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Nebraska’s Senator Ben Nelson has arranged a series of public meetings across the state to meet with Nebraskans about health care reform.
The first public meeting was held in Omaha on Wednesday at the Durham Research
Center Auditorium at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. The second public meeting will be in Lincoln
today at 3 p.m. at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital.
The meetings are open to anyone who wishes to ask questions, state their concerns, or just listen.
Senator Nelson stated that he has heard a lot of misinformation about health care reform and the public is rightfully concerned.
The public meetings are an opportunity for Senator Nelson to answer Nebraskans’ questions and let people hear directly from him what his position is on an issue that affects all Americans.
Future public meetings are expected to be held in North Platte, Kearney, Norfolk, South Sioux City, and possibly other communities. The meetings will be announced when finalized and will be posted online at:
www.bennelson.senate.gov.
LAKE FOREST, Ill.—Hospira Inc. Friday recalled certain infusion pumps, monitoring systems and other devices with defective AC power cords made by Electri-Cord Manufacturing Corp. Hospira said the cords could cause the devices to fail or result in an electrical shock or fire. It advised customers to immediately stop using devices with cords that have bent or cracked prongs, burnt plastic, or excessive wear and tear, and contact Hospira for instructions on receiving replacement parts or devices. Affected power cords without these characteristics should be monitored regularly until they can be replaced, the company said.
Read more.
— FDA, August 17, 2009
Demonstrations being conducted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services (CMS) continue to provide strong evidence that offering financial
incentives for improving or delivering high quality care increases quality and
can reduce the growth in Medicare expenditures. On Monday, CMS announced new
results from three of these demonstrations, one for large physician practices,
one for small and solo physician practices, and one for hospitals.
Read more.
— CMS, August 17, 2009
 LINCOLN—StarCare Air Ambulance, a service of BryanLGH Medical Center, transports critically ill and injured patients throughout the region to hospitals that provide the next level of life-saving care. The dedicated team includes critical care nurses, respiratory therapists, a paramedic and pilots on-call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The StarCare team is an integral part of the health care system in southeastern Nebraska providing rapid response, transport and care for cardiac, trauma, stroke, pediatric and burn patients, as well as education to health care providers throughout the region. StarCare transports more than 300 patients a year within a 150-mile radius of Lincoln. This year we celebrate 20 years of dedicated care in the air. For more information on StarCare, contact Jan Shaner, manager, at 481-5006.
— BryanLGH ViewPoint, Summer 2009
BROKEN BOW—Bigger patient rooms.
Larger windows.
Reduced noise levels.
Better work spaces.
Mike Steckler listed those traits and others that will improve patient care and promote healing in the new 23-bed wing under construction at Jennie
M. Melham Medical Center in Broken Bow.
Read more. —
Custer County Chief, July 29, 2009
WEST POINT—The former West Point Medical Clinic has already been torn down
and in its place, in two or three years, will be a new three-story tower that
will fill in the area between the Dinklage Medical Clinic and Wimmer
Rehabilitation Center, on the south side of St. Francis Memorial Hospital. The
hospital addition will include 17 new patient rooms; seven or eight remodeled
patient rooms; new labor, delivery and recovery rooms; remodeled and new
emergency rooms and more parking. Ron Briggs, President of Franciscan Care
Services of West Point, said that this major undertaking will help them grow to
better serve their patients and, at the same time, make the facility more
attractive to doctors and other health care professionals that they will need.
WASHINGTON—The White House has indicated that it could accept a nonprofit health care cooperative as an alternative to a new government insurance plan, but the co-op idea is so ill defined that no one knows exactly what it would look like or how effectively it would compete with commercial insurers, according to the
New York Times. Under co-ops, the government would offer start-up money in loans and grants to help doctors, hospitals, businesses, and other groups form nonprofit cooperative networks to provide health care and coverage.
Read more.
— New York Times, August 17, 2009
WASHINGTON—Although administration officials are eager to deny it, rationing health care is central to President Barack Obama's health plan. The Obama strategy is to reduce health costs by rationing the services that we and future generations of patients will receive.
Read more.
— Wall Street Journal, August 19, 2009
WASHINGTON—President Obama, struggling to discredit bogus charges against his health care overhaul, soon could face another obstacle due to a plan to trim the federal subsidy for a program used by nearly a quarter of Medicare beneficiaries. The Medicare Advantage program pays insurance companies a hefty premium to enroll senior citizens and provide their medical services through managed-care networks. But whether the higher payments are worth it is a matter of dispute, according to this article in the
Los Angeles Times.
Read more.
— Los Angeles Times, August 19, 2009
Government health officials said on Monday that the United States will have barely more than a third of the 120 million doses of swine flu they hoped would be available by mid-October. That's far less than the 160 million doses they originally predicted in July.
Less than one third of the supply will be ready in time for fall vaccinations.
Bill Hall, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said
that despite the projection that only 45 million doses will be available at the
start of the mass vaccination campaign scheduled to start in October, there
would still be enough vaccine available to achieve the primary goal of
vaccinating the groups most in need, including pregnant women; children under
four years old and public health workers.
View
video.
— ABC News, August 18, 2009
Federal officials recently issued
updated guidance to help non-health care employers prepare for seasonal and 2009 H1N1 flu, and a
toolkit to help them implement the recommendations. Employers should develop or review their pandemic flu plan and communication channels, develop flexible leave policies and encourage workers with flu-like symptoms to stay home until at least 24 hours after their fever ceases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) advises. Among other recommendations, businesses should plan how to continue with increased absences, encourage workers to get flu vaccinations, and promote good hygiene to prevent the spread of infection. If flu conditions worsen, employers should consider screening workers on arrival and alternative work environments for those at high risk for flu complications, the guidance states. Additional H1N1 resources for clinicians can be found at
www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/clinicians/.
— AHA News Now, August 19, 2009
Longer days, lower pay, less prestige, and more administrative headaches have turned doctors away in droves from family medicine. The number of U.S. medical school students going into primary care has dropped 51.8
percent since 1997, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians. And if Congress passes health care legislation that extends insurance coverage to a significant part of the 47 million Americans who lack insurance, the need for more doctors is going to escalate.
Read more.
— USA Today, August 18, 2009
ED Legal Issues in Your Hospital Webinar (CL)
August 19, 2009 – Webinar:
Part 1
August 26, 2009 – Webinar: Part 2
Controlling Conflicts of Interest - A Focus on the Pharmaceutical Industry
August 26, 2009 – Omaha
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 – Online Auction
National Alliance for the Mentally Ill Omaha Conference
September 12, 2009 – Omaha
The Joint Commission Medical Staff Standards Program
September 14, 2009 – Omaha
NeRHA Annual Conference
September 17-18, 2009 – Kearney
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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