SNI BULLETIN December 20, 2007
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In this SNI Bulletin:

Contra Costa Regional Medical Center Honored at IHI Annual Forum

CMS Plans Transition from Pay-for-Reporting to Pay-for-Performance

Public Hospital Systems Focus on Integrated, Coordinated Care

SEED Diabetes Care Improvement Program Hits One-Year Mark

LAC+ USC Medical Center Featured in LA Daily News for Joining HCIN

SNI/HCIN/Kaiser Conference on Quality Hospital Interpreting a Success

Report Shows Lower Usage of ED Services by Undocumented Immigrants

Specialty Care Access Initiative November Roundtable

Deadline and Upcoming Events

 
 

Contra Costa Regional Medical Center Honored at IHI Annual Forum

Congratulations to the Contra Costa Regional Medical Center (CCRMC), which was honored Dec. 11 at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Annual Forum for its innovation and implementation of medication reconciliation. CCRMC was one of only six hospitals worldwide to receive this honor. Medication reconciliation helps assure that accurate medication hand-offs occur at admission, transfer and discharge. As a result, patients are less likely to be harmed by medication errors. CCRMC also was featured as one of two hospitals for "collaboration amongst clinicians" for the work in reducing harm from ventilators. The hospital was in good company: the other hospital was Johns Hopkins.

CMS Plans Transition from Pay-for-Reporting to Pay-for-Performance

On Nov. 21, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published a report to Congress on options for a plan to implement a hospital pay-for-performance program under Medicare. CMS' Value-Based Purchasing (VBP), as the program is called, links payments to performance on hospital quality of care measures for acute myocardial infarction, heart attack, pneumonia, surgical care improvement, and HCAHPS patients' perspective survey data. The plan would phase out current pay-for-reporting incentives tied to the Medicare Annual Payment Update. If authorized by Congress, a Medicare Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Program would go into effect beginning Oct. 2009. To read the Department of Health and Human Services news release on this topic, click here. To access the full report to Congress, click here. Please contact Lance Mageno if you have any additional questions.

Public Hospital Systems Focus on Integrated, Coordinated Care

At CAPH’s Annual Conference on Dec. 7, five public hospital leaders wrestled with the question of how public hospital systems can evolve into more coordinated, integrated systems of care. In a discussion moderated by Roger Coleman of Coleman Associates, executives from public hospital systems in the Bay Area and Virginia highlighted challenges, innovations and successes coordinating primary, specialty, emergency, inpatient and community-based services for patients, including those with chronic illness. See their presentations at www.safetynetinstitute.org. For example, San Mateo Medical Center’s CARE program uses a proven model to smooth transitions from hospital to home, thereby reducing readmissions. Spending on readmitted Medicare patients has brought increased scrutiny from regulators, as highlighted in a recent Wall Street Journal article.

SEED Diabetes Care Improvement Program Hits One-Year Mark

SNI’s SEED program (Spreading Effective and Efficient Diabetes Care) is wrapping up the first of two years’ activity.  So far, 20 public clinics in 10 CAPH member organizations have spread electronic registries and other components of the Chronic Care Model to an additional 2,500 patients, in addition to their patients already managed with registries. Patient motivation tools, group visits, follow-up phone calls to patients, and standardized treatment protocols have resulted in better care that will improve outcomes for patients. The team at Roybal Comprehensive Health Center of the LAC+USC Healthcare Network, for example, has exceeded program goals in cardiac risk reduction, with 85% of indicated patients in the target population now on ACE/ARB, statins, and aspirin/antithrombotics.  In 2008, the initial teams will spread these improvements to more patients and be joined by twenty-two new teams. SEED is funded by the California HealthCare Foundation.

LAC+ USC Medical Center Featured in LA Daily News for Joining HCIN

In the Nov. 30 issue of the Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles County+ USC Medical Center is highlighted as one of the first LA County public hospital system to join the Health Care Interpreter Network (HCIN).  HCIN is a network of qualified interpreters shared through advanced remote voice and videoconferencing and telephone technolog ies (insert link to hcin.org). By the end of the year, Olive View-UCLA Medical Center and Harbor-UCLA Medical Center are expected to join Los Angeles County + USC Medical Center, Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, San Joaquin General Hospital and San Joaquin Behavioral Health Services, Contra Costa Health Services, San Mateo Medical Center, Riverside County Regional Medical Center, and Kern Medical Center in the network, increasing the number of qualified interpreters while expanding language access to patients in LA County and beyond. To read the article, click here.

SNI/HCIN/Kaiser Conference on Quality Hospital Interpreting a Success

The Quality Interpreting in California Hospitals Conference, held Nov. 7-8 in Oakland with funding from Kaiser Permanente and The California Endowment , brought together hospital executives, interpreter services directors and language access experts from more than 30 hospital systems and other organizations from California and beyond. Attendees shared challenges and strategies to providing quality interpreting services to limited English proficient patients . In the panel on “Building Institutional Support for Interpreter Services,” hospital administrators described different paths organizations take on the language access continuum.  Maria Servin from Kaiser Permanente, Greater Southern Alameda Area, shared how she is “trying to take what you learned in public hospital systems into Kaiser Permanente,” reflecting a general acknowledgement of public hospital leadership in this area.   To see presentations visit the SNI Website. For more information, contact Erin Bowman.

Report Shows Lower Usage of ED Services by Undocumented Immigrants

The LA Times published an article on recent research conducted by UCLA which shows that undocumented immigrants from Mexico and other Latin American countries are less likely than US-born Latinos to use emergency department services in California. The study’s lead author, Professor Alexander Ortega of UCLA, states, “The current policy discourse that undocumented immigrants are a burden on the public because they overuse public resources is not borne out with data, for either primary care or emergency department care.” To view the article in its entirety, click here.

Specialty Care Access Initiative November Roundtable

The CAPH/SNI, Kaiser Permanente (KP), and California Primary Care Association partnership to address the widespread problem of access to specialty care convened its second Specialty Care Access Initiative Roundtable on Nov. 5. The Roundtable brought representatives from community clinic health centers and public hospital systems together to explore innovative e-Health systems, share promising practices, and network with each other. A third roundtable is scheduled for Mar. 6, 2008 on primary care scope of practice. To access the agenda, presentations, and minutes from the Roundtable, please visit our website, or contact Sarah Brooks.

Deadline and Upcoming Events

Dec. 31, 2007: Deadline for Nominations for CHCF Health Leadership College

Feb. 8, 2008: CEO/Executive Team Forum on Building Internal Capacity

Feb. 13, 2008: Lumetra Care Transitions Conference, Sacramento


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