SNI Receives Planning Grant for Efforts to Improve REAL Data Collection

SNI has received $107,305 in grant support from The California Endowment to support SNI’s efforts to improve race, ethnicity, and language (REAL) data collection and use in California’s public hospitals. Consistent and accurate REAL data collection is critical in identifying and eliminating health care disparities and improving quality of care. The funds will enable SNI to assess the system-level barriers, feasibility and success factors in collecting REAL data and using this information to enhance quality improvement. The eight-month planning phase will entail researching best practices, conducting in-depth interviews and site visits at public hospital systems in California, sponsoring a final convening that will bring together stakeholders from the California public hospital membership, and crafting an implementation proposal which would support the improvement of REAL data collection and use within California’s public hospital systems.

For more information on the initiative, please contact Erin Bowman.

Dec. 31 Deadline for CAPH Members to Apply for the Lean Core Measures Improvement Initiative Grant

SNI has designed the Lean Core Measures Improvement Initiative to promote the use of Lean Management principles and tools to improve and sustain performance on national hospital quality measures. Through this initiative, participating hospitals will be coached through two “Lean Transformation Events” by a leading Lean Healthcare Consultant. Team members will also learn to apply and conduct future improvement events using Lean thinking and tools. This program will benefit hospitals struggling in areas such as achieving higher performance on Joint Commission Core Measures, reducing preventable re-hospitalization rates due to discharge processes for heart failure patients, or preventable causes of hospital death through a universal VTE prevention protocol. Interested CAPH hospitals are encouraged to apply by submitting an application before Dec. 31. For more general information about Lean Management, please reference IHI’s Innovation Series Going Lean in Health. This grant has been generously funded by the California HealthCare Foundation.

If you have any questions, please contact Lance Mageno, (510) 874-7120.

CAPH Annual Conference Zeroes in on Upstream Innovations

Held on Friday, Dec. 5, the final session of the CAPH Annual Conference focused on the role that public hospital systems play in prevention and community health through innovative upstream interventions. Dr. William Walker, Director of Contra Costa Health Services, set the framework for the day, drawing the connection between working upstream and reducing health disparities. The keynote address, delivered by John O’Brien, CEO of UMass Memorial Hospital, discussed the many interventions he and his staff have pioneered at UMass, including an initiative to improve access and quality of affordable housing and a job placement program for low-income teens. The morning's panel featured public hospital programs in California and Washington. Panelists included the Pediatric Health Lifestyle Center in Santa Clara County, where staff have forged relationships with community organizations to reduce the cost of YMCA memberships for children and their families, as well as make bicycles available for overweight children. LAC+USC Medical Center's work to interrupt the cycle of violence for young victims of violent trauma admitted to the hospital has seen dramatic results, such as 100% of program participants not being re-hospitalized for a violent injury as a result of their Caught in the Crossfire program. A nationally recognized leader in reducing health disparities, Harborview Medical Center improves community health through many means, including the use of International Cultural Mediators who help immigrants navigate the health care system and provide goal setting and culturally appropriate nutritional counseling to prevent chronic illness.

These presentations can be found on the SNI Website.

Quality Leaders Awards Recognizes Seven Public Hospitals

Since its inception in 1987, CAPH/SNI Quality Leaders Awards has acknowledged more than 300 improvements among California's public hospitals. Honored at the CAPH Annual Conference, this year’s awarded programs address five critical focus areas: Coordinated Systems of Care, Improvements in Chronic Disease Management, Political Clout and Community Support, Efficiency and Operational Flow, and Reducing Health Care Disparities. Winning programs addressed critical health issues, such as streamlining emergency department procedures to increase access and reduce waiting times, and engaging in the political process to put public hospital issues on the forefront of crucial policy decisions made at the state and national level. Top Honors were awarded to Alameda County Medical Center, Santa Clara Valley Health & Hospital System, and LAC+USC Medical Center. Honorable Mention winners included Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, UC Davis Health System, and San Francisco General Hospital, with the Kaiser Permanente Clinical Systems Development award going to San Mateo Medical Center.

Full descriptions of these programs can be found on the SNI website.

CAPH Introduces New Issues Brief on Outpatient Care

CAPH is pleased to announce the creation of a new series of Issues Briefs, designed to describe and promote the various areas of great work and innovation being accomplished by our members.  These briefs will be distributed to policymakers, foundations and other stakeholders, and we encourage our members to distribute them as well.  The first brief, on Outpatient Care, was developed in collaboration with SNI and outlines the value California's public hospitals bring to their surrounding communities through the 10 million outpatient visits they provide each year.

San Francisco General Hospital Awarded Grant to Implement Palliative Care Services

San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH) has received $250,000 in grant funding from the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF) as part of the Spreading Palliative Care in Public Hospitals initiative, a collaborative effort between CHCF, SNI, and the UCSF Palliative Care Leadership Center. With the grant funding and consultant support offered as part of the implementation grant, SFGH will develop a comprehensive, culturally competent palliative care consult service. Funds will be used to increase capacity of both their palliative care team and SFGH’s multi-faith based chaplaincy program, as well as provide staff training on palliative care. Implementation grant proposals are accepted from California public hospitals on a rolling basis through June 2009. Information on expansion and implementation grants can be accessed here.

For more information on the Spreading Palliative Care initiative, please contact Erin Bowman.

Hospital Reading Group Resource: Bellevue Literary Review

Many hospitals often try to organize reading groups for staff and need short, relevant pieces of literature as well as study-guide questions to help stimulate discussion. The Best of the Bellevue Literary Review anthology comes with an extensive study guide for such book groups, and every essay, story and poem in the anthology has been annotated for precisely this reason. Danielle Ofri, MD, PhD, Editor-in-Chief, presented recently at the CAPH conference, mesmerizing the audience with stories from Bellevue public hospital on “bringing humanity back to medicine."   For those who wish to use the book for book groups, the publisher offers academic and group discounts. Access to the anthology is free on the Bellevue Literary Review website.