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Monday, July 15, 2002
Ohio Hospitals Make the Grade
Nineteen Ohio hospitals made the U.S. News & World Report’s 13^th Annual edition of America’s Best Hospitals. The 2002 report, one of many such lists, ranks 205 hospitals nationwide in 17 specialties: cancer; digestive disorders; ear, nose and throat; eyes; geriatrics; gynecology; heart and heart surgery; hormonal disorders; kidney disease; neurology and neurosurgery; orthopedics; pediatrics; psychiatry; rehabilitation; respiratory disorders; rheumatology; and urology.

Ohio hospitals on the list include: Akron General Medical Center; Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital, Columbus; Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati; Christ Hospital, Cincinnati; Cleveland Clinic; Grant Medical Center, Columbus; Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital, Warren; Huron Hospital, Cleveland; Mercy Medical Center, Canton; Meridia Hillcrest Hospital, Cleveland; MetroHealth Medical Center, Cleveland; Miami Valley Hospital, Dayton; Ohio State University Medical Center, Columbus; Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital, Cleveland; Riverside Methodist Hospital, Columbus; Southwest General Health Center, Middleburg Heights; Summa Health System, Akron; University Hospitals of Cleveland; and The University Hospital, Cincinnati. The Cleveland Clinic also made the Honor Roll, a list of hospitals scoring well in at least six of the 17 specialties.

The report will be published in the July 22 issue of U.S. News & World Report magazine and is available at www.usnews.com/usnews/nycu/health/hosptl/tophosp.htm.

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(Editor’s note: StateHealthClips.com has gone to a subscription service. Please note that the link to access clips will change daily. If you visit www.statehealthclips.com, you will be required to enter a subscriber password. No password is required for the link published in HEALTH e-NEWS Plus.)

Tuesday, July 16, 2002
Cleveland Hospital Honored for Innovative Program
University Hospitals of Cleveland was today named a recipient of the Circle of Life Award: Celebrating Innovation in End-of-Life Care for Project Safe Conduct. A collaboration of Hospice of the Western Reserve and Ireland Cancer Center at University Hospitals of Cleveland, Project Safe Conduct was honored for pioneering a new model of palliative care support for cancer patients and will receive a $25,000 award.

The Mount Carmel Health Palliative Care Program in Columbus also received a citation of honor for its Acute Palliative Care Service program, a hospice-initiated collaboration of its three hospitals. The program has successfully brought palliative care to the acute care setting and provided service to hospitalized patients not served by traditional hospice.

The Circle of Life Awards are supported by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and are sponsored by the American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association, the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging.

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(Editor’s note: The news clips are being password-protected on the OHA Web site. OHA members will be notified separately of the password. HEALTH e-NEWS Plus subscribers can still access news clips through the daily e-mail without a password.)

Wednesday, July 17, 2002
Boutiques Face Scrutiny in House Committee
A special committee of the Ohio House of Representatives yesterday heard testimony regarding the emergence of a specialty or “boutique” hospital in Central Ohio. At the first meeting of the House Select Committee on Quality Health Care, three Columbus hospital representatives testified in opposition of boutique hospitals - specifically the proposed New Albany Surgical Hospital - saying limited-service hospitals draw revenues away from full-service hospitals, which impede the community hospitals’ ability to provide less profitable services such as burn treatment, trauma care and emergency care. They also argued that physician-financed hospitals create a conflict of interest for physicians, which is not in the best interest of patients. Hospital representatives contended that specialty hospitals “cherry pick” only the healthy and wealthy patients, leaving non-profit hospitals to treat the indigent and very ill.

Three physician investors representing the New Albany hospital testified in support of boutiques, saying the focus on one specialty is a high quality method of treating patients. They argued that specialty hospitals are not a threat to charity care and the New Albany hospital will commit five percent of its revenue to charity care, refuting the idea that boutiques serve only wealthy patients.

