In
this issue
Children’s
Minnesota honored with MHA Quality and Patient Safety Improvement Award
MHA on June 2 honored innovative programs and outstanding leaders in health
care at its 33rd annual awards ceremony.
Children’s Minnesota in Minneapolis received the Quality and Patient Safety
Improvement Award in the large hospital category, which recognizes hospitals
that have taken extraordinary and innovative steps to make patient safety a top
priority throughout the hospital.
To improve the patient experience, Children's Minnesota began an initiative
requiring staff to consistently offer four evidence-based strategies as the
standard of care to mitigate needle pain. Care team members partner with
parents and caregivers to choose from four Comfort Promise steps to help
children have less pain with needle procedures. The steps include numbing the
skin, providing sugar water or breastfeeding for infants 12 months or younger,
implementing comfort positioning and utilizing age-appropriate distraction.
The protocol was established systemwide, including inpatient, ambulatory and
outpatient units. All departments were required to offer all four strategies
with appropriate education at least 95 percent of the time, and process
auditing was undertaken to ensure continuous process improvement. Additionally,
outcome measures were tracked for wait times, patient satisfaction, safety
learning reports and staff turnover rates, which all demonstrated improvements.
Education and improvement efforts were led by an intra-disciplinary team,
following Lean methodology. Front-line staff, patients and families were
integral to the planning, implementation and change in culture needed to make this
initiative a success.
Additional award winners will be profiled in upcoming issues of Newsline. To
learn more about the award winners, visit the MHA website. return to top
Lake
View Hospital showcases IHP success
Lake View Hospital leaders and staff on Aug. 10 hosted Human Services Assistant
Commissioner Nathan Moracco to showcase successes of Wilderness Health, a
nonprofit regional collaborative of nine independent hospitals and health
systems.
Wilderness has participated since 2015 in the Department of Human Services
Integrated Health Partnerships (IHP) project. IHP participants develop
innovative methods for coordinating and delivering care. They improve quality
and share in the savings achieved by reducing the total cost of care for
Medicaid enrollees.
“Lake View Hospital’s work with Minnesota’s Integrated Health Partnership has
positively impacted the care that we provide to our Medicaid patients,” said
President and CEO Greg Ruberg. “We receive valuable claims data from the state
and this allows us to connect and partner with our patients to ensure that they
receive coordinated care in the appropriate settings. We have also been able to
work with our other Wilderness Health partners to support high-quality and
cost-effective care delivery to our patients across our network.”
“The IHP program has helped us identify patients in need of care coordination
through the use of data. We’ve been working together to improve our internal
coordination and outreach efforts so that we can improve patient outcomes,”
said Cassandra Beardsley, executive director of Wilderness health. “For
example, one of our focus areas has been around reducing unnecessary emergency
room utilization; through that effort, we’ve experienced significant decreases
in repeat ER visits when we’ve been able to successfully introduce patients to
primary care and we also identified an opportunity to improve our asthma care
coordination.”
Statewide, IHPs have saved nearly $213 million in the program’s first four
years, serving 462,000 people in publicly funded health care programs. return to top
Saint
Elizabeth’s Medical Center hosts Rep. Lewis
Saint Elizabeth’s Medical Center on Aug. 9 hosted U.S. Rep. Jason Lewis for a
visit. Lewis met with President and CEO Tom Crowley and employees to learn
about unique rural hospital challenges. Lewis met with staff of the wellness
center. return to top
CMS
drops mandatory bundled payment programs
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule last week
to eliminate three mandatory Medicare payment models before they launch and to
scale back an existing fourth model. While some of the bundled payment
initiatives were voluntary and had no Minnesota hospitals targeted, the
mandatory Episode Payment Model (EPM) and Cardiac Rehabilitation (CR) incentive
payment programs did.
“Changing the scope of these models allows CMS to test and evaluate
improvements in care processes that will improve quality, reduce costs and ease
burdens on hospitals,” Seema Verma, administrator of CMS, said in a
release. CMS also plans to introduce additional voluntary bundled payment
models.
MHA is pleased with CMS’ decision to make these programs voluntary, especially
in light of potential measurement concerns that could hamper a hospital’s
efforts to operate effectively in a bundled payments episode of care. MHA will
continue monitoring CMS’ work with bundled payment programs and communicate any
additional changes with members. return to top
MHA
Annual Meeting receives approval for continuing education for nursing home
administrators
The content of the MHA Annual Meeting has been approved by the
Minnesota Board of Examiners for Nursing Home Administrators for up to 10.75
contact hours. The conference, themed “Health Care Through the Decades,” will
be held Sept. 20-22 at Madden’s Resort in Brainerd.
The Annual Meeting will provide the latest in cutting-edge education from an
outstanding group of speakers, including former HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt
on health care reform in the 21st century; former U.S. Representative Patrick
Kennedy on his journey with mental health; Paul Keckley on how to prepare for
what’s ahead; Dr. Marty Makary on transparency and accountability; historian
and author Jon Meacham on leadership and lessons from the American presidency;
Dr. Amit Sood on resilient living; and Mark Mayfield on change.
For more information or to register download the conference brochure or visit MHA’s website. Visit the Madden’s Resort website to make
reservations at the resort. return to top
MN
Hospital PAC Silent Auction donations needed
MHA Annual Meeting attendees are invited to the Chair’s
Reception and Minnesota Hospital PAC Silent Auction on Sept. 20 from 8-10 p.m.
at Madden’s in the Town Hall Conference Center, lower level.
The Minnesota Hospital PAC is a voluntary, bipartisan political action
committee (PAC) that raises campaign funds for candidates running for state and
federal office in Minnesota. It is the voice for hospital advocates seeking to
help candidates who support the goals of hospitals.
MHA is seeking donation items from members and associate members to be
auctioned to raise money for the PAC, which supports MHA’s advocacy efforts.
Suggested items to donate include tickets to events, hotel stays, gift
certificates, spa visit certificates, art work, gift baskets, golf outings —
anything that you would like to bid on at a silent auction. Deadline for donations
is Sept. 8.
Please contact Kristin Loncorich, director of state
government relations, MHA, 651-603-3526, with questions and to donate
items. return to top
September
is Sepsis Awareness Month
This September, take action to recognize Sepsis
Awareness Month. Recognizing sepsis early is a critical aspect to
successful treatment. Several new resources are available to help spread the
message externally in the community and take action internally within your
organization.
MHA has just released a newly updated tiered Sepsis Road Map. Check your progress in
meeting the fundamental and advanced strategies within your hospital or health
system. This road map focuses on facilitating the adoption of sepsis early
detection tools using the Seeing Sepsis Toolkit
and Surviving Sepsis Campaign three- and six-hour care bundles by hospitals of
all sizes.
Coordinate the review of your sepsis processes with the Sepsis Alliance’s new health care toolkit. In addition, a
new webinar series from the Sepsis Alliance, “Sepsis: Continuum of Care,” debuts on Sept. 7
at 1 p.m. and is the first of four webinars that will air throughout 2017.
Register online to participate.
Only 55 percent of adults have heard of sepsis. This patient toolkit has practical resources
including printable posters and social media content to support your efforts to
increase awareness of sepsis.
Additional resources about sepsis, including recent reports on the incidence of
sepsis, clinical guidelines, bundles, staff educational materials and examples
of quality improvement efforts by health care facilities to improve sepsis
survival, are available on the CDC’s website. return to top