CURRENT RESEARCH AND NEWS

HRET Announces 2008-2009 Patient Safety Leadership Fellows

Thirty-eight individuals from 30 organizations have been selected to participate in this year’s Patient Safety Leadership (PSL) fellowship class. The fellowship is a year-long leadership development program providing leaders of hospitals, health systems, and other health care organizations with skills necessary to shepherd change initiatives within their organizations. Now in its seventh year, the PSL fellowship has supported over 180 health care leaders across the United States and around the world. In the course of one year, fellows participate in three leadership retreats, complete self-study modules, and engage in monthly conference calls. Fellows carry out action learning projects focused on safety and quality improvements in their home institutions, applying skills and knowledge acquired through the fellowship program. For information on participating in the 2009-2010 program, contact the HRET fellowship office at (312) 422-2625 or fellowships@aha.org. To view the press release click here or go to the Web site, www.hretfellowships.org, for additional information.

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

"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.

Poster Presentation on Medicare Payment Rates

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 that patients admitted from emergency departments were significantly less profitable to hospitals than those admitted on a scheduled basis. Results suggest that the severity-adjusted diagnosis related groups system, which the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is currently phasing in, may not fully mitigate the difference in profitability between the two groups of patients.

UPCOMING EVENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

John M. Eisenberg Article of the Year Selected

Congratulations to Katherine Kahn, MD; Diana Tisnado, PhD; John Adams, PhD; Honghu Liu, PhD; Wen-Pin Chen, MS; Fang Ashlee Hu, MD; Carol Mangione, MD; Ronald Hays, PhD; and Cheryl Damberg, PhD. Their article "Does Ambulatory Process of Care Predict Health-Related Quality of Life Outcomes for Patients with Chronic Disease?" was selected as the 2008 John M. Eisenberg Article of the Year in Health Services Research. Established in 2003, this award recognizes overall quality of an article and its relevance to policy areas that Dr. Eisenberg studied or promoted during his tenure as director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). HSR editors select the award-winning article. Read the full article.

HRET: Partner in National Conference on Quality Health Care

HRET is a conference partner in the Sixth National Conference on Quality Health Care for Culturally Diverse Populations, September 21-24, 2008, in Minneapolis, MN. The theme for the conference is "Partnerships for the future: Supporting practitioners and advancing the field through innovation, policy, and research." The conference emphasizes a public-private blend of community advocacy, service delivery, policymaking, civil rights enforcement, research, and leadership development to improve the health of diverse populations. For more information on the conference, please click here.

PSEP Trainers Wanted

HRET and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine invite you to take part in Become a PSEP Trainer, a dynamic educational program that not only teaches patient safety principles but also teaches participants the skills to educate others in their organizations. Become a PSEP Trainer grew out of the Patient Safety Education Project (PSEP), an initiative led by HRET's 2008 Crosby Fellow, Linda Emanuel, MD, PhD. The first Become a PSEP Trainer conference will be May 30-June 1 at the downtown Pittsburgh Doubletree Hotel. For more information about the program, visit http://patientsafetyeducationproject.org

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 Building Sustainability into Grant-Funded Programs

Join ACHI for the audio conference "Building Sustainability into Grant-Funded Programs: Making the Case Using Data, Partnerships and Health-Improvement Strategies" on Thursday, June 19, at 1:00-2:00 p.m. CT (11:00-12:00 PT, 12:00-1:00 MT, 2:00-3:00 ET). Ryan Ehrensberger, PhD, administrative director of community benefit services at Bon Secours Richmond Health System in Richmond, VA, will describe how a pediatric asthma collaborative translated a grant-funded program into a locally sustainable initiative. Session details and registration can be found here.

HRET/Center for Health Management Research Member Wins Presidential Award

Sharp HealthCare in San Diego, CA, has been awarded the 2007 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. The Baldrige Award is the top presidential honor for quality and excellence in the United States. Sharp HealthCare is a member of HRET's Center for Health Management Research.

PROJECT UPDATES

ACHI Expands Career Center

For two years, the Association for Community Health Improvement (ACHI) Career Center has been the "niche" job board and resumé posting site for community health and community benefit positions. Now, as a member of the National Healthcare Career Network (NHCN), the ACHI site contains many more job opportunities and many more resumés of prospective job seekers. Jobs and resumés posted on ACHI's Career Center will appear not only on ACHI's site but also on the job boards of other associations participating in the network. All network job boards serve health and health care exclusively. Click here to visit the ACHI Career Center.

HRET Sponsors Free Workshop on Perinatal HIV Testing

Join HRET and the Hospital Council of Northern and Central California 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 Hilton Oakland Airport on Friday, June 27. 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 Friday, June 6. For more information or to register, contact Jennifer Reiter at jreiter2@aha.org or (312) 422-2637.

PROJECT UPDATES

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.