AzHHA Insider

AzHHA Insider July 09, 2010

  • AzHHA Congratulates Reg Ballantyne!

    Reginald M. Ballantyne III, Senior Corporate Officer, Vanguard Health Systems, has been named Chairman of the Board of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Ballantyne is Past Chairman of the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association (AzHHA) and has served as Chairman of the American Hospital Association (AHA) and Speaker of the AHA House of Delegates. He has served on numerous national boards including the Board of Commissioners for the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and as Chairman of the AHA Committee of Commissioners, as well as on the boards of several national public and private companies.

    “Reg will be a great Chairman of the Arizona Chamber,” said John Rivers, President and CEO of AzHHA. “He has served as chief elected officer of a number of state and national organizations and has performed with distinction each and every time.  He’ll also work tirelessly to bring disparate interests together in order to support an agenda that helps everyone.  His modus operandi is to work toward solutions where everyone wins.”

    In his role as Chairman, Ballantyne will work to further the Chamber’s mission, which is to represent the interests of commerce and industry in a way that enhances the state’s economy.

    “I am confident that under Reg Ballantyne the Chamber will further advance public policies to create a more competitive business climate in Arizona and promote economic growth and diversification,” said Arizona Chamber President and CEO Glenn Hamer.

    Said Ballantyne, “The Arizona Chamber is widely recognized as a first class organization and an effective and passionate advocate for business and industry. Clearly, the Chamber is in a position to provide the critical vision, leadership, experience and expertise necessary to develop and promote policies toward the restoration of the vibrant economy we once enjoyed.”

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  • SLHI Launches Arizona Bioethics Network

    St. Luke’s Health Initiatives (SLHI) has launched the Arizona Bioethics Network (ABN), a three-year program begun to provide long-term support for a Bioethics Learning Community, Education and Policy. SLHI identified the need to resurrect the ABN during its 2008 study—Balancing Act: Ethics in Health Care. Such a network existed during the late 1980s and early 1990s to assist hospitals in creating ethics committees and passing advanced directives legislation. The initial focus of the new ABN will be to address the report findings and make recommendations to strengthen the work of hospital ethics committees and create options for assisting long-term care facilities and programs with ethical issues. For more information, visit www.azbioethicsnetwork.org. Back to Top
  • Banner Good Samaritan Breaks Ground on Expansion

    Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center has broken ground on a $71 million expansion of its Surgical Services department. The project will result in 136,000 square-feet of a renovated and expanded Surgical Department. When completed in 2012, there will be 20 state-of-the-art operating rooms, 76 preoeprative and postoperative bays, a new waiting room with technology to keep families connected to their loved ones during the surgery process, conference rooms, education space, family consultation rooms and new physician and staff lounges.

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  • Arizona Hospitals Receive Recognition
    • Banner Health and Mayo Clinic Named Among Country’s Top Health Systems—Thomson Reuters has named Banner Health and Mayo Clinic among the top 10 U.S. health systems based on their clinical performance across the entire system. Key to the assessment was a patient survey sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that looked at quality of care in hospitals.
    • JCL North Mountain CICU Receives Beacon Award—The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) has honored the John C. Lincoln North Mountain Hospital Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit (CVICU) with its Beacon Award for Critical Care Excellence. This is the second North Mountain critical care unit to receive the Beacon Award, which is designed to recognize the nation's top hospital critical care units. In 2007, its Intensive Care Unit became the first in the state to receive this recognition and North Mountain is now the only hospital in Arizona with two critical care units honored with the Beacon Award.
    • Mayo Clinic Hospital Recertified as Primary Stroke Center—The Joint Commission has recertified Mayo Clinic Hospital, Phoenix, as a Primary Stroke Center. The hospital was originally certified in 2006. The Joint Commission’s Primary Stroke Center certification is based upon the lead recommendation for primary stroke centers published by the Brain Attack Coalition and the American Stroke Association's guidelines for stroke care.
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  • Register Today! AzHHA Annual Membership Conference

    Are your hospital employees and leadership team equipped for the new realities of the healthcare system? AzHHA’s 2010 Membership Conference is the ideal opportunity to bring the new healthcare realities into full focus. The event will be held Oct. 14-15 at the Buttes Resort in Tempe.

    This year’s speaker lineup encompasses leading economists, patient safety experts and healthcare visionaries including:

    • Lowell Catlett, PhD, Regents Professor/Dean and Chief Administrative Officer, New Mexico State University’s College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Science—discussing upcoming growth in healthcare, energy and lifestyle markets.
    • Ron Galloway, Director, Why Wal-Mart Works and Why That Makes Some People Crazy and Rebooting Healthcare—exploring ways in which in-store healthcare clinics affect the healthcare industry as a new competitive force.
    • John Nance, Author, Why Hospitals Should Fly, the 2009 Book of the Year by the American College of Healthcare Executives—delivering a culture change message detailing the solutions to the patient safety and quality care crises.

    Register by Sept. 14 and you will be entered into a drawing for a free conference registration. For more information and to register, click here. Questions? E-mail edservices@azhha.org or call 602-445-4356.

