Featuring hospital and health care headlines from the media and the Web.

Iowa News

UIHC revenue up thanks to more patients
The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics continue to see strong revenue increases due, in large part, to higher patient volume in recent years, but there is no guarantee it will last, an official said. (Iowa City Press Citizen)

SMCH employee goes the extra distance
A member of Stewart Memorial Community Hospital is using her talents to help patients. (KCIM)

Cracks in Iowa’s legislative stalemate?
Democrats proposed a counteroffer to a massive $5.99 billion GOP budget plan during a private meeting this morning described by one Republican leader as “arguably the most productive meeting we’ve had in two months.” (Des Moines Register)

Methodist and Iowa Health Sign Affiliation Agreement
On Thursday, June 9, the nationally recognized heath organizations, Methodist Health Services Corporation and Iowa Health System, signed the agreement in Chicago, and now await the consent of the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board. (Central Illinois News Center)

National News

ONC funds developer challenge to spur health IT innovation
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has launched a program to spur innovation that uses prizes and developer competitions to expedite the creation of tools to solve health IT challenges. (Government Health IT)

Mass. Eye and Ear, Schepens to merge
The Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and Schepens Eye Research Institute, both Harvard Medical School affiliates, have decided to merge, creating the largest private eye-research organization in the world. (Boston Globe)

Nancy Freybler, a Surgical Nurse with Van Diest Medical Center (Webster City, IA), gives the Iowa Hospital Association some insight into what a surgical nurse does, the camaraderie among nurses and what kind of person who becomes interested in this type of career.

For more information on health care careers in Iowa, click here.

(Watch this video on YouTube: http://youtu.be/tCqtgsiUntA)

Not able to make it to Des Moines today for Legislative Day 2011? Fear not – IHA is offering a Live Blog to keep everyone up-to-date on the events of the day as well as the issues being discussed as health care advocates meet with their legislators up on Capitol Hill.

Keep checking back thoughout the day to view updates of the day’s events. Please feel free to leave comments or join the discussion on Twitter.

11:00 a.m.

Hundreds of hospital advocates from all around the state have started to gather at the Polk County Convention Center in Des Moines. Soon, the day’s events will begin with the presenting of the color guard and the playing of the national anthem followed by opening remarks from IHA Board Chair, Joe Smith.

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11:45 a.m.

Michael Johnston, VP Network Development at Mercy Medical Center-North Iowa (Mason City) takes a minute to talk about why its important to bring advocates from his hospital to Des Moines for Legislative Day.

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12:15 p.m.

Ben Franklin takes the stage to provide insight on his life as well as current and past issues.

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1:30 p.m.

Scott Curtis, Administrator/CEO of Kossuth Regional Health Center (Algona), prepares his hospital’s advocates for their upcoming meeting with legislators while on their way up to the Statehouse.

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2:30 p.m.

Todd Hudspeth, CEO at Buena Vista Regional Medical Center (Storm Lake) talks about the importance of getting health care advocates to Des Moines for an event such as Legislative Day.

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3:00 p.m.

Chad Wolbers (middle, left), COO at The Finley Hospital (Dubuque), and advocates from The Finley Hospital meet with Representative Charles Isenhart (D-27) outside of the House chambers. Several groups from Iowa hospitals are meeting with their legislators around the busy rotunda at the Iowa State Capitol. All in all, over 600 people were in attendance for Legislative Day, making this a very succesful day for health care in Iowa.

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The road ahead is paved with challenge for the Des Moines University AHEC (DMU AHEC) Program. In a somewhat surprising move by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) the DMU AHEC Program found itself without a continuation of its primary grant funding.

The DMU AHEC program was initially established in 2007 when it received a three-year federal grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). DMU AHEC subsequently submitted a second grant application as the current grant period was ending, expecting to receive another boost of federal dollars to keep its program thriving. However, DMU was later notified that while their application scored well and was competitively approved, their program would be unfunded.

Representatives from HRSA have stated that the Federal AHEC Appropriation “ran out” however, DMU has since learned that there are new AHEC programs receiving funds while other programs like DMU AHEC have been unfunded.  It’s a situation that has DMU AHEC officials stunned.

 “The Federally-supported AHEC initiative has been in existence for almost four decades.  This is the first time federally-compliant and approved AHEC programs have gone unfunded,” said Wendy Gray, Program Office Director for DMU AHEC. “Iowa is one of four states greatly affected by this unanticipated shift from an equitable distribution to numeric competition model and it seems this is a permanent shift we will need to contend with from this point forward.”

Having the DMU AHEC program is essential in helping to recruit and retain top talent in the primary and preventative health care workforce in Iowa, with specific emphasis in rural and underserved communities. They host a number of programs all across the northern portion of Iowa that help to offer resources and education for students and health care professionals alike. Just this past summer, IHA featured a video highlighting the YES MED summer camp, where high school students from the Central Iowa AHEC region spent a week getting a hands-on health care and science experience.

For now, DMU AHEC is receiving support from Des Moines University and other generous contributors to secure enough funding to last until March 2011. The opportunity remains for federal grants to be applied for again and the program is working to gain the support of their congressional delegation as well as the Iowa General Assembly.  The value of a concerted effort to recruit and retain ample health care providers throughout Iowa is undeniable and the DMU AHEC Program intends to do everything within its power to remain intact.

IHA recently announced that it would be transferring its Blog-to-Email service over to a new company, AWeber. However, in an attempt to transfer the list of existing email subscribers over to the new service, an error occurred and many individuals may have received the following email message from an email address at www.aweber.com:

“We received your request for information from the Iowa Hospital Association.  Before we begin sending you the information you requested, we want to be certain we have your permission.”

If you would like to continue receiving IHA blog posts via email, please select to approve this request. IHA apologizes for any confusion this may have caused to its list subscribers. If you have any questions about the new email subscription service, please contact Chris English (englishc@ihaonline.org). Anyone not currently subscribed to receive email updates from the blog but would like to sign up may do so by entering your email address in the signup form in the righthand sidebar of any page on the blog.