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Monday, March 27, 2006
Med Mal Caps Yield Lower Rates in Other States
Texas physicians received good news in the form of reduced medial liability premiums thanks to the state’s landmark tort reform law passed in 2003. The Doctors Company, a physician-owned medical liability insurer, announced last week that premiums will drop by an average of 18 percent for new and renewing doctors in Texas. Doctors attribute the lower premiums to a constitutional amendment, Proposition 12, which capped non-economic damages in medical liability cases. The company’s policyholders have seen premiums drop by nearly one-third since the passage of Proposition 12. The state’s number of physicians practicing in high-risk specialties, such as obstetricians, orthopedic surgeons and emergency medicine specialists, has also increased since non-economic damages were capped.

Ohio is still considered a medial liability crisis state, despite some improvements in the med mal market since the passage of legislation limiting non-economic damage awards in 2002. Visit www.ohanet.org/med-mal/ or www.askyourdoctorohio.com/ for more information about Ohio’s medical liability market. (Rick Sites, ricks@ohanet.org)

Tuesday, March 28, 2006
FAQ Explains Hospital Electronic Drug Record Keeping
The Ohio State Board of Pharmacy recently released rules to help ease hospitals’ transition to electronic record keeping of drug administration, dispensing and prescribing. The rules give hospitals more flexibility in developing electronic systems for health record keeping such as using computerized systems for medication records, prescribing drugs through electronic systems and recording a pharmacist’s dispending functions. The guidelines also include language about positive identification for those who prescribe, dispense and administer drugs and recording those actions in an electronic system rather than in paper medical records.

The Ohio State Board of Pharmacy, with the assistance of OHA and the Ohio Society of Health-System Pharmacists, developed a frequently-asked-questions document, available at http://pharmacy.ohio.gov/FAQ_Electronic_systems_030106.htm, to answer questions for pharmacists, hospital administrators, hospital information technology personnel, computer software vendors and others regarding hospital electronic drug record keeping systems and ways to achieve the required “positive identification.” (Jean Scholz, jeans@ohanet.org)

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

Sister Linda Piccolantonio, HM, RN, MN
Program Coordinator, Immigrant Health Program
Mercy Medical Center, Canton
Photo

A look inside Linda’s nomination –
Clinical nurse specialist Sister Linda Piccolantonio, HM, RN, MN, has overcome the obstacle of recent quadruple heart bypass surgery in order to coordinate outreach to the Spanish-speaking immigrant communities of Stark and Tuscarawas counties. She holds a master’s degree from Seattle University and directed a health clinic in rural Mexico. Linda now uses her skill and expertise to assist newcomers in our community. Being bilingual, she is willing to provide medical interpretation, day or night. Much of her time is devoted to helping young immigrant women as they navigate the unfamiliar world of America’s modern medicine for prenatal care, labor and delivery. Additionally, she offers outstanding support to our staff as we strive to deliver culturally sensitive care to our patients from Latin America.

Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Residency Caps Redistribution Final
Final redistributions in residency caps are now available from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) at www.cms.hhs.gov/AcuteInpatientPPS/Downloads/CAP-REDUX_2-1-06.pdf. CMS was required to redistribute unused allopathic and osteopathic residency positions under Section 422 of the Medicare Modernization Act. The caps represent the number of residents hospitals may count for purposes of calculating direct and indirect graduate medical education payments. Under the nationwide redistribution based on current usage, Ohio lost 66 indirect medical education slots and gained seven direct graduate medical education slots. Because the new caps are based on current usage, they do limit some hospitals’ ability to expand their teaching programs in the future. While some hospitals experienced significant losses, most hospital losses were minimal in Ohio.CMS published an initial list of residency cap reductions in October 2005, which were tentative for some teaching hospitals pending at audit. The final chart lists reductions by provider number. (Jonathan Archey, jonathana@ohanet.org)

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

John Sontich, M.D.
Orthopedic Trauma Surgeon
The MetroHealth System
Cleveland

A look inside John’s nomination –
Dr. John Sontich is an orthopedic trauma surgeon who chooses to use his extraordinary skills at MetroHealth, the state’s largest Medicaid provider and one of our state’s two major public hospitals. He is one of only five surgeons in the U.S. expert at repairing deformed limbs using the Ilizarov technique and Taylor Spatial frames. Last October, Sontich did what no other surgeon has done in Ohio. He climbed a scaffolding to perform a field amputation, freeing a Metro Life Flight patient from an industrial auger, which saved his life. Sontich has three young children. And, while treating people the way they should be treated is his daytime avocation, he is also the team physician for his eight-year-old son’s football team.

