Minnesota Hospital Association

Newsroom

May 27, 2015

MHA Newsline: May 26, 2015

In this issue 

Member spotlight: University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital reduces harm

This past spring, MHA recognized the University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital with the Patient Safety Improvement Award, in the large hospital category, for its work to reduce harm. The University of Minnesota Masonic Children's Hospital's instituted a daily safety call that includes 29 units, including all inpatient units, the emergency department, lab, pharmacy, ambulatory clinics, patient relations, environmental services and others. The daily safety call provides a forum to raise quality and patient safety issues that have occurred over the prior 24 hours or over the weekend to anticipate potential risks in the next 24 hours. The daily safety call increases situational awareness for leaders throughout the hospital and helps to identify and resolve issues much more efficiently. It has also increased engagement of front line staff for incident reporting and increased the hospital's rate of good catches. Since initiating the daily safety call in May 2013, the hospital has experienced increased incident reporting, a 24 percent reduction in preventable harm and a reduced severity of harm. The call has been so successful, it has been spread to adult medical center and is having an impact there as well. Learn more about the 2015 MHA award recipients herereturn to top   

Governor Dayton signs HHS Omnibus bill

Governor Dayton signed the Health and Human Services Omnibus Finance Bill Chapter 71 into law last week. The legislation contains many provisions of interest to the hospital and health care community: 

  • The MinnesotaCare program was preserved with some additional cost sharing for enrollees.   
  • Critical Access Hospitals received additional funding. 
  • Hospital inpatient mental health services received additional funding. 
  • A new distribution formula for Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) payments was included in the legislation. 
  • The new formula targets funding for children’s hospitals, psychiatric inpatient services, transplants and high volume Medical Assistance providers. 
  • Significant new investments in mental health services. 
  • The Medical Education and Research Cost (MERC) program, residency programs and other workforce investments including additional funding for loan forgiveness. 
  • The MN Telemedicine Act will require health plans to pay for services on the same basis and at the same rate regardless of whether they are delivered via telemedicine or on an in-person basis. The Medical Assistance program will also be required to cover an expanded list of providers who are now allowed to bill for services provided via telemedicine. The provision requiring an originating site fee for health care providers was deleted from the bill. 
  • The legislation requires hospitals have violence prevention plans and provide staff training.  
  • The legislation contained additional funding for nursing home reform and payment increases. 

For information about the Health and Human Services Omnibus Finance bill, contact Mary Krinkie, MHA vice president of government relations, 651-6519-1465 or Kristin Loncorich, MHA director of government relations, 651-603-3526. A complete analysis of the 2015 legislative session will be in our annual legislative report provided to members in a few weeks. return to top   

MNCM announces Health Care Innovation Awards

In celebration of its 10th anniversary, MN Community Measurement is recognizing organizations in the community that have helped achieve its mission of improving health and health care in Minnesota. To that end, MNCM will be awarding Leadership in Health Care Innovation Awards to organizations that have implemented programs that improve health or health care by utilizing information collected or measures developed by MNCM. Any type of organization is eligible to enter.   

Your organization’s innovation must have: 

  • Utilized data collected and provided by MNCM and/or a MNCM‐developed measure; 
  • Been implemented between 6/1/2005 and 6/1/2015; and, 
  • Resulted in demonstrable positive impacts on health and/or health care. 

Nominations are due by July 15, 2015 and winners will be announced at the MNCM 10th anniversary dinner on Sept. 24, 2015. For additional details and the submission form, go to: http://mncm.org/mncm-leadership-in-health-care-innovation-awards/return to top