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Monday, September 4, 2006

*OHA offices were closed on Monday for Labor Day.

Tuesday, September 5, 2006
Healthcare Task Force Nears Conclusion
The Governor’s Ohio Workforce Policy Board’s Healthcare task force is nearing completion of its work and will make recommendations to the Board’s Executive Committee Sept. 6. The team identified three phase-one and priority-one recommendations from the Governor’s Jobs Cabinet’s nine recommendations.

Their recommendations include increasing the numbers of nurse faculty and developing incumbent worker training at satellite educational programs located in hospitals. The task force identified these as only the beginning and acknowledged that additional actions must be taken to develop long-term solutions for ensuring an adequate health care workforce for Ohio’s future.

Molly Seals, senior vice president of human resources at Humility of Mary Health Partners, and Bill Ruse, CEO emeritus of Blanchard Valley Regional Health Center, served as hospital representatives on this task force. (Jean Scholz, jeans@ohanet.org)

Wednesday, September 6, 2006
Minimum Wage Issue to Appear on November Ballot
The secretary of state’s office informed representatives with the Ohioans for a Fair Minimum Wage campaign that the group has collected enough signatures for the issue to appear on the November ballot.

The issue will raise Ohio’s minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $6.85 an hour. Employers would also be required to maintain records going as far back as decades for all employees while they are on the payroll and for three years afterward with each employee’s name, address, occupation, pay rate, hours worked each day present and amount paid to the employee.

The less-publicized side of the Government Mandated Wage Constitutional Amendment is the requirement that nearly all public and private employers make available wage and certain personal information to any employee or person acting on behalf of an employee, including labor organizations and disgruntled workers, at no charge. Because of privacy concerns, the OHA Board last month voted to oppose the amendment. To learn more about the minimum wage issue view OHA’s August issue of HealthBeat at www.ohanet.org/healthbeat/2006/0806.htm. (Jeff Klingler, jeffk@ohanet.org)

ODJFS Appreciates Early NPI Submitters
In accordance with federal regulations health care providers are required to have their ten digit National Provider Identifier (NPI) from the National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) by May 23, 2007. To ensure no delay in future Medicaid payments, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services asks hospitals to supply their legacy numbers and NPIs early to be sure they are loaded into the Medicaid claims payment system.

View more information about the National Provider Identifier at www.ohanet.org/medicaid/resources/NPIletter.pdf. (Charles Cataline, charlesc@ohanet.org)

Hospitals’ Heartbeat

A 2006 nominee for the Albert E. Dyckes Health Care Worker of the Year Award

Robyn Zborovsky, RN
Surgery
Doctors Hospital
Columbus

A look inside Robyn’s nomination –

Robyn Zborovsky has been a registered nurse in the operating room at Doctors Hospital for 6 years. Robyn is the team leader for the General and Podiatry surgical specialty areas. As a team leader Robyn is responsible for ensuring that surgical cases proceed without difficulty and to ensuring a safe environment for the patient and surgical team members. Robyn was the circulating nurse for a laparoscopic bowel resection procedure. One duty of the circulating nurse is to ensure that specimens have been removed from the sterile field and correctly identified and labeled. During the closure of the incision Robyn recognized that she had only a small tissue specimen and no bowel. She stepped to the surgical field and questioned the surgeon about the lack of large bowel for specimen. The surgeon stopped the closure process and went back and retrieved the resected bowel. The surgeon was very grateful for Robyn’s intervention. If Robyn had not asked the surgeon about the bowel specimen the patient would have had a very different outcome. Robyn did a great save for the patient and the entire surgical team.

Thursday, September 7, 2006
Attorney General Files Revised Rules with JCARR
Late yesterday, Attorney General Jim Petro filed rules with the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review (JCARR) that would require hospitals to register and annually file their IRS Form 990 with the attorney general’s (AG) office. The AG’s office reported it received written comments from numerous groups, including OHA, many of which expressed concerns with certain provisions of the proposed rules. On Aug. 30, a small group representing charitable organizations and attorneys, and including OHA, met again with the AG's staff to refine a few outstanding technical issues. At that time, the AG’s staff expressed appreciation for the many technical comments, shared a new draft of the rules, committed to make a few more changes and stated their intention to go forward with the rules.

All of OHA’s material concerns with the rules have been addressed and the rule now contains only a few substantive provisions, including:

Charitable hospitals and other charitable health care organizations such as nonprofit HMOs will be required to file a one-time registration statement with the AG’s office. The statement requests only basic information about the organization.
A charitable advisory council will be established to advise the AG on various issues, including governance, administration and model policies. Hospitals will have a designated seat on the council.

