CURRENT RESEARCH AND NEWS

New Topical Survey Repository on HRET Web site

HRET and the Center for Healthcare Governance are pleased to announce that the results of all recent topical governance surveys are now accessible online via HRET's new Topical Survey Repository. Survey topics include trustee demographics, executive sessions, physician/board relationships, and patient safety. Check back quarterly for new survey results. To view the repository, click here.

Report Published on Trustee Demographics

In December 2007 the Health Research & Educational Trust and the Center for Healthcare Governance surveyed 249 hospital and health system CEOs about the demographic characteristics of their boards, looking at age, level of tenure, and work status of board members. To view the survey results, click here.

TRUST Award Sponsorship Opportunities Now Available

Robert H. Brook, MD, ScD, FACP, vice president of RAND Corporation and director of RAND Health, will receive HRET's 2008 TRUST Award. The TRUST Award recognizes individuals who exhibit visionary leadership and symbolize HRET's commitment and desire to rebuild trust within health care organizations and with community partners. Sponsorship opportunities are now available and can be found online. If your organization is interested in being a sponsor for this exclusive reception, please contact Jennifer Shaw at jshaw@aha.org or 312-422-2646.

Dr. Brook will be honored at a reception on July 24, 2008, during the Health Forum/AHA Leadership Summit in San Diego. Read more about Dr. Brook and the TRUST Award.

HRET Offers Free Technical Assistance on Perinatal HIV Testing

Free individual technical assistance is available to hospitals interested in implementing rapid HIV testing in labor and delivery units. The daylong training includes information on CDC HIV testing recommendations, test selection, cost, point-of-care versus lab testing, consent, and linkages to care, among other issues. Technical assistance is open to hospital staff in labor, delivery, nursery, pharmacy, laboratory, and infectious disease departments. The technical assistance support is part of a larger partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For more information on technical assistance and to schedule a hospital visit, contact Joan Miller at jmiller@aha.org or 312-422-2619.

New Online Resource About Clinical Simulators

Now available on hret.org is the report "Clinical Simulators: Considerations for Hospitals" written by the AHA's Committee on Health Professions. The report discusses the use of clinical simulators in hospitals, including the steps that need to be taken and the questions that need to be answered to implement them in hospitals. To read the full report, click here.

UPCOMING EVENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

Linda Emanuel Named Crosby Fellow

Linda L. Emanuel, MD, PhD, Buehler Professor of Medicine and director of the Buehler Center for Aging, Health & Society at the Feinberg School of Medicine, and adjunct professor, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, has been awarded the Edwin L. Crosby Senior Fellowship by HRET.

The fellowship, named in honor of Dr. Edwin L. Crosby, former president of the American Hospital Association and long-time leader in the health care field, is given to an experienced health care researcher, administrator, or policy analyst to conduct studies in key areas of health services and policy.

With this fellowship, Dr. Emanuel will continue her work on the Patient Safety Education Project (PSEP), a high-impact, conference-based, train-the-trainer approach based on an end-of-life care project. Dr. Emanuel will refine the PSEP curriculum and provide facilitator training to select staff of HRET and the American Hospital Association Quality Center. Dr. Emanuel's fellowship begins April 1, 2008 and will continue through March 31, 2009. For more information on the Crosby Fellowship, click here.

ACHI Audioconference: "Local Health Care Access Initiatives: Key Factors for Success"

Join ACHI for the audioconference "Local Health Care Access Initiatives: Key Factors for Success," on Tuesday, April 15, at 1:00-2:00 p.m. CT (11:00-12:00 PT, 12:00-1:00 MT, 2:00-3:00 ET) by Karen J. Minyard, PhD, executive director of the Georgia Health Policy Center at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University. The audioconference will focus on case studies of three local initiatives that improved access to health care. Session details and registration can be found here.

ACHI Audioconference: "Effective Product/Market Positioning Strategy: Using Health Status Assessment and Community Health Improvement to Enhance Your Bottom Line"

Join ACHI for the audioconference "Effective Product/Market Positioning Strategy: Using Health Status Assessment and Community Health Improvement to Enhance Your Bottom Line" on Thursday, May 15, at 1:00-2:00 p.m. CT (11:00-12:00 PT, 12:00-1:00 MT, 2:00-3:00 ET) by Debra Thompson, president of Strategy Solutions, Inc., and Joseph R. McClellan, M.D., senior vice president at Hamot Health Foundation. Learn how to integrate health status and/or community health assessment activities into strategic planning processes and intentionally use the information as platforms for product/market development or positioning strategies to enhance the bottom lines. Session details and registration can be found here.

HRET FELLOWSHIPS

Nursing Scholarship Available

HRET is seeking candidates for a nursing scholarship, sponsored by Cardinal Health and the National Patient Safety Foundation. Registered nurses dedicated to designing and implementing an IV medication safety project are encouraged to apply. A travel stipend is included. The selected nurse leader will participate in the 2008-2009 Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship beginning in June 2008. For details, contact Shawn Foster at 312-422-2610 or visit www.hretfellowships.org.

RECENT ARTICLES AND PUBLICATIONS

Article on Physician-Owned ASCs by HRET Staff Member

The paper entitled "Where Do I Send Thee? Does Physician-Ownership Affect Referral Patterns To Ambulatory Surgery Centers?" co-authored by Ray Kang, senior researcher at HRET, asks: Are physicians who are leading referrers to physician-owned ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) more likely to send Medicaid patients to hospital outpatient clinics than other patients? Findings indicate that physicians at physician-owned facilities are more likely than other physicians to refer well-insured patients to their facilities and route Medicaid patients to hospital outpatient clinics. To read the full article, click here.

April Issue of HSR

HSR's April issue includes several articles on racial and ethnic health care disparities, including the development of a measure of physician engagement. Also included are articles comparing drug use patterns and insurance costs and coverage, quality articles and the effects of evidence-based guidelines, and cost of care articles with a look at depression in late middle-aged U.S. workers. Download these articles here.

H&HN OutBox: HIV Testing in the ED

The March 2008 issue of Hospitals & Health Networks features the OutBox column "HIV Testing in the ED" by Gretchen Williams Torres, director of research at HRET. The article discusses the need for HIV testing in EDs, which are potentially fertile grounds for testing high volumes of diverse patient populations and reaching those without a regular source of care. Currently, testing for HIV occurs in many EDs but is limited to cases of occupational exposure or at the provider's discretion based on clinical presentation or other risk factors. To date, programs of widespread screening for HIV in EDs are nonexistent, even for high-risk patients. But many busy urban EDs have found that HIV testing is feasible. To read the full article, click here.

H&HN Online: Collecting Data to Improve Patient Care

"Collecting Data to Improve Patient Care," by Cynthia Hedges Greising of HRET, was featured in H&HN Online in February. The article discussed the new HRET Disparities Toolkit and how it can help hospitals gather data on race, ethnicity, and primary language from patients. The toolkit not only provides a uniform framework for collecting and using the data but also includes training presentations and model approaches as well as a section on communicating with patients who are deaf or hard of hearing. Click here to read the full article or to view the toolkit.