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Monday,
February 6, 2006 A 5 percent increase over his proposed 2006 budget, President Bush’s 2007 spending plan would eliminate or tighten many areas of federal spending while channeling increases to military initiatives and homeland security.
Congress will
now dissect the spending plan, making changes of its own and
developing a budget resolution with attached spending limits by
April. Over the coming months, hospital advocates will work to
ensure proposals that would negatively affect hospitals and
their patients are not adopted by Congress. The final budget
package is expected to Award Nomination Deadline Next Week Hospitals don’t want to miss next week’s deadline to submit nominations for the Albert E. Dyckes Health Care Worker of the Year Award or OHA’s Health Care Leadership Awards. Hospitals have until Friday, Feb. 17 to make a nomination, which must be submitted electronically to Donna Dugas at donnad@ohanet.org. Download nomination materials online at www.ohanet.org/annualmeeting/Awards/default.htm. All award recipients and all nominees for the Health Care Worker of the Year Award will be recognized at the fifth annual OHA Recognition Dinner June 12 as part of the OHA Annual Meeting June 12 and 13 at the Hilton Columbus at Easton.
Health Care
Leadership Awards include the Donald R. Newkirk Award,
Distinguished Service Award, Healthcare Consumer Advocacy Award,
Meritorious Service Award, John Chapman Award and William C.
Kelley Safety Leadership Award. (Tiffany Himmelreich,
tiffanyh@ohanet.org) Tuesday, February 7, 2006 Third Accrediting Body Seeks CMS Approval Hospitals may have a third option for accreditation if the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) approves a new upstart accreditation organization called the National Integrated Accreditation for Healthcare Organizations (NIAHO). TUV Healthcare Specialists’ – a joint venture of TÜV America and Healthcare Specialists Inc. – created NIAHO as an alternative to current hospital accreditation programs. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and the American Osteopathic Association are currently the only two organizations granted deeming authority as a national accreditation organization by CMS. TÜV Healthcare Specialists is in the process of applying to CMS to be granted deeming authority. CMS opened a 30-day comment period Jan. 27, after which CMS will have 210 days to issue an opinion. Electronic comments can be submitted to CMS online at www.cms.hhs.gov/regulations/eRulemaking by clicking ``Submit electronic comments on CMS regulations with an open comment period.” Visit www.tuvhs.com/services/healthcare/niaho.cfm for more information about NIAHO. (Rosalie Weakland, rosaliew@ohanet.org) Hospitals Share Pollution Prevention Efforts Illustrating the continued leadership of Ohio hospitals in pollution prevention and waste stream management, OHA received a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 to help hospitals share their work. Fisher-Titus Medical Center, Norwalk, will host a roundtable and lunch Feb. 17 from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. to allow hospitals to share their pollution prevention activities. Participants will hear about pollution prevention grant opportunities available to hospitals as well as other topics that may include reduction of disinfectants, ongoing mercury collection, energy-efficient laundry, waste water discharge, safe needle disposal and green cleaning. OHA sent information and registration materials to hospitals’ environmental control staff members this week. For more information or to RSVP, contact Susan Zabo at 614.221.7614 or susanz@ohanet.org by Feb. 10. OHA also thanks Firelands Regional Medical Center for hosting a Pollution Prevention University (P2U) Jan. 30-31. Sponsored by OHA’s Environmental Leadership Council, each P2U offers a two-day, hands-on session to help hospitals evaluate waste systems and design and implement plans for volume reduction and pollution prevention activities. A photo and list of participants are available at www.ohanet.org/p2/. Stay tuned for information on the next P2U, which will be hosted by Lake Hospital Systems at Lake West Hospital in Willoughby in August. (Rick Sites, ricks@ohanet.org; Susan Zabo, susanz@ohanet.org) Wednesday, February 8, 2006 Senate Passes Bill Requiring Vaccination of Patients The Ohio Senate passed House Bill 257 today, legislation that would require hospitals to offer certain patients flu and pneumonia vaccines. OHA opposed the original version of House Bill 257, sponsored by Rep. John Hagan (R-Alliance), because it conflicted with federal initiatives and did not provide the flexible system needed to protect against potentially deadly infectious disease outbreaks. An amendment accepted in the House addressed these concerns by requiring hospitals to follow vaccination guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The language is consistent with hospitals’ current practices, and therefore OHA does not oppose the bill. The bill now goes to the governor for his signature, and it will take effect 90 days later. (Jeff Klingler, jeffk@ohanet.org) UNHS Report Shows Hospitals Stepped Up
to the Plate The report includes statistics such as:
To view the report, visit www.ohanet.org/advocacy/state/issues/resources/unhs_report05.pdf. (Jean Scholz, jeans@ohanet.org) Hospitals’ Heartbeat A 2005 nominee for the Albert E. Dyckes Health Care Worker of the Year Award
Susan Louis, RN
A look inside
Susan’s nomination –
Don’t forget to make your nomination for 2006! The deadline is Feb.