The Attorney General wants the OHA to be represented by one of 11 seats on his new advisory council, which is being created immediately in addition to being part of the proposed rules. The filing with JCARR begins a rule review process that dictates a public hearing in early or mid-October, with the rules being final in early November. View a full news release at www.ag.state.oh.us/press/06/09/pr060906.asp. (Mary Gallagher, maryg@ohanet.org)

January 1 – July 31, 2006 Clostridium Difficile Report Released
The Ohio Department of Health has released the July report for clostridium difficile. The report lists rates of clostridium difficile cases for hospitals for each month between January and July. ODH also released a Frequently Asked Questions document regarding the C. diff rate reports.

The goals of this reporting system are to better determine the extent of health care- associated C. diff infection in Ohio and to establish facility-level baseline C. diff activity to enable identification of unusual disease activity and reporting of disease outbreaks.

Ohio hospitals and long-term care facilities should make certain they are using the correct form when reporting their C. diff and patient day numbers. The form can be found at www.ohanet.org/advocacy/state/issues/resources/reportform.doc.

Read more on this disease and see the recently released interim report for hospitals for January through July 2006 at www.odh.ohio.gov/alerts/cdiff1.aspx. View ODH’s FAQ document on OHA’s Web site at www.ohanet.org/advocacy/state/resources/FAQ.doc. For more information about C. diff reporting visit www.ohanet.org/advocacy/state/issues/cdiff.htm. (Rick Sites, ricks@ohanet.org)

Hospitals’ Heartbeat

A 2006 nominee for the Albert E. Dyckes Health Care Worker of the Year Award

Joyce Vazquez
Supervisor, Outpatient Rehabilitation Therapies
Euclid Hospital
Euclid

A look inside Joyce’s nomination –
Joyce Vazquez has a deep personal reservoir of compassion, empathy and commitment. All those around her - patients in the hospital, co-workers, friends, family, and the community members that she touches through her volunteer activities – benefit from her generous spirit and giving nature. Joyce is the site supervisor of Outpatient Rehabilitation Therapies at Euclid Hospital where she has worked for nearly eighteen years. As a physical therapist, Joyce is known for her patience and gentle touch and she is a source of encouragement to both patients and staff. Joyce also willingly shares her time and talents in the community in which she lives and works, as well as within the hospital itself. Joyce is the kind of person that everyone wants on their team.

Friday, September 8, 2006
Ohio Hospitals Lead the Way
Ohio hospitals continue to demonstrate excellence by providing the highest quality of care. Kettering Medical Center – Sycamore, Miamisburg, was recently named a Bariatric Center of Excellence.

Akron General Medical Center, Mercy Health Partners, Toledo, Ohio State University Medical Center, Columbus were on the 2006 Most Wired Winner list in Hospitals & Health Networks magazine. Greene Memorial Hospital, Xenia, was named one of the nation’s Most Improved Wired Hospitals 2006.

The Surgery Department at Mercy Hospital Clermont, Batavia, ranked second nationally for Overall Outpatient Satisfaction among hospitals monitored by the Jackson Organization.

The following awards were given at the FLEX (critical access hospital) annual meeting in Columbus: Rhonda Dailey, VP Patient Care, Holzer Medical Center – Jackson, Gallipolis, Administrator of the Year; Janet Brown, EMT – P, Twin City Hospital, Dennison, Clinician of the Year; and Cary Coate, RN ICU and Congestive Heart Failure Clinic, Hardin Memorial Hospital, Kenton, Program of the Year.

The National Foundation for Trauma Care designated Miami Valley Hospital’s Level One Trauma Center in Dayton as one of the top five “highly prepared” trauma centers in the nation for its preparedness to respond to large–scale disasters.

Parma Community General Hospitals was presented with the Governor’s Healthy Ohioans Health Worksite Bronze Level Award for encouraging employees to engage in physical activity and practice better nutrition and to eliminate tobacco use.

Through its “Backpacks for Kids” program, Van Wert County Hospital’s employees and physicians provided school supplies and backpacks for all 324 children qualifying for the reduced lunch program.

Both the laboratory at Fairfield Medical Center, Lancaster, and the laboratory at Robinson Memorial Hospital (RMH), Ravenna, have been awarded accreditation by the Commission on Laboratory Accreditation of the College of American Pathologists. RMH’s blood bank also received accreditation by the American Association of Blood Banks.

Greene Memorial Hospital’s Cardiac Rehabilitation and Pulmonary Rehabilitation programs in Xenia recently received certification from the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation. (Mary Sterenberg, marys@ohanet.org)