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Monday, March 13, 2006
OHA Annual Meeting Info Now Available Online
What is it about OHA’s Annual Meeting that draws health care professionals from across the state each year? It might be the more than 60 educational sessions in areas such as compliance, finance, healthy lifestyles, patient satisfaction, physician relations, public relations and workforce—and their continuing education credits. Or maybe it’s the opportunity to network with colleagues at luncheons and keynote speaker sessions. Perhaps it’s to honor their outstanding leaders and caregivers at the OHA Recognition Dinner. And don’t forget the allure of fine dining and shopping at the nearby Easton Town Center.

Join your peers June 12-13 at the Columbus Hilton at Easton for OHA’s 2006 Annual Meeting, Hospitals…at the Community’s Service. For more information, check www.ohanet.org/annualmeeting/ often for registration materials, new continuing education information and to learn more about the many opportunities available at this year’s meeting. (Joe Ruggles, joer@ohanet.org)

Hospitals’ Heartbeat
A 2005 nominee for the Albert E. Dyckes Health Care Worker of the Year Award

Jodi Biggert, RN
Home Health Care Nurse
Memorial Hospital, Fremont
Photo

A look inside Jodi’s nomination –
Jodi is a home health nurse, and home health is an intricate part of the health care system—though sometimes overlooked. Home health nurses have the unique opportunity to see the patient in their environment. This creates an opportunity to improve their quality of life by identifying needs beyond typical medical needs. Patients may be living in unsanitary conditions, without essentials or even without other human contact. While they may be recovering physically, emotional needs are a vital part of a patients well being. Jodi embraces the opportunity to help her patients above and beyond the typical duties of a home care nurse. Jodi has been a home health nurse for over 13 years. She has an extraordinary gift for compassion and caring that is often relayed back by her patients. Over the years Jodi has organized friends, families and the community to help patients and families in needs. From painting an elderly farmer’s barn to furnishing a destitute elderly couple’s living space, Jodi is always looking for ways to enhance the quality of life for her patients. She takes dinner to lonely patients and even delivered holiday meals to people she knows will be alone. Jodi treats her patients like family and is a wonderful example of what a nurse should be. She is admired and respected by her colleagues and supervisors for her clinical skill and personal integrity. She demonstrates daily that it is the small things in life that matter through simple acts of caring for people who need her the most.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006
JCAHO Expands Quality Data Resources
The Board of Commissioners of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) last week took a series of actions to enhance its available quality-related performance information. JCAHO will immediately launch a new public policy initiative to develop a national strategy for gathering, preparing and disseminating performance data. In the future, JCAHO will expand its Quality Check Web site (www.qualitycheck.org) to include a comprehensive online directory of not only hospitals, but other entities including home care organizations, nursing homes, behavioral health care organizations, ambulatory care facilities and laboratories. JCAHO will make these enhancements as well as others publicly available at no additional charge. Find a JCAHO news release at www.jcaho.org/NewsRoom/NewsReleases/nr_03_06_06.htm. (Rosalie Weakland, rosaliew@ohanet.org)

Board of Nursing Shares Disciplinary Actions Online
Disciplinary and Monitoring Unit Actions from the January Ohio Board of Nursing board meeting are now available online at www.nursing.ohio.gov/discipline.htm. The board meets every other month and posts its disciplinary actions on its Web site at www.nursing.ohio.gov/discipline.htm. Hospital human resources and nursing executives are encouraged to review the Web site following the board meetings to keep up-to-date on disciplinary actions against licensed nurses who may be hospital employees. (Jean Scholz, jeans@ohanet.org)

Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Hospital Rep Supports Amendments to Budget Bill
Dr. Gus Kious with the Cleveland Clinic Eastern Region today testified to the Ohio House Finance and Appropriations Committee in support of two amendments to the budget corrections bill that would help hospitals continue to care for patients in the most appropriate and cost-effective settings—whether that be inpatient or outpatient. Hospitals appreciate the challenge legislators face in balancing the budget, but the proposed amendments would eliminate the requirement that hospitals enforce a $3 co-pay for Medicaid recipients who inappropriately use the emergency department as well as allocate $25 million to hospital reimbursement where they need it most—in the rapidly growing outpatient sector. OHA will continue to play a role in the legislature’s discussion of the budget corrections bill, advocating for these amendments. OHA’s March Healthbeat article, which will appear in this publication Monday, March 27, will explore in more detail the amendments hospitals seek in the budget. (Bridget Gargan, bridgetg@ohanet.org)

Hospitals Play Lead Role in Quality Improvement Efforts
Ohio’s hospital community continually seeks new and more effective ways to improve the quality of care it provides to patients. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality invited OHA to offer input to help in the development of new regulations required under the federal Patient Safety Improvement Act. Passed last year, this legislation requires the designation of private patient safety organizations (PSOs) to contract with providers to identify trends and develop proposals to prevent future medical errors. OHA recommended that PSOs include a range of health care providers, including hospital representatives, physicians, nurses and pharmacists. The association also noted the PSO should use existing data when possible and devote more time to improving care than simply reporting data. The Ohio Patient Safety Institute, an organization founded by OHA, the Ohio State Medical Association and the Ohio Osteopathic Association and dedicated to improving patient safety in Ohio, is seeking designation as Ohio’s PSO.

