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

Iowa News

Care for all
Hospitals in Eastern Iowa recently enacted measures to reduce the number of people incurring debt while strapping the facilities with unexpected uncompensated care costs. University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, for example, added social workers and a health care benefits assistance program coordinator to its emergency department, which handles most of the uninsured patients. St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids created a unit dedicated to helping patients identify funding sources, including options through Medicaid. Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids added four counselors to its emergency department to work around the clock with patients needing financial aid. (Cedar Rapids Gazette)

Blue Zones creator talks health and longevity
Dan Buettner has been across the globe searching and studying the healthiest communities with the longest living residents. During a stop in the Coralville Marriot Hotel and Conference Center’s Coral Ball Room, Buettner said the nation’s first step to healthier citizens needs to start small. The world-renowned explorer, National Geographic writer and New York Times best-selling author also acknowledged the Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce’s plans to take that step. “It’s gonna start with cities leading the way; here’s to Iowa City being the next Blue Zone,” Buettner said. (Iowa City News-Press)

Church affiliated hospitals upset over health care decision
A decision by the Obama Administration that forces church affiliated employers to cover birth control in their healthcare plans has outraged religious organizations across the country. The ruling means church affiliated hospitals such as Sioux City’s Mercy Medical Center would be force to pay for insurance that covers contraceptives and sterilization. Mercy spokesman, Jim Wharton, says the decision makes no sense. “A Baptist hospital, a Catholic hospital, whatever, it would no longer be considered a religious employer, which means we lose the right to exercise what we call our conscious clause. Where if it’s something that’s totally contrary to what our principles and beliefs are we still have to violate our conscience to abide by a government regulation to provide these services,” Wharton says. (Radio Iowa)

DHHS claims Iowans with Medicare saved $25.8 million
42,015 Iowa residents with Medicare saved $25,876,475 on their prescription drugs in 2011 thanks to the Affordable Care Act, according to data issued today by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Savings for people with Medicare will increase over time. According to a new report issued today from HHS, the average person with Medicare will save nearly $4,200 by 2021 because of the new law. “The Affordable Care Act is already saving money for millions of Americans with Medicare,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.  “As we move forward, we will close the donut hole completely and save even more money for everyone with Medicare.” (Cedar Rapids Gazette)

Davenport doctor defends traffic cameras
raffic injuries declined “significantly” after Davenport installed red-light and speed cameras, a trauma physician said Wednesday. Last year, 120 patients were admitted to Genesis Medical Center, Davenport, for treatment of injuries suffered in Davenport vehicle crashes, Dr. Joe Lohmuller, general surgeon and medical director of Genesis Trauma Services, said during a news conference at the hospital. It is interesting that prior to the installation of these devices, the number of patients we were admitting to the hospital each month from vehicle crashes in Davenport was steady at 15 to 17,” Lohmuller said. (Quad-City Times)

National News

Hospital HCAHPS scores beat expectations
In the health reform sweepstakes to retrieve their share of $850 million in federal funds, hospitals have been scurrying to improve their patient experience scores under Medicare’s value-based purchasing rules. Now, according to the latest survey results, their efforts are paying off. For discharges in July, 2011, the month scoring began, patients’ responses were 0.7 % better than they were in June, according to Press Ganey Associates, which distributes and analyzes patient responses to the 27 Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey. (HealthLeaders Media)

Study: Hospitals overpay for devices
Some hospitals pay thousands of dollars more than others for big-ticket medical devices such as defibrillators and hip replacements, and a portion of the higher costs could be passed on to the federal Medicare program, a new government report says. Among 31 hospitals surveyed by investigators for the Government Accountability Office, one paid $8,723 more than another for an identical model of a device that regulates heart rhythm. The device, called an implantable cardioverter defibrillator, typically costs the hospitals between $16,445 and $19,007. (Wall Street Journal)

Health care’s jobs boom
While the economy lost 7.5 million positions during the 18-month recession, the health care industry added doctors, nurses, and other hospital personnel. Together with the social assistance category, which includes day-care workers, career counselors, and similar positions, the sector will add more than 5.6 million employees and be the biggest job gainer by 2020, according to new projections by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Manufacturing is forecast to lose 73,000 jobs by then. “The first baby boomer just turned 65 last year, so when it comes to health-care jobs, we haven’t seen nothing yet,” says Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ in New York. (Business Week)

Health law delivers $2.1 billion in savings on drugs for seniors
In the first full year of the new healthcare law, 3.6 million people in the government Medicare program saved $2.1 billion on prescription drugs in 2011, the Obama administration announced Thursday. The savings are one of the first tangible benefits of the sweeping overhaul that the president signed in March 2010. The law’s biggest changes, including the guarantee that all Americans can get health coverage even if they have a preexisting condition, do not go into effect until 2014. (Los Angeles Times)

Komen gives new explanation for cutting funds to Planned Parenthood
On Thursday, Susan G. Komen Foundation President Elizabeth Thompson told reporters that the funding decision was unrelated to the investigation into whether Planned Parenthood was illegally using federal funds to pay for abortions. Komen founder Nancy Brinker said the organization wants to support groups that directly provide breast health services, such as mammograms. She noted that Planned Parenthood was providing only mammogram referrals. (Washington Post)