Thursday, March 30, 2006
Budget Corrections Bill Includes OHA Amendment
In the state budget bill signed by the governor this week, legislators repealed the mandate that hospitals bill and attempt to collect a $3 co-pay from Medicaid beneficiaries who use emergency departments (ED) for non-emergencies. OHA advocated for this change to address the expensive and often fruitless effort required by hospitals to enforce the co-pay, which went into effect Jan.1. Under the new provision, hospitals should provide notification of the potential co-pay but no further follow-up action is required. Hospitals may choose how they notify patients—verbally, a pamphlet, a sign or through other methods. OHA initially sought to delete the $3 co-pay language or make it permissive and found strong support from key legislators. But the Speaker of the House strongly encouraged the co-pay as an additional way hospitals could educate Medicaid recipients on taking personal responsibility for inappropriate use of the ED.

Other items in the final bill affecting hospitals include:

The shifting of $50,000 within the Ohio Department of Health to pay for the Bureau of Children with Medical Handicaps Medicare Part D coverage for adult cystic fibrosis patients.
Clarification that Ohio law, not federal law, governs prompt payment requirements under Medicaid managed care.
Several updates to Ohio’s Medicaid program to conform to recent federal law changes, some of which affect Medicaid managed care emergency services by withholding indirect graduate medical education dollars for for non contracting hospitals. (Bridget Gargan, bridgetg@ohanet.org)

OHA Receives Environmental Award
OHA was awarded a 2006 H2E Champions for Change Award from Hospitals for a Healthy Environment (H2E). This is the second consecutive year OHA has received this award and 11 of Ohio’s 45 hospital H2E Partners will also receive awards.

H2E is a voluntary program intended to help health care facilities improve work place safety and become better environmental neighbors. H2E created the Champions for Change program to recognize organizations that have been role models for other organizations.

OHA provides valuable assistance and support to hospitals working to improve their environmental performance while maintaining quality patient care. OHA assists hospitals by: collecting data on hospital progress in reducing pollution, fostering better support networks for hospitals, and hosting pollution prevention universities to give hospitals hands-on experience in developing pollution prevention activities.

The Champions for Change award will be formally presented to OHA at the awards ceremony in Seattle on April 18. Learn more about becoming an H2E Champion or Partner at www.h2e-online.org/. The newest hospital to join H2E as a partner is the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. View a full list at www.h2e-online.org/programs/partner/p_mbrst.cfm?parmStateCode=oh. For more information on OHAs Pollution Prevention Program visit www.ohanet.org/p2. (Rick Sites, ricks@ohanet.org; Susan Zabo, susanz@ohanet.org)

Friday, March 31, 2006
JCAHO Seeks Hospital Input on Field Review
The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) is conducting a second field review on revised leadership standards. The current standards include changes made based on input from an initial field review conducted in October 2005, and JCAHO now seeks comments on those standards that address the authority of the governing body and assessment of the organization culture. Comments on the ability of individual organizations to comply with the new leadership standards are also encouraged.

JCAHO will accept comments from hospitals until May 4 on the standards, including a new standard addressing the need for cultures of safety and quality in health care organizations and an increased emphasis on the performance of important systems in those organizations. View the field review www.jointcommission.org/standards/fieldreviews/. Contact Kirsten Czech, division of standards and survey methods, at 630.792.5973 or kczech@jcaho.org with questions. Please send a copy of all submitted comments to Rosalie Weakland at rosaliew@ohanet.org.

Hospitals Lead the Way
Ohio hospitals receive ongoing recognition for their high quality care. Many Ohio hospitals were recognized recently in Solucient’s listing of the Nation’s 100 Top Hospitals. View a full list at www.100tophospitals.com.

American Alliance of Heathcare Providers named Barberton Citizen’s Hospital and Summa Health System, Akron, as part of the top 41 Hospitals of Choice. The list is designed to acknowledge hospitals with extraordinary service.

The cardiopulmonary department at Fisher-Titus Medical Center, Norwalk, received Quality Respiratory Care Recognition from the American Association for Respiratory Care. This is the fourth consecutive year it has received this honor.

Clinton Memorial Hospital, Cincinnati, received the Innovative Solutions Award for its Patient Medication Assistance Program. Middletown Regional Hospital was also a finalist for the award.

Berger Health System, Circleville, recently graduated its first class of nurses and Lake Hospital System, Painesville, began offering free wireless internet access for patients and visitors. Akron General Heart and Vascular Center created a Web site for patients and community to access a wealth of important information on cardiac and vascular health.

Komen Columbus granted $663,843 to fund programs for breast caner education, screening and treatment. See a full list of the grant recipients, including many Ohio hospitals, at http://komencolumbus.org/grants/grant-recipients/. (Mary Sterenberg, marys@ohanet.org)