CURRENT RESEARCH AND NEWS

HRET and Center Announce Board-Medical Staff Relations Survey

The Health Research & Educational Trust and the Center for Healthcare Governance are pleased to announce an online topical survey dealing with the increasingly important issue of board and medical staff relations. The current survey builds on the success of recent Center/HRET governance surveys on the topics of executive sessions and trustee demographics. Click here to find out more and to participate in the survey.

Poster Presentation on Medicare Payment Rates at AcademyHealth

Megan McHugh, PhD, senior research associate at HRET, will present the poster, "Improving the Accuracy of Medicare Payment Rates: Does Source of Admission Matter?" at the AcademyHealth Meeting in June in Washington, DC. An analysis of data on 1.1 million Medicare admissions revealed patients admitted from emergency departments (ED) were significantly less profitable to hospitals than those admitted on a scheduled basis. Results suggest that the severity-adjusted diagnosis related groups system, which CMS is currently phasing in, may not fully mitigate the difference in profitability between the two groups of patients.

HRET Panel Presentation on Pay-for-Performance Measures at AcademyHealth

"Skinning The Cat: Using Patient-Level HQA Data to Explore Pay-For-Performance Composite Measures and Impacts on Hospital Rankings," a panel presentation by HRET senior researcher Ray Kang, will be given at the AcademyHealth annual research meeting in Washington, DC on Sunday, June 8, 2008. Other panel participants are Romana Hasnain-Wynia, PhD, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, and former vice president, research at HRET; Christine Vogeli, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Department of Medicine, Institute for Health Policy; and Joel S. Weissman, PhD, MGH Department of Medicine, Institute for Health Policy, and Harvard Medical School.

UPCOMING EVENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

The Institute for Diversity in Health Management's 2008 National Leadership and Educational Conference

This year's conference, Diversity and Disparities: Parallel Challenges for 21st Century Health Care, taking place June 19-20 at the Westin Riverwalk in San Antonio, TX, will feature scholars, thought leaders, expert practitioners, and nationally recognized authorities on workforce diversity and the causes and effects of health care disparities. Panelists and speakers from leading health care organizations will share best practices and lessons learned to promote equity in care and medical outcomes. Please visit www.diversityconnection.org to register and for additional information.

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 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 Enhancing the Bottom Line with Community Health

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, MD, senior vice president at Hamot Health Foundation. Learn how to integrate health status and 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.

Save the Date: 2009 Spring Training for Health Champions Conference

The Association for Community Health Improvement is proud to announce the dates for the 2009 Spring Training for Health Champions conference in Los Angeles, CA. The meeting will take place March 11-13, 2009, at the Wilshire Grand Hotel. For more information on the conference, click here.

PROJECT UPDATES

HRET Sponsors Free Workshops on Perinatal HIV Testing

Free upcoming workshops are available in Oakland, CA, Washington, DC, Baltimore, MD, and Miami, FL for hospitals interested in implementing rapid HIV testing in labor and delivery units. Each one-day workshop will include information on the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) HIV testing recommendations, point-of-care versus laboratory testing, state laws, prophylaxis and treatment, referral and counseling, and reimbursement. Workshops are open to hospital staff in labor and delivery, nursery, emergency, laboratory, infectious disease, and pharmacy. These workshops are part of a larger partnership with the CDC. For more information on having a workshop in your state, contact Joan Miller at jmiller@aha.org or 312-422-2619.

Improving Care and Quality of Life at the End of Life

The Hospital-Based Palliative Care Consortium is looking for hospitals interested in learning how to create or improve their own palliative care centers. The program enables hospitals to visit exemplary palliative care learning centers in different regions of the United States. Managed by HRET, the program is funded by a grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

The program is free to participating hospitals (with the exception of travel and lodging) and administered through three phases. In phase one a hospital receives materials to evaluate its goals, strengths, and weaknesses and to construct a customized site visit at a learning lab. Phase two is the site visit, when the participating hospital learns firsthand about a successful palliative care program and how to transfer that information and approaches to its own situation. During phase three participating hospitals receive a CD-ROM toolkit, as well as feedback and support as they implement their program.

If you are interested in participating in the Hospital-Based Palliative Care Consortium, please contact Deb Bohr at dbohr@aha.org or (646) 678-4280, or click here for more details.

RECENT ARTICLES AND PUBLICATIONS

New Community Health Perspectives Column Available Online

"Two Peas in a Pod: Community Benefit and Clinical Strategies," written by Patsy Matheny, is available on the ACHI Web site under Community Health Perspectives. An occasional feature, Community Health Perspectives allows ACHI member columnists to reflect on trends they observe, their experiences in the field, interpretations of current data and recent reports, promising activities, and best practices. Members are invited to respond to the column and converse with the author and each other in the members-only online discussion forum. To read the article, click here.

New IOM Report Led by HRET Staff Member

Megan McHugh, PhD, HRET senior research associate, was the study director for the newly released Institute of Medicine report, "Retooling for An Aging America: Building the Health Care Workforce." As the population of seniors grows to become approximately 20 percent of the U.S. population, they will face a health care workforce that is too small and critically unprepared to meet their health needs. The report recommends bold initiatives to (1) explore ways to broaden the duties and responsibilities of workers at various levels of training, (2) better prepare informal caregivers to tend to the needs of aging family members and friends, and (3) develop new models of health care delivery and payment under Medicare. Click here to access the report brief.

Report Released on Ensuring Global Human Resources for Health

HRET, the International Hospital Federation, and Health Services Research have published the proceedings report from the conference "A Call to Action: Ensuring Global Human Resources for Health." Held last spring in Geneva, Switzerland, the conference brought together researchers, policymakers, educators, organization leaders, and those working on the front lines of health care to discuss the critical issues surrounding an international health care worker crisis. The report presents specific recommendations for hospital and health system leaders, funding agencies, professional associations and government officials. To access the full report, click here. The release of this report comes just after the Global Health Workforce Alliance (GHWA) statement on the announcements by the US and UK governments to provide support for increasing the number of health workers across four African countries. An April H&HN Online article focuses on several initiatives and recommendations from the conference and was authored by Mary A. Pittman, president of the Public Health Institute and former president of HRET, and Per-Gunnar Svensson, director general of the International Hospital Federation. One area of focus at the conference was the changing work models and skill sets needed by future workers and the impact of those models in the training and mix of caregivers. Another focus area was the central role hospitals can play in partnership with professional organizations and governmental agencies to create and implement effective plans. To read the H&HN Online article, click here.