|
||
Monday, June 19, 2006 JCAHO Releases 2007 Patient Safety Goals The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organization (JCAHO) has announced the 2007 National Patient Safety Goals and requirements.
JCAHO cited the major changes in the goals as the extension of a requirement that qualified organizations define and communicate the means by which patients and families can report safety concerns. In addition, health care organizations caring for emotional or behavioral disorders must now identify patients at risk for suicide. Accredited health care organizations must provide a complete list of medications to each patient upon discharge.
As of Jan. 1, 2007, all JCAHO-accredited health care organizations and the Disease-Specific Care certified programs will be surveyed for implementation of the patient safety goals. A full list of the goals and requirements for each accreditation program are available at www.jointcommission.org/PatientSafety/NationalPatientSafetyGoals. (Rosalie Weakland, rosaliew@ohanet.org)
OHA Asks
CMS to Delay IHPPS Rules
The letter also outlines specific suggestions for improvement including rescinding the clarification that excludes medical resident time spent in didactic activities in the calculation of Medicare direct graduate medical education and indirect medical education payments. OHA also recommends CMS make the new DRG classification system widely available to the public. Finally, OHA recommends CMS require hospitals to submit data on 21 quality indicators starting with discharges on or after July 1, rather than CMS’ proposed Jan. 1 start date, to receive their full market basket update.
OHA applauded CMS for its efforts to create an equal opportunity for return across DRGs and an equal incentive for hospitals to treat all types of patients and conditions. OHA’s letter is available online at www.ohanet.org/ceohio/attachments/ipps061906.pdf. (Charles Cataline, charlesc@ohanet.org)
HHS Releases $1.2 Billion in Funding to States for Emergency Preparedness On June 7, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the availability of $1.2 billion to the states to help strengthen their ability to respond to all emergency incidents. The funding was provided by HHS’ Health Resources and Services Administration’s Bioterrorism Hospital Preparedness Program (HRSA), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Ohio received nearly $4.1 million from the HRSA and CDC allocations—approximately $1.7 million from HRSA to develop medical surge capacity and capability to deal with mass casualty events and $2.4 million from CDC to help develop emergency-ready public health departments.
For more information about the HHS funding, view a full news release at www.hhs.gov/news/press/2006pres/20060607.html. Learn more about Ohio’s disaster preparedness efforts at www.prepareohio.com/resources.php. (Carol Jacobson, carolj@ohanet.org)
C. Diff
Reporting Requirements Altered
Effective July 1, Clostridium difficile (C. diff) health care associated cases, both new and recurrent, are required to be reported monthly instead of weekly by hospitals and nursing homes for the remainder of this year. Reports should be sent to the facilities’ local health district where it will be forwarded to the Ohio Department of Health (ODH).
Although the requirement for reporting will not be as frequent, hospitals are reminded of the importance of supplying their C. diff numbers, including the number of patient days for each month. ODH plans to issue hospital rates later this summer and hospitals that have not provided the number of cases and patient days for January through June are likely to be listed as nonreporting. ODH is expected to counsel the public that the hospital rates should not be used as quality indicators since many factors influence the number of C. diff cases in a facility. For more information about C. diff reporting, visit www.ohanet.org/advocacy/state/issues/cdiff.htm. (Rick Sites, ricks@ohanet.org)
IOM Releases Report; Addresses Overburdened Emergency Care The Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report on June 14 that calls on Congress for assistance in the nation’s overburdened emergency care issue. The three-part report focuses on hospital emergency care, pre-hospital emergency medical services and special challenges in providing care for children.
In
addition, IOM refers to the current system as overburdened,
under-funded and highly fragmented and calls on Congress to
appropriate $50 million for hospitals with significant
uncompensated emergency and trauma care, and to appoint a
commission to examine the declining availability of doctors
in high-risk emergency, trauma care and on-call specialties.
For more information, view IOM’s full news release at
www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=06142006.
Thursday, June 22, 2006 Board Moves Community Benefit Report Forward Calling for a short delay, the OHA Board of Trustees at its June 14 meeting directed OHA staff to continue finalizing hospital-specific data for its first statewide community benefit report to be released this fall, rather than this summer as originally planned. The Board also voted to determine the final publication date of the report at its August meeting. Hospitals were issued a final request for their community activity data last week.