17. Thursday, February 9, 2006 New Test Detects Avian Flu in Humans The Food and Drug Administration last week approved a new rapid test for diagnosing the H5 avian flu strains in humans. Developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the test provides preliminary results on suspected flu samples within four hours of testing. Further testing then determines whether the strain contains the subtype that has infected humans. The test will be distributed to 140 U.S. laboratories in the Laboratory Response Network and results will be reported to improve tracking of the illness. If a clinician suspects a patient may be infected with an avian influenza virus, he or she should contact the state or local health department. Full recommendations are available at www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/. For more information on the flu in Ohio, visit www.ohanet.org/flu/. (Carol Jacobson, carolj@ohanet.org; Rick Sites, ricks@ohanet.org) OHA Welcomes New CIO OHA welcomes Kim Keiser as OHA’s new chief information officer (CIO). Kim joins OHA as CIO after working as a consultant with the organization for many years. She manages all technology-related issues, including the OHA Web site and databases, with the help of OHA network administrator Scott Conaway. Kim can be reached at 614.221.7614 or kimk@ohanet.org. Hospitals’ Heartbeat A 2005 nominee for the Albert E. Dyckes Health Care Worker of the Year Award
Nancy L. Rowley Clinical Educator, Cardiology The Jewish Hospital, Cincinnati
A look inside Nancy’s nomination – Nancy Rowley has achieved significant positive impact on patients, staff, physicians, the community, and the profession of nursing since starting her career at Jewish Hospital in May 2003. She gives 110% every day she works, and is a great role model for staff and colleagues. Nancy’s primary job is facilitating appropriate care of Cardiology patients in the Cardiac Telemetry units at the Jewish Hospital. She achieves this through leadership of the Cardiology Specialty Quality Committee, case management of complex cardiac patients, direct patient care, and education of both hospital staff and nursing students from the community. Nancy is a strong patient advocate and passionate about the profession of nursing. This gives her the desire to continuously pursue and achieve higher quality outcomes.
Don’t forget to make your nomination for 2006! The deadline is Feb. 17. Visit www.ohanet.org/annualmeeting/Awards/ to download nomination materials. Friday, February 10, 2006 C. diff on the Rise Nationally According to a recent study of the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), the number of U.S. hospital discharges listing Clostridium difficile (C. diff) as a diagnosis more than doubled from 1996 to 2003 to 178,000. CDC recommends providers be aware of the increasing risk of C. diff and make efforts to control and prevent the disease. View CDC’s study online at www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol12no03/05-1064.htm. Working to track C. diff trends in Ohio, Ohio hospitals and nursing homes are required to submit weekly reports on the number of initial and recurrent C. diff cases to their local health departments until June. The data is compiled each week by the Ohio Department of Health. Providers are encouraged to work with their local health departments to submit data electronically, rather than faxing the information. Providers and health departments are still working out bugs in the new reporting system to enable more accurate data reporting and interpretation. Find C. diff resources, including fact sheets and reporting requirements, on OHA’s Web site at www.ohanet.org/advocacy/state/issues/cdiff.htm. Information about overuse of antibiotics is available on ODH’s Web site under “Antimicrobial resistance initiative” at www.odh.ohio.gov/. (Rick Sites, ricks@ohanet.org) CEOs on the Move Andrew R. McCulloch will leave his post as president and CEO of Community Mercy Health Partners, Springfield, effective March 1. Jim Gravell, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Mercy Health Partners-Southwest Ohio, will serve as interim president and CEO. Laurie Delgado, president of UHHS-Memorial Hospital of Geneva, will take on responsibility for Brown Memorial Hospital, Conneaut. William Lawrence will continue overseeing operations as president of UHHS-Richmond Heights Hospital. Dr. Keith T. Ghezzi was named the interim chief executive office of Forum Health after N. Kristopher Hoce resigned as president and CEO effective Jan. 31. Lyndon Christman began his tenure as CEO of Fayette County Memorial Hospital, Washington Court House, late last year. Mark Nosacka now is serving as president and CEO of Community Health Partners Regional Health System in Lorain, and Michael C. Patterson began his duties as president and CEO of Brown County Regional HealthCARE, Georgetown, Oct. 31, 2005. K. Douglas Deck, former president and CEO of Samaritan Health Partners and Good Samaritan Hospital, was named the next president and CEO of Munson Healthcare, northern Michigan’s largest health care system. James Pancoast now serves as the president and CEO of Samaritan Health Partners and Good Samaritan Hospital. © 2001-2008 OHA. Last updated
January 03, 2008. |
