| April
19, 2011 - from the NCHN
Annual Conference |
| Dear NCHN
Members and Friends,
We are sending you this issue of the Weekly from NCHN's 17th
Annual Conference in Sunny Scottsdale! On Monday, we held the
3rd Annual Awards Luncheon and we are excited to share this
year's Award recipients with you. This will be an abbreviated
version of our regular update, but count on more next week!
Elsewhere among highlights, special thanks to Jack King for
sharing his firsthand experience with CMS' announcement of "Partnership
for Patients." He shares his perspective as a health network
leader and expands on what this may mean for health networks.
This is just the kind of valuable article we love to share, as
it helps add relevance to the articles we post every week. Thank
you, Jack King!
As always, if you have information you would like to share,
or have any feedback, please email
us.
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| 
NCHN NEWS
MEMBER BLURBS
UPCOMING EVENTS
NATIONAL NEWS
FUNDING |
| NCHN NEWS |
|
2011
Award Winners
As you have heard, the NCHN Conference is underway in Scottsdale.
We don't have time to provide full details of Monday happenings
right now, but we do want to share this year's Award Winners.
Please join us in congratulating the 2011 NCHN Award recipients.
 Left: Esther
Hammerschlag, Executive Director of Prince of Wales Health
Network, accepts the 2011 NCHN Outstanding New & Emerging
Network Leader of the Year award.
Right: Carolyn Bruce, CEO of Western Healthcare Alliance (left)
receives the 2011 Outstanding Network Leader of the Year award
from 2009 winner Tim Cox (right)
Left: Heather Fuller accepts the 2011 Outstanding
Network of the Year award on behalf of Sunflower Health Network
from 2009 recipient Dave Johnson (Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative)
Finally, Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic
Medicine (VCOM) was the recipient of the 2011 Friend
of NCHN award for their ongoing support of NCHN through both
travel funds and payroll administration. We are pleased to
recognize VCOM's support.
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|
Carolyn Witherspoon (Coalition of Health Services, TX) is
ready for the 8 second ride!
Above: The cowboy hat is just one of a number of hats Carolyn Witherspoon, Executive
Director of Coalition of Health Services (TX), has worn for NCHN this year. Carolyn
is Chair of the 2011 Conference Planning Committee and Vice President of the
Board of Directors.
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| MEMBER BLURBS |
|
Jack
King: A Perspective on the Announcement of Partnership
for Patients
It was very cool to be in DC, at the American Hospital Association
annual meeting, where Sec. Sebellius and Dr Berwick made the
announcement of "Partnership for Patients." It was
actually the second announcement of the "Partnership for Patients," as
they had made the "official" announcement earlier in the day.
Apparantly they thought that since the Hospitals were in town,
it would be an appropriate and vested audience. As a nationally
recognized champion for patient safety, it is obvious that Dr.
Berwicks fingerprints are all over this initiative.
After being introduced by Sec Sebellius, Dr Berwick talked passionately
about the inititiative and its foundation. He stated that the
initiative is based on three principles:
1. Harm happens........
2. Harm doesn't happen because of uncaring, untrained, insensitive
or incapable providers...
3. safety is a product of a "system".
That being said, he spoke that we must work to identify the
flaws in our systems and processes, and give our caregivers the
tools to prevent harm, the processes to avoid mistakes. As an
example, he asked the audience to repeat a sequence of numbers....he
listed seven random numbers, and the audience accurately repeated
them.....he then asked them to repeat another set of numbers
and called out a series of ten....the audience immediately laughed
at their inability to accurately do so. This is what is wrong
with many of our systems...too many steps, too much process,
too much opportunity for error.
With his voice breaking, he told the story of his first day
in Washington, DC...to be sworn in as Administrator of CMS....and
after passing through a metal detector, was stopped by a security
guard who called to him by name. The guard told him that his
child had been killed at the age of 18 months by a medical error
and that he was in deep and sincere support of Dr Berwick and
his new role, knowing that his passion for safety would help
prevent the future accidents of the type that killed the guards
child.
What the "Partnership for Patients" may mean to networks is
that there will be funding for projects through the CMS Innovation
Center that establishes best practices for patient safety. I
can tell you that Benefis Health System, the tertiary center
here in Great Falls, began a safety initiative in January of
2010, that has resulted in a 40% reduction in instances of patient
and employee harm....and that in 2011, is requiring the training
of each and every employee of the system (2600 people) to help
further reduce the opportunities for patient and employee safety.
The training process, developed with Craig Clapper,PE, CMQ/OE
and founding member of Healthcare Performance Improvement, Inc.
is now being made available to all medical staff and to the providers
and staff of the hospital members of the Northcentral Montana
Healthcare Alliance. I should also mention, that Benefis is so
vested in the safety improvement initiative that this training
is being provided free of charge to the hospital members of NMHA.
Jack W. King
Executive Director
Northcentral Montana Healthcare Alliance
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| UPCOMING EVENTS |
|
Webinar:
Looking Upstream: How Income, Education and Racial Inequalities
Shape Health
Tuesday, April 26, 2011, from 12:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. ET
In the second of three webinars to examine the non-medical factors
that shape health, panelists will present key findings on income,
education, and racial inequalities from three issue briefs being
released on April 26th. The webinar will address such questions
as: How do income and wealth influence health beyond the ability
to afford health care? How do experiences based on a person's
race or ethnic group affect their health? Can a few additional
years of education meaningfully improve well-being? The webinar
will also highlight the County Health Calculator, a new interactive
app that explores the impact that education and income have on
health at the U.S., state and county level. Dr. James Marks, senior
vice president and director of the Health Group at the Robert
Wood Johnson Foundation, will kick off the discussion with an
expert panel that includes:
Paula Braveman, M.D., M.P.H., University of California, San Francisco
David Williams, Ph.D., M.P.H, Harvard School of Public Health
and Harvard University
Steven Woolf, M.D., M.P.H., Virginia Commonwealth University
» MORE
INFORMATION
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| NATIONAL NEWS |
|
ONC Seeks Public Comment on the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan
The comment period for the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan: 2011 – 2015 will end on Friday, April 22, 11:59 p.m. (Eastern). Developed in coordination with other Federal partners, the Plan outlines ONC's strategy for realizing Congress and the Administration's health IT agenda. ONC encourages and welcomes all comments from the public regarding the Plan.
Share your ideas today—visit the Health IT Buzz Blog to read and comment on the Plan!
Please note, you must submit your comment via the blog post referenced above in order for it to be considered.
» COMMENT
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| FUNDING |
|
There are no new funding announcements this week. However, remember that you can always visit the RAC web site or use GrantStation (if you are a subscriber) to search funding opportunities. Both sites have excellent listings.
Please send us any announcements you would like to share witht he NCHN membership.
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