As the health care reform debate continues, it is critical that Iowa’s Congressional Delegation hear from hospital leaders on the issues, especially in light of the announced cuts to hospital payments.  Over the next few weeks, Iowa Senators Tom Harkin and Chuck Grassley and their staffs will be traveling across Iowa holding listening posts and town hall meetings on health care reform.  Hospital leaders are encouraged to attend these meetings and take the opportunity to address concerns about health care reform.

It is very important for hospital leaders to attend these forums to address concerns and share ideas.  IHA has produced talking points for hospital advocates to use while addressing Iowa’s congressional delegation in these meetings.  Our health care reform hospital talking points have been updated to include the recent announcements of major cuts to Medicare.

Events hosted by Senator Grassley

Grassley is the ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee that oversees the Medicare program and other health care finance related issues.  He is not holding specific hospital meetings, but will be holding the following events:

June 30 8:15-9:15 a.m. Allamakee County Town Meeting Farmers & Merchants Savings Bank Community Room 201 West Main Street, Waukon	July 3 7:30-8:30 a.m. Marion County Town Meeting Pella Community Services Building 712 Union Street, Pella
10:45-11:45 a.m. Clayton County Town Meeting Elkader City Hall Lower Level 207 North Main Street, Elkader	10:00-11:00 a.m. Poweshiek County Town Meeting Brooklyn Public Library 306 Jackson Street, Brooklyn
1:45-2:45 p.m. Dubuque County Town Meeting Dupaco Community Credit Union 5865 Saratoga Road, Asbury	12:00-1:00 p.m. Tama County Town Meeting Renig Toledo Civic Center 1007 South Prospect Drive, Toledo

Events hosted by Senator Harkin

Harkin chairs the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee’s Prevention and Public Health Working Group charged with crafting the prevention and public health components of the health reform bill. Notice time change for Cedar Rapids.

June 29 9:00-10:00 a.m. Linn Community Health Center Medical Plaza Building- Lower Level 855 A Avenue NE, Cedar Rapids	June 30 9:30-10:30 a.m. Adair County Memorial Hospital 609 Se Kent St., Greenfield	July 1 9:00-10:00 a.m. Winneshiek Medical Center Conference Room B 901 Montgomery Street, Decorah
10:30- 11:30 a.m. (corrected) St. Luke’s Hospital 1026 A Avenue NE, Cedar Rapids	11 a.m.-noon Regional Health Services Of Howard County 235 8th Avenue West, Cresco	10:00-11:00 a.m. Denison Community Room 111 N. Main Street, Denison
12:30-1:30 p.m. (corrected) Mercy Medical Center 701 10th Street SE, Cedar Rapids	1:30- 2:30 p.m. Guthrie County Hospital Todd/ Neff Conference Room 710 N 12th Street, Guthrie Center	11:30-12:30 p.m. Crawford County Senior Center 201 S. Main Street, Denison
	2:45-3:45 p.m. Mercy Medical Center- New Hampton Health Education Center 308 N. Maple Avenue, New Hampton	11 a.m.-noon Veterans Memorial Hospital Lower Level Large Conference Room 9 40 First Street SE, Waukon
	4:00-5:00 p.m. Grape Community Hospital Cafeteria 2959 State Highway 275, Hamburg	2:00-3:00 p.m. Burgess Health Center Boardroom 1600 Diamond Street, Onawa

Attending an event? Send us your feedback

If you attend any of these events, feel free to send us your notes or feedback about what was discussed. We’d love to continue these conversations on our blog.

Content can be forwarded to Dan Royer.

The 2008 presidential campaign introduced mainstream America to the power of social media and online communication in a way it had never experienced before.  People organized events, made donations and contacted supporters like they have always done, but the amplification for their messages that social technology provided enabled them to reach more people more quickly.  As people began realizing how impactful this technology could be when used in the right way, more organizations and political groups began integrating it into their communications strategies.

Social media penetrates politics and the public

This leads us to today, when individuals, groups and companies are using freely available technology to engage loyal supporters and introduce their messages to people who may never have heard them before.  Aside from consumers and private-sector organizations, these users also include members of local, state and federal government.

What was once often only discussed behind closed doors or in whispers between party members is now made available to consume in the public forum.  This new age of transparency and interaction allows people to make opinions and thoughts known before they have the chance to pass through political filters or press secretaries.

Be ready for real-time feedback and responses

A recent example includes several messages sourced from Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) illustrating his frustration with President Obama, who was making a stop in Europe last week.  There is nothing new about Senators and politicians having disagreements with the president, but the channel through which Grassley’s views were presented and the public availability of said comments would have been unheard of just a few years earlier.