In addition to shaping future efforts to improve quality, Ohio hospitals are also receiving validation for their current work. Quality expert Donald M. Berwick, MD, with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement published commentary in the March 8 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association lauding the “all care all the time” way of measuring improvement currently used by Ohio’s three hospital collaboratives. Seeking to ramp up the quality of hospital care in their communities, the Dayton, Columbus and Cincinnati collaborative projects use this method to identify and address areas of care that can be improved. (David Engler, davide@ohanet.org)

Thursday, March 16, 2006
Ohio Legislature, Supreme Court Act on Wrongful Birth Lawsuits
The Ohio House of Representatives this week concurred with the Senate, passing legislation to bar certain medical malpractice lawsuits over children born with severe birth defects. House Bill 287, sponsored by Rep. Jim Aslanides (R-Coshocton), initially focused on a licensing exemption for Amish birthing centers. Although exempt from licensure, the Amish birthing centers still would be required to comply with regulations to be developed by the Ohio Department of Health. In a Senate committee, the bill picked up an amendment to prohibit wrongful birth/wrongful life lawsuits brought by parents of children with birth defects who allege their physician is liable because they would have ended the life of the child had they known about prenatal birth defects. With the support of both the House and Senate, the bill now goes to the governor for his signature.

As HB 287 worked its way through the state legislature, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled 4-3 on a wrongful birth case before it that parents of an unhealthy child born after negligent genetic counseling or failure to diagnose a fetal defect may file a medical malpractice lawsuit, but that they could recover only those costs arising from the pregnancy and birth of the child. The court said parents could not recover economic costs of raising the disabled child or non-economic damages. (Bridget Gargan, bridgetg@ohanet.org)

CAH Comments Needed on New Relocation Guidelines
The top administrator of all critical access hospitals (CAH) in Ohio and nationwide should receive a survey this week on whether new federal guidelines on the relocation of CAHs will inhibit their plans to relocate or rebuild. The American Hospital Association (AHA) survey probes hospital reactions to guidelines issued last November by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) that allow CAHs to relocate if they continue to service 75 percent of the same population, provide 75 percent of the same services and employ 75 percent of the same staff. The guidelines also change the definition of “mountainous terrain” and “secondary road,” making it more difficult for hospitals to maintain CAH status if they relocate.

AHA encourages hospitals to respond to the survey by March 24, and AHA will communicate the feedback to CMS. Hospitals executives that did not receive the survey should call 1.800.424.4301. Contact Danielle Lloyd, AHA senior associate director for policy, at CAH@aha.org or 202.626.2340 with other questions. (David Hendershot, davidh@ohanet.org)

Friday, March 17, 2006
Grant Will Help Fund Hospital Tobacco Cessation Efforts
Through a $236,550 grant from the Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation, OHA’s Foundation for Healthy Communities will provide training for hospitals over the next several months on incorporating tobacco treatment services into clinical practices and increasing the use of tobacco cessation services. Hospital associates will be invited to attend one of four regional trainings free of charge, hearing from a national expert on tobacco control and learning about incentives for helping their hospitals become designated Quit Sites. As Quit Sites, facilities can work with identified tobacco users and refer these individuals to cessation services such as the Ohio Tobacco Quit Line. Continuing education credits for a variety of disciplines will be available.

All Ohio hospitals should receive details about the regional trainings, slated for May, as well as the Ohio Tobacco Quit Line and how to become an Ohio Quit Site in the next several weeks. Contact Lynne Ayres, director of the Foundation for Health Communities, at lynnea@ohanet.org or 614.221.7614 with other questions. The Hospital Council of Northwest Ohio and the Northwest Ohio Strategic Alliance for Tobacco Control are partnering with the foundation to implement these trainings.

JCAHO Hosts Call on Data Policy Changes
The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) will offer a free hour-long telephone conference call on data policy next Thursday, March 23 at 2 p.m. Eastern Time. JCAHO President Dennis S. O’Leary, M.D., will review data policy decisions made at the recent Board of Commissioners meeting. Participants will be invited to ask about this and related topics. All participants must register prior to the call, and a toll-free telephone number and password will be provided immediately upon registration.

To register for the special policy discussion, visit www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=588861895996. View changes in JCAHO data policies at www.jointcommission.org/data_policies and access a related news release at www.jointcommission.org/NewsRoom/NewsReleases/nr_03_06_06.htm. (Rosalie Weakland, rosaliew@ohanet.org)