CURRENT RESEARCH AND NEWS

New Look for the HSR Web site

The Health Services Research (HSR) Web site has undergone extensive renovation! Visit www.HSR.org for information on authors, article abstracts, and more, along with these new contents and features: New, clean look Streamlined navigation Article highlights Document-sharing capabilities Refreshed article abstracts on each new visit to the site Easy printing and bookmarking E-alerts notifying viewers of new articles, special issues, and events HSR is the flagship publication of the Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET) and an official journal of AcademyHealth. HSR is published six times a year with occasional supplements. Rated as one of the top journals in the fields of health policy and health care administration, HSR publishes outstanding articles reporting the findings of original investigations that will help improve the health of individuals and communities. To view the new HSR Web site, click here.

UPCOMING EVENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

HRET Sponsors Free Workshops on Perinatal HIV Testing

Join HRET, the District of Columbia Hospital Association, and MedChi for "Getting to Zero: How Hospitals Can Use Rapid Tests to Virtually Eliminate Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission." These two workshops funded by grants received by HRET will be held at George Washington University Hospital on Tuesday, July 29, and at MedChi on Thursday, July 31. Open to hospital staff from labor and delivery, nursery, emergency, laboratory, infectious disease, and pharmacy, each workshop will discuss implementing perinatal rapid-screening HIV tests at your facility. Space is limited; register by Monday, July 7. For more information or to register, contact Jennifer Reiter at jreiter2@aha.org or (312) 422-2637.

ACHI Accepting Proposals for Annual Conference

The Association for Community Health Improvement (ACHI) is accepting session proposals for its sixth annual Spring Training for Health Champions conference, taking place March 11-13, 2009, at the Wilshire Grand hotel in Los Angeles.

Proposals for 80-minute breakout sessions and 2½-hour pre-conference workshops will be accepted through Friday, August 8, 2008.

The conference reflects the cross-cutting theme of working to achieve health status equity, and proposals are encouraged to address equity and disparities issues related to the following four themes: community health assessment; community benefit; the social and built environments; and building the skills of community health leaders.

For more information on the conference and submitting a proposal, click here.

HRET Board Member and HSR Member Appointed to MedPAC

HRET board member Peter Butler and HSR senior associate editor Michael Chernew were appointed to the Government Accountability Office Medicare Payment Advisory Commission in May. Peter Butler is executive vice president and chief operating officer of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and Michael Chernew is professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School in Boston. They will begin their three-year terms when MedPAC reconvenes in September. For more about MedPAC, click here.

TRUST Award Sponsorship Opportunities Now Available

Robert H. Brook, MD, ScD, FACP, vice president and director of RAND Health at the RAND Corporation, 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 premier event for health care leaders, 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.

ACHI Audioconference on Community Benefit

Join ACHI for the audioconference "Cutting through the Clutter: Building Awareness of and Identity for Community Benefit" on Thursday, July 17, at 1:00-2:00 p.m. CT (11:00-12:00 PT, 12:00-1:00 MT, 2:00-3:00 ET). Clare Reardon, APR, director, Strategic Initiatives and Program Development at Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee, WI, will describe how Froedtert Hospital has developed a strategic communications plan for building brand awareness and advocacy among hospital staff, organizational leaders, and key partners for the role and value of community benefit. Session details and registration can be found here.

RECENT ARTICLES AND PUBLICATIONS

Research on Roles of Hospital Governing Boards Now Available

New research on the roles filled by hospital governing boards is now available from HSR Online. John R. Combes, MD, HRET interim president and CEO of the Center for Healthcare Governance, and Frances Margolin, HRET vice president, operations, are co-authors along with colleagues from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Michigan. The study, "An Empirical Taxonomy of Hospital Governing Board Roles," used data from HRET's 2005 survey of CEOs about hospital governance to identify five distinct types of boards. The taxonomy provides policymakers, health care executives, and researchers a useful way to describe and understand hospital governing board roles. Further, it could be used as a framework for governing boards themselves to identify areas for improvement and directions for change. To read the article, click here.

QI Article Available Online at Medical Care Research and Review

"A Survey of Hospital Quality Improvement Activities" is now available for preview on the Medical Care Research and Review Web site. The article focuses on a survey examining the efforts of hospitals to address deficiencies in patient care through quality improvement. It was co-written by HRET staffers Ray Kang, senior researcher, Frances Margolin, vice president, operations, and Deborah Bohr, senior director, special projects. To read the article abstract, click here.

Policy Brief from Genetic Services Policy Project Now Available

Over the past three years, the University of Washington and the Washington State Department of Health have hosted the Genetic Services Policy Project, funded by the federal Health Resources and Services Administration. This project aims to describe the current model of genetic services delivery, collect information from key stakeholders, and use stakeholder perspectives to translate genetics research into practice that will lead to more effective genetic service delivery models. The project has produced a series of policy briefs and vignettes that can create a context for how one might enter the medical genetics pathway for a given condition and what a family might encounter along the way. Results of the project were also presented at last summer's AHA/Health Forum Leadership Summit. Francie Margolin, HRET vice president, operations, served on the project's advisory committee. To view the policy briefs and vignettes, as well as other information about the project, go to http://depts.washington.edu/genpol.

H&HN Outbox: An Excellent Investment

The May 2008 issue of Hospitals & Health Networks features the OutBox column "An Excellent Investment" by Michael Bilton, vice president, education, at HRET and executive director of ACHI. The article outlines and describes benefits of initiating a community health assessment and how hospital executives can use the results. To read the article, click here.