NCHN NEWS

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NCHN Annual Educational Conference

We have received quite a few emails expressing interest in the 2012 NCHN Annual Educational Conference. We will be sending an email to you all later this week with details, links to the registration form, sponsorship application, schedule, and more.

We can't wait to see you in Denver!

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from greatcleanjokes.com

Which word in the dictionary is spelled incorrectly?

» VIEW THE ANSWER

Upcoming NCHN Calls & Events

2012 Conference Planning Committee Call
Monday, February 20 @ 2:00 PM ET

Coffee Chat with Dr. Mary Kay Chess
Wednesday, February 15 @ 11:00 AM ET

Program Development Committee Call
Tuesday, February 21 @ 1:00 PM ET

Executive Committee Call
Monday, February 27 @ 2:00 PM ET

NCHN Transformer Leadership Learning Community Session
Friday, March 16 @ 11:00 AM ET

» VIEW THE NCHN CALENDAR

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Links to Member News

• Health Care Collaborative of Rural Missouri (February 2012)

» SUBMIT YOUR NEWS

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NRHA Policy Institute Recaps
Articles from Rural Health Voices: News and Opinion from the National Rural Health Association

• Sebelius says there’s light at the end of the tunnel for rural Americans (Jan. 30, 2012)
• Wakefield: Proud to partner with NRHA (Jan. 30, 2012)
• Talk of the town at Policy Institute (Jan. 31, 2012)
• Rural Health Policy Institute Sets Records

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The Magic of Frontline Engagement
HospitalPortal.net

Free Webinar: Tuesday, February 7, 2012 @ 11:30 AM ET

Join Veteran Healthcare Service Excellence Expert Brian Lee for this inspiring an insightful session. You will learn to:

• Devise a comprehensive transformation strategy for any major initiative.
• Gain a powerful commitment from leadership to champion the project or process.
• Systematically deal with change management issues in a way that gets urgent results.
• Adapt 10 comprehensive breakthrough tactics to overcome dysfunctional cultural barriers.
• Unleash the power of enthusiastic, empowered front line staff.
• Achieve a "tipping point" to gain buy-in and ownership from a critical mass of leaders and staff.

» REGISTER

Caring for Vulnerable Populations
AHA

Webinar: February 7, 2012 from 3:00 - 4:15 p.m. EST

The AHA Committee on Research each year takes an in-depth look at a single topic to provide the hospital field with relevant recommendations for advancing health care. In 2011, the committee examined emerging hospital-centered practices in effective care coordination for vulnerable populations, focusing the examples on the critical “dual eligible” population - individuals eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid.

The committee's report, Caring for Vulnerable Populations, explores the necessity for organizations to pursue improved care coordination strategies for dual eligibles and other vulnerable populations. The AHA will host a special webinar on this topic and will review the major findings and hear from executives at two hospitals and health systems that were featured in the report.

» MORE INFORMATION

2012 Monthly Rural Health Care Conference Call

Conference Call: February 9, 2012 @ 2:00 PM ET

Dial-in: 1 (800) 240-9939
Passcode: 6772 932#

Program applicants and service providers can raise issues of concern or seek clarification on program rules during monthly outreach conference calls. The discussion of agenda items is followed by a general question and answer period.

» MORE INFORMATION

HRSA Health IT & Quality Webinar

Tips for Preventing Scope Creep and Cost Over Runs When Implementing a Health IT System

Friday, February 17 @ 2:00 PM ET

» REGISTER

National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services; Notice of Meeting

February 15 - 17, 2012
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
The Fairfax at Embassy Row
Washington, DC

Purpose: The National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services provides counsel and recommendations to the Secretary with respect to the delivery, research, development, and administration of health and human services in rural areas.Show citation box

Agenda: Wednesday afternoon, February 15, at 2 p.m., the meeting will be called to order by the Chairperson of the Committee: The Honorable Ronnie Musgrove. This will be followed by presentations on provisions from the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The Committee will be examining potential long-term impacts on the rural health care infrastructure. The day will conclude with a period of public comment at approximately 4:30 p.m.Show citation box

Thursday morning, February 16, at 9 a.m., the Committee will continue to hear panel presentations on ACA-related provisions and will then break into subcommittees on each of those topics for further discussion. The day will conclude with a period of public comment at approximately 4:30 p.m.Show citation box

Friday morning, February 17, at 9 a.m., the Committee will summarize key findings from the meeting and develop a work plan for the next quarter and the June meeting.

