Monday, August 19, 2002
Alliance Works Toward Information Technology Standards
A national alliance created to improve quality and performance in health care through standards-based information systems last week met to get its major initiatives underway. OHA is one of 72 founding members of the National Alliance for Health Information Technology (NAHIT), a diverse group of health care providers, information technology venders and national health and technology associations working to create information technology standards in health care.

The immediate focus of the alliance is standardizing and uniformly applying bar codes on medication and biological product packaging. The standards were submitted and presented to the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) in July. NAHIT will continue to work with the FDA on the bar coding standardization. Other areas of focus could include automated medication administration, electronic medical records and improving communication and transaction networks among physician offices, hospitals, payers and throughout the supply chain. More information about NAHIT is available at www.nahit.org. (David Engler, davide@ohanet.org)

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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, August 27, 2002
State Panel Hears Hospital Clinical Care, Patient Safety Initiatives
The House Select Committee on Quality Healthcare today heard presentations on initiatives being undertaken by OHA, the state's allied hospital associations and member hospitals to improve clinical care delivery and patient safety in the hospital setting. Connie Doty, vice president of hospital operations at The Children's Medical Center in Dayton, updated the committee on FutureThink, which is an initiative of OHA and the Ohio Organization of Nurse Executives to redesign how clinical care will be delivered in the future. Jan Labbe, director of public affairs at the Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association (GDAHA), highlighted one of Ohio's regional efforts to address the workforce shortage. Labbe also spoke about GDAHA's and OHA's outcomes analyses initiative, which has resulted in a 36-percent decrease in mortality among heart patients in just three years. Rosalie Weakland, OHA director of quality improvement, spoke about the number of state and federal regulations created to ensure quality of care to patients. Weakland also spoke about private initiatives undertaken by OHA and member hospitals to enhance patient safety and quality care, including creation of the Ohio Patient Safety Institute.

Today's hearing was held at Wright State University and focused on patient safety and nursing issues. State Rep. Greg Jolivette (R-Hamilton), chairman of the select committee, is holding hearings throughout the state on a variety of subjects. Future hearings are planned to discuss child health care (Toledo, Sept. 10), medical malpractice (Cleveland, Sept. 17), and employer health care (Columbus, Sept. 24). (Jeff Klingler, jeffk@ohanet.org)

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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.)

Thursday, August 29, 2002
New Program Responds to Workforce Shortage
Ohio hospitals are seeking new ways to address the shortage of health care workers including collaboration with, and funding from, local workforce policy boards. During an OHA Workforce Work Group meeting, Middletown Regional Health System today reported on its pilot program to partner with the Butler-Warren Workforce Policy Board and the Warren County Career Center in an innovative effort to retain and advance existing employees.

An example of how hospitals are addressing the workforce shortage, the Butler-Warren Healthcare Workforce Initiative targets entry-level workers in the health system, assessing their career interests, work values and abilities with the goal of providing the education and training needed to advance their careers. These employees then fill much-needed positions within the health system and additional entry-level positions are created for others.

With $67,000 in incentive funding from the local workforce policy board, the Middletown health system worked with the Warren County Career to perform assessments of more than 100 lower-income employees. The health system now offers advance tuition, career counseling and mentoring to help employees reach their goals.

For more information on the Middletown Regional Health System’s program, or others like it, please visit www.ohanet.org/workforce/practices/. Hospitals are encouraged to contact their local workforce policy boards to explore similar initiatives. (Jean Scholz, jeans@ohanet.org)

DAILY NEWS CLIPS

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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.)