Grassley posted several messages on his Twitter account, a microblogging social network where users can exchange short messages with friends, addressing his concerns with the president:

“Pres Obama you got nerve while u sightseeing in Paris to tell us ‘time to deliver’ on health care.  We still on skedul/even workinWKEND.”

“Pres Obama while u sightseeing in Paris u said ‘time to delivr on healthcare’ When you are a ‘hammer’ u think evrything is NAIL I’m no NAIL.”

These messages from Senator Grassley were seen by at least 11,000 people who follow the senator’s messages (tweets) directly, while hundreds and perhaps thousands more read them as the media caught wind of the story.  There is nothing inherently wrong with what Grassley posted (and they are still available to see at http://twitter.com/chuckgrassley), but the message and the lesson are that we need to be aware of the tools that surround us and know how best to use them.

People are out there talking; are you ready to listen?

Conversations are taking place all over the world about the topics, issues and concerns of everyone, just as they always have.  The new problem is understanding how those messages can spread and what role we play in addressing or interacting with them.

IHA has taken a strong stance in the realm of social media – this interactive, participatory two-way type of dialogue – by establishing our own grounds online and staking claim to the issues most important to Iowa’s community hospitals.  As the voice of hospitals and health care in Iowa, it is IHA’s responsibility to be represented wherever discussions are happening, be it on Capitol Hill or Facebook.

Apart from the IHA Web site, the blog acts as IHA’s authoritative clearinghouse for contact via social media with the public and beyond.  All of our interactive actions direct back to this home base in an effort to clarify IHA’s mission, vision and values.

As IHA continues along this path into the future of communication and dialogue, it will adapt to change, but the core existence and purpose will remain:  supporting the missions of Iowa’s hospitals.

Looking to learn more about how IHA is engaging individuals and influencers by using these social technologies? Keep reading our blog and see the about page for more details.

What questions do you have? How are you using these techologies to impact your goals?

Twitter, the microblogging website that allows users to post status updates of 140 characters or less, is no longer a portal just for  technology geeks or internet stars. News agencies, nonprofits, celebrities and television shows are joining in droves, as is evident by the microblogging service generating 4 million unique visitors in the U.S. to its website in February 2009.

However, long before you could follow The Ellen Show or Ashton Kutcher on Twitter, U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley was posting (also called “tweeting”) with the service while at events in Iowa (see Grassley’s first tweet from November 26, 2007).

Tweets from the Senator encompass what he is up to during the day and read as if he was holding a conversation one-on-one with his audience.

Whether it be “Ran in 45degree weather Tues morn. On way frigid iowa. Don’t LOL. TTYL” or “Just finishd hour long meeting in Rep caucus w Obama. He was recd well. Good discusion on stimulus and recession,” Grassley uses the 140-character platform to inform his 4,900+ followers about current issues, upcoming appearances and his role as a representative of the state of Iowa. Read more

Building on the discussions held at the White House’s health care summit, President Obama announced a series of regional forums to be held across the country.  Iowa, along with California, Michigan, North Carolina and Vermont, has been selected to host a forum and continue the discussion on health care reform.

At the health care reform summit last week, President Obama told attendees, “The time for reform is now and these regional forums are some of the key first steps toward breaking the stalemate we have been stuck in for far too long.  The forums will bring together diverse groups of people all over the country who have a stake in reforming our health care system and ask them to put forward their best ideas about how we bring down costs and expand coverage for American families.”

The forum will be hosted by Iowa Governor Chet Culver and, according to a statement released by the White House, the dialogue will include “participants ranging from doctors to patients to providers to policy experts.  They will be open conversations with everyday Americans, local, state and federal elected officials both Democrat and Republican, as well as senior Obama administration officials.”

The Iowa event will be held in Des Moines on March 23 and is tentatively scheduled to be located at the Polk County Convention Complex.  The governor’s office has indicated that 200-500 individuals representing a wide variety of perspectives on the issue will be invited to attend.  The conference will begin with a video recorded by the president, a summary of the findings from the Health Care Community Discussions that took place in December and an overview of the discussion that took place at the White House Forum on Health Reform.

“The governor is thrilled that the White House has chosen Iowa to host one of these important health care meetings,” Culver spokesman Troy Price said.  “So many Iowans and Americans face challenges to accessing quality, affordable health care every single day.  Now they will be given an opportunity share those concerns.”

Iowa Senators Tom Harkin and Chuck Grassley have both indicated they plan to attend the forum.

A live video stream of the forum is intended to be available on the newly created Health and Human Services Web site at www.healthreform.gov so that the public can be involved in what is being discussed.