» MORE INFORMATION

CPHIMS Exam & HIMSS Annual Conference

Be a part of the healthcare elite with the mark of proven expertise — CPHIMS. Once again, the CPHIMS Exam will be offered during the HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition, February 20-24, Las Vegas.

And today, there’s never been a better time to distinguish yourself with the most sought after credential in healthcare IT — CPHIMS. But time…and space are running out. You must pre-register by February 7!

» MORE INFORMATION

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Primary Care Docs Weigh Advantages of PCMH
by John Commins

February 2, 2012 (HealthLeaders Media) - WellPoint Inc.'s plan to increase reimbursements for primary care physicians who transition to patient-centered medical homes could signal a tipping point in the move toward the new care management model.

That's according to Glen R. Stream, MD, a family physician from Spokane, WA, and the president of the 100,300-member American Academy of Family Physicians.

» CONTINUE READING

AHRQ Hospital Quality Indicators Toolkit Released

January 24, 2012 (AHRQ News Release) - The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) announces the release of the AHRQ Hospital Quality Indicators toolkit. The AHRQ Hospital QI toolkit is designed to help your hospital understand the Quality Indicators (QI) from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and support your use of them to successfully improve quality and patient safety in your hospital. The toolkit is a general guide to using improvement methods, with a particular focus on the QI. It focuses on the 17 Patient Safety Indicators (PSI) and the 28 Inpatient Quality Indicators (IQI). Tools are organized in seven sections following a complete improvement process that includes setting priorities and plan for performance improvements on the QI, implementing improvement strategies, and sustaining improvements achieved. The toolkit has undergone a field test, evaluation, and revisions in response to feedback from six hospitals.

» VIEW THE TOOLKIT

Family Physicians Lead in Specialties in Providing Rural Health Care

February 3, 2012 (AAFP) - Family physicians provide more health care to rural areas than other primary care or subspecialty physicians, according to data released by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

The data, part of the “Facts and Stats” series based on research by the Robert Graham Center for Policy Studies in Family Medicine and Primary Care, show that 22.5 percent of family physicians practice in rural areas, compared to 9.7 percent of all physicians who practice in rural areas.

“These data confirm that family physicians continue to be the first contact for rural Americans needing medical care,” said Glen Stream, MD, MBI, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians. “At the same time, it indicates that we need to do more to recruit students from rural areas into our medical schools. Research has consistently shown that medical school rural programs and medical school admissions policies that recruit rural students produce physicians who are likely to go into family medicine and practice in rural settings.”

» CONTINUE READING

How One Hospital Entices Doctors To Work In Rural America
by Peggy Lowe

February 2, 2012 (NPR) - Recruiting doctors to live and work in rural America is a chronic problem. Most health centers try to attract workers with big salaries and expensive homes.

Shots previously reported that one center in Maine was trying to lure medical students to the countryside for their final two years with the hope that they stick around.

The Ashland Health Clinic, a tiny hospital in southwest Kansas, is trying a different tack — a reverse-recruitment model. It's called mission-focused medicine, and it's based on serving problems most commonly found in third-world countries.

» CONTINUE READING

More from NPR:
A Computer Beats a Pen for Getting Prescriptions Right (Jan. 31, 2012)

Rural Relevant Quality Measures for CAH's: A New Policy Brief

February 2, 2012 (NRHA Blog) - The FLEX Monitoring Team (FMT) relased a new brief yesterday on rural relavant quality measures for CAH's. The purpose of the brief is to provide a set of rural relevant quality measures for policy makers and the rural health provider community. It is hoped that in this atmosphere of value based purchasing (VBP) and accountable care that this set of proposed measures can stimulate discussion and drive performance measurement of small, rural hospitals to another level of meaning.

» CONTINUE READING

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State Implementation Grants for Systems of Services for Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs (CYSHCN)
HRSA

Purpose: This grant program improves access to a quality, comprehensive, coordinated community-based systems of services for CYSHCN and their families that is family-centered and culturally competent. This grant program improves access to a quality, comprehensive, coordinated community-based system of services for CYSHCN and their families that is family-centered and culturally competent.

The initiative supports grants to assist State Title V Children with Special Health Care Needs (CSHCN) programs, family organizations, providers, and other partners to implement the six core outcomes of a system of services based on evidence based practices for CYSHCN.

Applications are due by March 1, 2012.

» MORE INFORMATION

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