Testifying against specialty hospitals were David Blom, president and chief executive officer of OhioHealth in Columbus; Kathy Haley, a trauma nurse at Children’s Hospital in Columbus; Michael Flowers, an attorney at Bricker & Eckler, LLP and a member of the Mount Carmel Board of Trustees; and Cathy Levine, executive director of Universal Health Care Action Network of Ohio. (Jeff Klingler, jeffk@ohanet.org)

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Thursday, July 18, 2002
State Budget Cuts Impact ODJFS
As a result of a 15-percent state budget cut announced earlier this month, funding to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services will be reduced by $57 million, some of which will be absorbed internally. Consolidated funding for county departments of job and family services, which administer a variety of assistance programs, will be reduced by about $20 million. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families will not be cut and the Medicaid and Disability Assistance programs are exempt from cuts. Additionally, the Ohio Department of Health has eliminated the hemophilia care management, arthritis subsidy and fish advisory programs, but has announced its core public health programs will see minimal cuts. For more, visit www.state.oh.us/odjfs/releases/rl070502.stm or www.odh.state.oh.us/New/NRls/02news12.htm. (Bridget Gargan, bridgetg@ohanet.org)

Hospital CEO Laurence Harkness Announces Retirement
Laurence P. Harkness, longtime president and chief executive officer of The Children’s Medical Center of Dayton will retire from his position Aug. 31, 2003. During his 20-year tenure, Harkness’ vision and leadership helped build the hospital into a financially secure, full-service regional pediatric medical facility. In addition to his position at Children’s, Harkness served as a leader in a variety of professional organizations, including the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association and the National Association of Children’s Hospitals and Related Institutions. He also actively participated in community organizations such as the United Way. The hospital’s board will launch a national search for a new CEO and hopes to have the successor in place by September of next year.

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Friday, July 19, 2002
PAC Endorses Supreme Court Candidates
Friends of Ohio Hospitals, the political action committee (PAC) of OHA, has endorsed Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton and Lt. Gov. Maureen O’Connor in this year’s Ohio Supreme Court races.

“No election this year is more important to Ohio hospitals than the election for two seats on the Ohio Supreme Court,” said Thomas Sieber, chair of the Friends of Ohio Hospitals Steering Committee and president and chief executive officer of Genesis HealthCare System, Zanesville.

The endorsements center around the issue of tort reform, an increasingly important issue to hospitals as medical malpractice liability rates continue to increase. The Ohio Supreme Court has twice before struck down tort reform legislation, which would limit jury awards in malpractice lawsuits, a possible solution to the rise in medical malpractice insurance rates. Friends of Ohio Hospitals is calling for an Ohio Supreme Court that will interpret but not rewrite state law and is confident Stratton and O’Connor will return much-needed stability and balance to the court for this and other Ohio business issues.

Stratton has been a supreme court justice the past six years and has a proven track record that demonstrates judicial restraint. During her term, Stratton was in the minority when the court rendered decisions that increased the ability of plaintiffs’ lawyers to win lawsuits at the expense of average Ohioans. O’Connor has been Ohio’s lieutenant governor and director for public safety since 1999. She has often expressed her view that the court should leave policy-making to the legislature. Visit OHA’s Web site at www.ohanet.org/media/news_release/court_071902.htm for a Friends of Ohio Hospitals news release. (Bridget Gargan, bridgetg@ohanet.org)

Trauma Survey Due Soon
In June, the Ohio Department of Public Safety (ODPS) released a Hospital Injury Care Survey as part of the special trauma study requirements of trauma system legislation, House Bill 138, which was signed into law in July of 2000. The purpose of this survey is to collect injury care information from Ohio hospitals that are not trauma centers verified by the American College of Surgeons. The data collected will be used to create a hospital database and develop regional maps of the trauma system as it exists today. The results of this study will be available for regional and local EMS planning. Verified trauma centers will also be surveyed in the near future.

The deadline to respond to the survey is July 24. Make sure your hospital is part of the picture by faxing your completed survey to Great Lakes Marketing at 419.531.8150. Contact Carrie Lewis at Great Lakes Marketing at 419.481.1045 with questions or for a copy of the survey. (Bridget Gargan, bridgetg@ohanet.org)

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(Editor’s note: StateHealthClips.com is not available today. Please use the direct links below. StateHealthClips.com will resume publication Monday, July 8.)