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  • New AzHHA Preferred Vendor: Skill Survey

    AzHHA is pleased to announce SkillSurvey as a new Preferred Vendor for the Association. SkillSurvey helps hospitals save money and ensure quality of care, by enabling high quality hiring decisions while avoiding the real costs associated with early termination of employees and a poor patient experience. Scottsdale Healthcare is already experiencing solid results with SkillSurvey and predicts saving $900,000 in its first year.

    “Quality of care and patient satisfaction are directly linked to quality of hire,” says Judie Goe from Scottsdale Healthcare. “SkillSurvey’s Pre-Hire 360® reference assessment gives our hiring managers the data they need to make informed hiring decisions by gaining a clear understanding of an applicant’s past performance and behaviors. Not only does this benefit our patients, it improves our financial bottom line. In the first year of using SkillSurvey, we forecast saving approximately $900,000 by avoiding costs associated with first-year employee turnover.” 

    Use of AzHHA's Preferred Vendor program helps support the Association’s advocacy efforts on your behalf and historically has helped limit dues increases. For more information, please contact John Koeneke at jkoeneke@azhha.org.

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  • Hospital Compare Adds Data on Emergency and Outpatient Care

    The Hospital Quality Alliance has added data to the Hospital Compare Web site to review the quality of emergency care for heart attack/chest pain patients, outpatient surgical care and imaging services for Medicare patients. The Web site also includes updated data—from July 2006 to June 2009—on hospital readmission and mortality rates for heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia patients.

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  • CMS News
    • Outpatient, ASC Proposed Rules Released—The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released a proposed rule updating Medicare payment rates for hospital outpatient and ambulatory surgery center services in calendar year 2011. The rule will appear in the August 3 Federal Register, with comments accepted for 60 days. The proposed rule includes a 2.15 percent inflation update in Medicare payment rates for services paid under the outpatient PPS in 2011. CMS estimates the total increase in expenditures from proposed changes in this proposed rule, as well as enrollment, utilization and case-mix changes under the OPPS for CY 2011 compared to CY 2010, to be approximately $3.9 billion.
    • Updated Report on RAC Demo Appeals—CMS has updated its July 2008 report on Medicare's three-year recovery audit contractor (RAC) demonstration program to include information through March 9, 2010. According to the report, providers appealed 12.7 percent of RAC determinations from the inception of the three-year demonstration through March 9, of which 8.2 percent were overturned on appeal.
    • Article: ICD-10 Implementation—CMS’ Learning Networks has issued an article on implementing the ICD-10 coding system, which will replace the ICD-9 coding system for medical diagnosis and inpatient hospital procedures on Oct. 1, 2013. The first compliance deadline associated with the change is the transition to the Version 5010 standard for electronic transactions on Jan. 1, 2012.
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  • FTC Temporarily Exempts Physicians from Red Flags Rule

    The Federal Trade Commission (FTC)  has agreed to temporarily exempt  physicians from the Red Flags Rule, pending the outcome of an ongoing court case. The rule requires creditors and financial institutions with "covered accounts" to implement written programs to help detect and respond to practices and activities that could indicate identity theft. FTC identified Dec. 31 as the starting date for enforcement after several previously announced delays. The American Medical Association, American Osteopathic Association and Medical Society of the District of Columbia have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to prevent the FTC from extending the rule to physicians. Last November, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the FTC may not apply the rule to attorneys, but the FTC has appealed that decision. Until the court reaches a decision in the case, the FTC has agreed not to enforce the rule for physicians. The agreement is pending the approval of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

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  • In Other News
    • AHRQ: Guides Help Hospitals with Emergency Evacuation Plans—The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has released two resources to help hospital administrators and facility planners decide when to evacuate a hospital during an emergency situation and when it is safe to return. The Hospital Evacuation Decision Guide walks users through the process of deciding when to evacuate, shelter in place or defer and reassess as the situation evolves. The companion Hospital Assessment and Recovery Guide helps administrators and planners assess a facility's infrastructure after an emergency to determine when it is safe to reoccupy the area.
    • AHA: Survey Explores Impact of RAC Program—RACs denied $2.47 million in Medicare claims to the 437 hospitals participating in the AHA’s RACTrac Survey during the first quarter of 2010, according to a recent AHA report. The program affected 84 percent of responding hospitals whether or not they experienced RAC reviews. For example, among hospitals using external resources to address RACs, 17 percent hired a consultant to help with utilization management at an average cost of $91,636.

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  • Correction

    The June 18 issue of AzHHA Insider included an error regarding the correct name of Banner Health. Following is a rerun of the article with the corrected information. AzHHA Insider apologizes for any inconvenience this may have caused.

    Arizona Healthcare Facilities Among Nation’s Best Places to Work—Banner Health, based in Phoenix, and University Medical Center, Tucson, have been named among the 100 Best Places to Work in Healthcare by Becker’s Hospital Review. Both were lauded for excellence in providing a work environment that promotes teamwork, professional development and quality patient care.

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  • Upcoming AzHHA Education Events

    Looking for cost-effective and timely educational opportunities? Visit AzHHA’s Educational Events Calendar.

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  • Look for Your Next AzHHA Insider on July 23

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