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Monday, October 7, 2002
Ohio Hospitals Awarded Tobacco Foundation Grants
Five Ohio hospitals and one allied association are the lead agencies for grants awarded Friday by the Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation (TUPCF). Two hospitals and the allied association will receive three-year implementation grants. These coalitions and the amounts they will receive for each year of the grants’ three years, are:

· Wooster Community Hospital, $185,000
· Holzer Hospital Foundation, $200,000
· Hospital Council of Northwest Ohio, $835,000

In addition, the following hospitals will oversee one-year capacity-building grants with the ability to request an implementation grant for two more years:

· Paulding County Hospital, $50,000
· Upper Valley Medical Center, $37,874
· Robinson Memorial Hospital, $48,637

For a description of these and the 22 other approved grants, as well as a press release and map showing the demographic breakdown of the grant recipients, visit www.standohio.org. (Lynne Ayres, lynnea@ohanet.org)

OHA Mourns Death of Former Employee
Clark R. Law, president and CEO of the Association of Ohio Philanthropic Homes, Housing and Services for the Aging (AOPHA) and former director of financial services for OHA, passed away Friday, Oct. 4, after a four-month battle with cancer. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 9, at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, 684 S. Third St., Columbus, Ohio. Family will receive friends one hour prior to Mass at the church and a memorial reception at the AOPHA office will follow the service. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Clark R. Law Memorial Scholarship Fund, c/o AOPHA, 855 S. Wall St., Columbus, Ohio 43206.

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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, October 8, 2002
ODJFS Testifies Before Select Committee On Medicaid Reform
Representatives of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) last week testified before the Select Committee on Medicaid Reform, focusing on the complexity of balancing cost, quality and access with a goal of improved outcomes for Medicaid patients while operating a program under federal rules. Included in the ODJFS testimony was a description of management strategies currently in place for fee-for-service, a review of the managed care system and an explanation of the barriers to expanding the system. The representatives also expanded on the department’s continuing work to improve quality and access to health care for blind and disabled clients, thereby creating a more efficient and cost-effective system for the state.

Barbara Edwards, deputy director for Ohio Health Plans (Medicaid), spoke on the prescription drug program. Donald Anderson, deputy director for the Ohio Department of Mental Health, and Luceille Fleming, director of the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services, also testified before the subcommittee.

OHA is concerned that further Medicaid eligibility restrictions or decreased state funding could add to the already increasing uninsured population and put additional pressure on health care providers. OHA and the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association are also establishing a Joint Task Force, made up of representatives from large Medicaid provider hospitals, to develop Medicaid strategy for the next biennial budget. (Berna Bell, bernab@ohanet.org)

OHA Membership Meeting Rescheduled
The OHA annual membership meeting originally scheduled for Oct. 18 has been moved to accompany the Nov. 15 OHA Board meeting. The results of the OHA Board election will be announced at the November meeting.

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Wednesday, October 9, 2002
OHA Continues Pollution Prevention Efforts
OHA’s Environmental Leadership Council will offer Pollution Prevention and Waste Assessment Training Programs to help hospitals evaluate waste systems and implement plans for pollution prevention. A morning seminar will be offered to all OHA members on Nov. 18 and a limited number can attend a longer session Nov. 18-20. The training programs strive to help hospitals comply with regulations of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which recently announced its intent to focus more attention on health care institutions. Contact Susan Zabo at 614.221.7614 for more information.

OHA will also host two additional telephone briefings this year for assistance with EPA regulatory compliance, waste stream management and volume reduction, mercury elimination and pollution prevention. These briefings will be held Oct. 30 from 11:30 to 12:30 EST and Dec. 4 from 11:30-12:30 EST. (Susan Zabo, susanz@ohanet.org, Rick Sites, ricks@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, October 10, 2002
Working Wonders
Hospitals’ best practices to recruit and retain the best in health care.

OHA would like to highlight the exceptional programs and successes of Ohio’s hospitals as they continue efforts to attract and retain talented and dedicated employees.

Humility of Mary Health Partners’ (HMHP) St. Elizabeth Health Center and St. Joseph Health Center recently received a Nursing Magnet Designation from the American Nurses Credentialing Center. These are the first hospitals in Ohio to achieve this status, and are among only 57 health care organizations nationally with the designation. The magnet designation recognizes hospitals’ excellence in nursing, and makes them employers of choice among nurses.

Rep. Gary Cates (R-West Chester) also recently recognized Middletown Regional Health System for its part in the Butler-Warren Healthcare Workforce Initiative, a unique program to train entry-level employees for more specialized positions within the health care system. The initiative, funded by the Butler-Warren Workforce Policy Board, partners the health system with the Warren County Career Center to address certain workforce shortages.

In an additional collaboration, Aultman Health Foundation in Canton has partnered with Jackson High School to launch a health career academy at the hospital. Participating students will complete seven clinical rotations to explore different health careers, shadowing hospital workers and gaining both hands-on and classroom knowledge of health care professions.

More information on these and other hospitals’ best practices will available on OHA’s Workforce Forum at www.ohanet.org/workforce/practices. Send your hospital’s best practices to Jean Scholz at jeans@ohanet.org or 614.221.7614.

HIPAA Extension Deadline Draws Near
A reminder to all health care providers that the deadline to apply for an extension on certain HIPAA compliance requirements is next Tuesday, Oct. 14. Without this one-year extension, providers will be required to adopt the new standard transaction code sets this month and comply with all HIPAA regulations by April 14, 2003. Extension applications are accepted both in print and electronically at www.cms.hhs.gov/hipaa/hipaa2/ascaform.asp.

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Friday, October 12, 2002
Patient Safety Legislation Seeks Enactment
Several pieces of patient safety legislation have been introduced in U.S. Congress and currently await enactment. All of the potential legislation promotes the voluntary reporting of medical errors to certified patient safety organizations to be developed into methods for improving patient safety. Previous versions required mandatory reporting, which is opposed by many health care providers.

In addition, all of the bills stipulate that health care workers who report errors voluntarily are protected from administrative or judicial retaliation, establish rules on who compiles the data and set a standard level of legal protection for providers that states cannot infringe upon. The two most recent proposed bills also include the establishment of grants for community partnerships for health care improvements, computerized physician-order entry systems and health information systems to improve quality.

The Ohio Patient Safety Institute, founded by OHA and the Ohio State Medical Association, unanimously supports the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act, the version of the legislation presented by Sen. Jim Jeffords (I-VT). However, all versions of the patient safety bill contain similar core provision long endorsed by providers. (Jonathan Archey, jonathana@ohanet.org)

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