The Board also directed staff to continue pursuit of OHA’s lawsuit against the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation for not following the required public rule-making process to implement a new payment plan for care to injured workers which cost hospitals $50 million. After being upheld twice, the next step for the lawsuit is appeals court.
OHA staff also briefed the Board on the statewide implications of the proposed Medicare Prospective Payment System regulations to move from a charge-based system to a cost-based system by Oct. 1, 2006, and adjust diagnosis related groups to account for severity by Oct. 1, 2007. Among other suggestions, OHA recommends the rules be implemented in tandem, no earlier than October 2007 and with at least a three-year transition.
The Board discussed two new OHA initiatives – the Transformational Leadership Academy, designed to prepare leaders to transform their environment to address future workforce shortage issues, and OHHealthJobs.net, a new interactive Web site allowing hospitals to post jobs for potential health care jobseekers.
Finally, the Board was updated on OHA’s successful negotiations on House Bill 197, which requires hospitals to submit quality data to the Ohio Department of Health to be posted on a public Web site. It also received primers on this falls’ Ohio Supreme Court elections and congressional races. (Jim Castle, jimc@ohanet.org)
Ohio Med Mal Market Stabilizing Ohio’s medical liability insurance rates continue to stabilize after years of skyrocketing growth, according to the Ohio Department of Insurance in its announcement that three of the five largest medical liability insurers have decreased rates by an average of 1.5 percent in 2006. In 2005, medical liability rates increased by 6.7 percent, following rate increases of 20 percent in 2004 and about 30 percent in each of 2002 and 2003.
However, Ohio continues to have a crisis of affordability, making the state less attractive for physicians in high-risk specialties including obstetrics, neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery and emergency medicine. It is unlikely Ohio will see meaningful rate reductions until the Ohio Supreme Court has an opportunity to rule favorably on recently enacted tort reform legislation, including the centerpiece legislation – Senate Bill 281 – which capped non-economic damages at $500,000 or $1 million depending upon severity of injury.
In a related matter, a federal judge handling a products liability case asked the Ohio Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of the provision in Senate Bill 80 which placed caps on non-economic damages for personal injury lawsuits. If the court decides to hear the case, a ruling by the Supreme Court may indicate how the court would rule on the medical liability cap.
View an ODI news release at www.ohioinsurance.gov/Newsroom/scripts/Release.asp?ReleaseID=3703. More information about Ohio’s medical liability market is available at www.ohanet.org/med-mal/ or www.askyourdoctorohio.com/. (Rick Sites, ricks@ohanet.org)
Friday, June 23, 2006 New Initiative Aims To End Wait For Organ Transplants In Ohio Last year 200 of the approximate 2,500 Ohioans in need of an organ for transplant died while waiting. The Ohio Organ Donation Breakthrough Initiative, a plan proposed by the state’s organ procurement organizations (OPOs) and approved by the Ohio Hospital Association’s Research and Educational Foundation, aims to reduce the number of deaths to zero.
The hospital community and the state’s OPOs—Lifeline of Ohio Organ Procurement Agency, Life Connection of Ohio, LifeCenter Organ Donor Network and Lifebanc—have partnered to put steps in motion that if achieved will result in an additional 200 viable organs available to Ohioans in need. Ohio currently converts individuals who are eligible to donate an organ into actual donations at a rate of about 60 percent. By the end of 2007, the initiative looks to increase the conversion rate to 75 percent. The second goal of the initiative is to increase the number of organs per donor from 3.19 to 3.75.
These short term goals will eventually lead to the Ohio Organ Donation Breakthrough Initiative’s overall mission that no Ohioan dies while waiting for an organ transplant. For more information on the Ohio Organ Donation Breakthrough Initiative, view the June issue of HealthBeat at www.ohanet.org/healthbeat/2006/0606.htm. (David Engler, davide@ohanet.org; Jeff Klinger, jeffk@ohanet.org)
OHA Center for Education Hospitals can still register for an OHA Center for Education audio conference, “The Art of Survey: Code JAYCO, An ACES for Quality Managers Presentation” scheduled for June 28 from 12:30p.m - 1:30p.m. Visit www.ohanet.org/education/education_programs.asp for more information. (Jackie Silvis, jackies@ohanet.org) © 2001-2008 OHA. Last updated
July 24, 2008. |
