MEMBER NEWS | PARTNER NEWS | NATIONAL NEWS | LEADERSHIP | UPCOMING EVENTS

• Eye-Rolling, Chair-Shifting, Last-Nerve Boards: And What to Do about It (Oct. 4, 2012, NPQ)
• 6 Leadership Tips from Jim Collins (Aug. 16, 2012, Forbes)
• Strategies for Securing Physician Talent (Oct. 4, 2012, HealthLeaders Media)

• Community Health Partnerships (Kresge Foundation)
• Delta Counties: Health IT Workforce Revolving Loan Fund Program (OMH)
• Capital for Rural Hospitals: Is the USDA Financing the Only Option Available Today? (Oct. 4, 2012, WIPFli)

• The RHNR Consulting Group application is live. The application is open to NCHN members only. If you need the link, email Rebecca.
• The Call for Proposals for the 2013 NCHN Conference in New Orleans has been posted. Submit a proposal >

NCHN NEWS

Winner of 2013 Leadership Summit Registration
First and foremost, thank you to all who attended the 2012 Leadership Summit and completed an evaluation to help in the planning of future Leadership programming. Your feedback is invaluable and without your assistance, our future planning would be a shot in the dark. That said, congratulations to Darcy Czarnik-Laurin, who was drawn out of the evaluation entries by random.org to receive a free registration for the Leadership Summit next year.

2013 Conference Planning Committee Call
Tuesday, October 9 @ 2:00 PM ET
Board of Directors Call
Monday, October 15 | 2:00 - 3:30 PM ET
Program Development Committee Call
Tuesday, October 16 @ 1:00 PM ET
Coffee/Tea Chat with Dr. Mary Kay Chess
Wednesday, October 17 @ 12:00 PM ET
Business Partner Committee Call
Wednesday, October 17 @ 1:30 PM ET

» VIEW THE NCHN CALENDAR

Interview: Get to Know New NCHN Member Aegis Health Network
Founded in 2011, Aegis Health Network is currently comprised of 3 members. Its programs include community health and providers needs assessments, HIT readingness assessments, and patient information transfer agreements.

We talked to Mitch Felchle, who some of you met in Kansas City last month, about what's going on with NCHN's newest Network Member. Here's where Mitch and Aegis are on their network development:

• Three CAH hospitals in SE Idaho targeted for network membership—Bingham Memorial Hospital, Lost Rivers Medical Center and Teton Valley Health Care, all of which are members of The Hospital Coop headed by Jon Smith and based in Pocatello, ID.
• Preliminary work on 3 Community Health and Provider Needs Assessments has been done, led by Elizabeth Fore, PhD, of Idaho State University, and utilizing Public Health Master Program students under her direction.
• Currently conducting HIT readiness assessments for each hospital, under the direction of Bingham Memorial CIO Keith Roan, who joined Bingham in July.
• Bingham has been assisting Teton Valley Health Care in its conversion from a county-owned hospital to a 501 (c)(3), a process Bingham went through a few years ago.
• Early meetings with 2 of the 3 CEOs who will form the Board of Directors of Aegis Health Network.
• Preliminary work on the organizational development planning that will occur, if all goes well, resulting in strategic and operating plans for the network.

Thanks to Mitch for taking a few minutes to share what's going on with his network. To find out more, contact:
Mitch Felchle, Network Director
Ph: 208-680-6355
mfelchle@binghammemorial.org

Coffee/Tea Chat with Dr. Ches
Welcome to a new season (fall) and, new perspectives!  We look forward to having you join us for the next NCHN Coffee and Tea Chat:

              Wednesday, October 17th at 12:00 PM ET
              Call in details were recently distributed through a Save the Date Notice.

New Format for the Weekly Newsletter
We developed the new layout of the newsletter with you in mind - your interests and, hopefully, browsing style. We wanted to make the newsletter shorter so you need to scroll less, but continue to include news that you will find relevant and timely. We have added the Leadership Corner because we know that many of you face leadership decisions daily and we want to support you, our members, in your day to day decisions. Feel free to let us know what you think of the new layout. Be candid. Be you. Thanks for reading.

MEMBER NEWS

Louisiana Rural Ambulance Alliance: There is an awesome story on our website from Region 7's Shelter. It is something you do not want to miss out on. This picture is a hint of what happened! Visit the website at www.louisianaambulancealliance.org (Connect with LRAA on Facebook >)

Healthcare Collaborative of Rural Missouri: October 2012 newsletter is online

PARTNER NEWS

Inform policy by submitting to Rural/Frontier Health Best Practices Compendium (Oct. 2, 2012, NRHA)

NATIONAL NEWS

Rural Hospitals Get Help With Electronic Records (Oct. 5, 2012, MPRnews)
One of the pressures on small rural hospital these days is the push to create electronic patient records.

Study: Most Seniors’ ER Visits Could Be Avoided (Oct. 5, 2012, Kaiser Health News)
Nearly 60 percent of Medicare beneficiary visits to emergency rooms and 25 percent of their hospital admissions were “potentially preventable”– had patients received better care at home or in outpatient settings — according to results of a study released Friday by a congressional advisory board.

Rural Unemployment (Barely) Below 8% (Oct. 8, 2012, The Daily Yonder)
The unemployment rates in rural and exurban counties are much lower than they were a year ago. But the number of jobs in rural counties hasn't grown.

HHS continues to support state efforts to build Affordable Insurance Exchanges (Sept. 27, 2012, HHS News Release)
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today awarded a new round of Affordable Insurance Exchange Establishment Grants to Arkansas, Colorado, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and the District of Columbia.

CMS Miscalculates Readmissions Rates, More Than 1K Hospitals to Face Higher Penalties (Oct. 3, 2012, Becker's Hospital Review)
CMS has issued a notice admitting to technical errors that caused the agency to miscalculate penalties under the federal readmissions reduction program.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Take Action Series: Evaluate Actions (October 9, 2012 | 2:00 - 3:00 PM, County Road Maps & Rankings)

National Provider Call: Medicare Provider Enrollment - Updates on Revalidation, Billing for Ordered/Referred Services and PECOS Enhancements (October 10, 2012 | 1:00 - 2:30 PM EST, CMS)

2012 Monthly Rural Health Care Conference Call (October 11, 2012 2:00 PM ET, USAC)

2012 Working with Entrepreneurs Webinar Series: Entrepreneurial Opportunities (October 11, 2012 | 12:00 - 1:00 PM CT, RUPRI)

Hospitals 2013: 10 Key Issues; Physician Alignment; The Changing Financial Situation; Can Hospitals Remain Independent and More (October 18, 2012 | 1:15 PM - 2:15 PM CDT, Becker's Hospital Review)