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CURRENT RESEARCH AND NEWS
HRET Receives Funding for Two Quality Studies
HRET has received a $180,000 grant from the Commonwealth Fund to study the impact of Medicare's new payment policy for healthcare-acquired conditions on safety net hospitals. Megan McHugh, senior research associate, HRET, is the principal investigator. This 14-month study began August 1. Look for more information in the
September newsletter.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has awarded HRET an ACTION contract for $350,000 for the project "Promoting Safety and Quality through Human Resource Practices." HRET will work with researchers from the Ohio State University and Rush University Medical Center to identify human resource practices with
the potential for enhancing safety and quality in health care, and develop recommendations for their implementation. AHA's American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration (ASHHRA) will be a partner in this project. Megan McHugh of HRET will serve as co-principal investigator. For more on the ACTION (Accelerating Change and Transformation in Organizations and Networks) program, click here.
Survey Examines Age, Tenure, and Work Status of Board Members
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"Does Age Matter?" in the July/August issue of Trustee magazine reveals that the majority of hospital and health system board members are in their 50s and 60s. The finding is from a survey of CEOs conducted by HRET and the Center for Healthcare Governance. The study also showed that almost 75 percent of board members are
actively working and most board members serve longer than three years. Click here to read the article.
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UPCOMING EVENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
HRET Sponsors Free Workshops on Perinatal HIV Testing
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Join HRET, the South Florida Hospital & Healthcare Association, and the Florida/Caribbean AIDS Education and Training Center for "Getting to Zero: How Hospitals Can Use Rapid Tests to Virtually Eliminate Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission." This complimentary workshop will be held at the University of Miami on Monday,
September 8. Open to hospital staff from labor and delivery, nursery, emergency, laboratory, infectious disease, and pharmacy, the workshop will discuss implementing perinatal rapid-screening HIV tests at your facility. Space is limited; register by Monday, August 18. For more information or to register, contact Jennifer Reiter at jreiter2@aha.org or (312)
422-2637.
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ACHI's Community Health Assessment Toolkit Adds Case Examples
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ACHI's Community Health Assessment Toolkit now includes seven case examples that provide detailed illustrations of how different communities and organizations have approached the toolkit's six steps to better understand--and ultimately improve--the health of their communities.
Use the quick reference table containing key characteristics of each case to locate the examples that best fit your needs. Examples vary by rural and urban areas, small and large budgets, data collection methods, and more. ACHI and AHA members can log in to the Community Health
Assessment Toolkit home page and click on "Case Examples." Write to assesstoolkit@aha.org for log-in assistance.
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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 15, 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.
RECENT ARTICLES AND PUBLICATIONS
HSR August Issue Features Research on Hospital Governing Boards
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New research by HRET and colleagues on the balance of different functional roles filled by hospital governing boards and a framework for helping these boards identify areas for improvement and directions for change is featured in the August issue of Health Services Research (HSR). Data come from a survey of
CEOs about hospital governance to identify five distinct board types. The August issue also features quality and safety articles, including quality report cards on nursing homes, policy articles assessing the impact of Medicare coverage on health care utilization, and articles examining racial and ethnic disparities in health care. Go to: www.hsr.org.
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New Issue Brief on Assessing QI Activities
Seven years after the Institute of Medicine's two seminal reports on health care quality, no one knows just how widespread quality improvement (QI) activities have been--or how effective in improving the quality of care received by patients. A recent survey by investigators from the Boston University Health Policy Institute
and HRET and funded by the Commonwealth Fund helps answer these questions. Hospital chief quality officers (CQOs) were surveyed in 2006, and responses were received from 470. CQOs believe that patient care is improving but patient satisfaction is still not where it should be. Click here to find out about quality managers'
assessments of hospital quality, a summary of QI methods and tools that hospitals have implemented, and more.
Robert Brook Discusses Health Care in JAMA and H&HN Online
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TRUST Award recipient Robert H. Brook, MD, ScD, shares ideas on improving quality in health care in two recent articles. The July issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association features his article, "Health Policy and Public Trust." Dr.
Brook advocates involving the public more actively in research and ensuring objective evaluations of research programs and activities.
In the H&HN Online article "Making Widespread Changes--Gently--in Health Care," Dr. Brook talks about improving health care with actionable research, consistent policies,
and a national report card on quality and waste, part of an interview with Deborah Bohr, senior director, special projects, and Cynthia Hedges Greising, staff writer, both of HRET.
Dr. Brook, vice president at the RAND Corporation and director of RAND Health, received the 2008 TRUST Award on July 24 in San Diego at the Health Forum/AHA Leadership Summit. Highlights of the reception and his remarks will be included in the September HRET newsletter.
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