meeting since opponents began roiling such gatherings, questioners worried that a government-sponsored option would overwhelm the private health care market, and one participant said he was pushed off his name-brand high-cholesterol medication by Medicaid officials.
Read more.
— Wall Street Journal, August 13, 2009
ENGLEWOOD, CO—Electronic health record (EHR) adoption and finances remain the top challenges facing medical practices, according to a new survey from the Medical Group Management Association
(MGMA).
For the second year in a row, medical practice professionals sounded off to the MGMA about a variety of challenges faced while safeguarding their practices' financial solvency.
Read more.
— Healthcare IT News, August 12, 2009
Nebraska Coalition for Patient Safety Educational Conference
August 18, 2009 – Webinar
ED Legal Issues in Your Hospital Webinar (CL)
August 19, 2009 – Webinar:
Part 1
August 26, 2009 – Webinar: Part 2
Preparing for Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) Audits
August 26, 2009 – Lincoln
August 27, 2009 –
Kearney
Saint Elizabeth Foundation "Give & Grow Together" Benefit Auctions
August 26-28, 2009
– Lincoln
September 14-24, 2009 – Webinar
The Joint Commission Medical Staff Standards Program
September 14, 2009 – Omaha
NHA 2009 Annual Convention
October 14-16, 2009 – Lincoln
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 Kelley Porter, Director of
Communications, kporter@nhanet.org.
NHA Newslink is published by the Nebraska
Hospital Association, 3255 Salt Creek Circle, Suite 100, Lincoln, NE 68504-4778.
Phone 402/742-8140, Fax 402/742-8191. Contact Kelley Porter, Director of
Communications, at 402/742-8151, or email,
kporter@nhanet.org.
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