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

Iowa News

Eastern Iowa cities striving for blue
The Blue Zones Project is a main component of Iowa’s healthiest state initiative, an effort to make Iowa the nation’s healthiest state under the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. Healthways spokesman Bruce Middlebrooks says officials are reviewing applications from 54 communities across Iowa. About a dozen communities will be announced as finalists on Feb. 10. Those communities will receive expert help to make permanent environment and policy changes that improve the emotional, physical and social health of each town’s residents. “We’re preparing for it as if it’s going to happen,” says Jeni Palmer, a HealthCorps member working on the Cedar Rapids efforts through Linn County Public Health. (Cedar Rapids Gazette)

Still many unknowns with proposed state changes
Johnson County is home to so many dedicated individuals and organizations who have worked tirelessly for years; we want to make certain that their accomplishments and strides to date continue and move forward. Most importantly, we want to be confident individuals affected by mental illness, intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families are assured full community inclusion and participation; enjoy productive and meaningful lives and full citizenship rights and opportunities. (Iowa City Press-Citizen)

Keokuk hospital pushing forward
Walt Winkler is juggling several balls to get the Keokuk Area Hospital finances where they should be, and he’s waiting for the right one to land in his hand. The CEO is keeping the hospital open on a week-by-week basis. “We do it just like the people do at home with their paychecks,” Winkler said. But unlike wage earners, the hospital is seeking help from the state and federal government in the form of disproportionate funding. “There are Medicare and Medicaid programs that are normal programs, and that’s how hospitals are paid,” he said. “The disproportionate share program has been developed in addition to normal payments and is aimed at trying to help facilities that are trying to take care of more disabled, elderly and indigent patients.” (Burlington HawkEye)

McKinley students team up with Mercy to design heart health brochure
Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids is partnering with neighboring McKinley Middle School on a science project involving the school’s sixth grade students.  As part of a science unit on the vascular system, McKinley science teacher Michele Wilson asked Mercy nurses to present information on heart disease, risk factors, diet and exercise.  The sixth graders were then invited to design and create an informational brochure that will be used to promote heart health among their peers and throughout the community. (Cedar Rapids Gazette)

National News

Lawmakers urged to spare hospitals in fixing SGR
Several hospital groups urged Congress to use savings from overseas operations as a way to solve Medicare’s sustainable growth-rate formula for physicians—as long as those funds would provide for a full fix.  Organizations including the Federation of American Hospitals, the American Hospital Association, the Catholic Health Association of the United States, and the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems sent a letter to members of Congress that again lobbied federal lawmakers to find a permanent solution to the way the Medicare program reimburses physicians that does not compromise funding to the nation’s hospitals. (Modern Healthcare)

How one hospital entices doctors to work in rural America
Recruiting doctors to live and work in rural America is a chronic problem. Most health centers try to attract workers with big salaries and expensive homes. Shots previously reported that one center in Maine was trying to lure medical students to the countryside for their final two years with the hope that they stick around. The Ashland Health Clinic, a tiny hospital in southwest Kansas, is trying a different tack — a reverse-recruitment model. It’s called mission-focused medicine, and it’s based on serving problems most commonly found in third-world countries. (National Public Radio)

Did Susan G. Komen turn itself into a lightning rod?
Susan G. Komen for the Cure says there wasn’t anything political about its decision to stop giving grants to Planned Parenthood. But in Washington, every decision is political — and now the cancer-fighting organization may have turned itself from a “safe” charity into just another political lightning rod. It may have ruined its fundraising, too, as its Facebook page filled up with messages from Planned Parenthood supporters promising they’ll never give a dime to the charity again. (Politico)

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

Iowa News

Compete to be healthier
Many local, state and national education efforts have struggled to get people to change their eating habits and get more regular exercise. Change has been slow to come. So why not introduce more competition to get people’s attention and speed up change? That’s what the Blue Zones Project, a major component of Iowa’s healthiest state initiative, is doing. We applaud the effort because it’s in Iowans’ best interests. (Cedar Rapids Gazette)

Multi-million dollar expansion planned for Lakes hospital
Parts of Lakes Regional Healthcare, in Spirit Lake, are 50 years old. Administrators say it’s time for a multi-million dollar expansion and renovation, that’ll bring in some new tech and a better atmosphere for patients. “It’ll be the biggest renovation and expansion since the hospital was built,” said Hospital President and CEO Jason Harrington. It’ll be 40,000 square feet of new and remodeled space on the hospital’s east side. The plan is to add on to accommodate Dickinson County’s growth, plus, update an aging hospital. (KTIV)

UIHC seeks to purchase $2.2 million surgical robot
The UI purchase of the da Vinci Si Firefly surgical robot, at a cost of $2.185 million, was approved in December by Regents Executive Director Bob Donley. The board meets Monday and Tuesday in Ames and is asked to ratify the purchase. Equipment purchases at the regent universities costing more than $1 million require board approval. The executive director may approve emergency purchases exceeding $1 million, to be followed later by board ratification. Donley in this case approved the purchase in December so UI officials could buy the robotic arm at a lower price. (Cedar Rapids Gazette)

National News

Thousands of Kaiser workers wage one-day strike
The California Hospital Association ran a full-page advertisement with a large photo of a crying baby in some newspapers Tuesday criticizing the nurses union for their sympathy strike. “Sympathy for who? Not for patients,” the advertisement said. “Make no mistake — this strike is not about patient care,” said C. Duane Dauner, president and CEO of the California Hospital Association, in a prepared statement. “It’s about (the California Nurses Association’s) ongoing attempts to grow its membership, increase its member dues and advance its aggressive political agenda. This union already rakes in nearly $61 million in annual member dues.” (San Jose Mercury News)

Oregon nurses association seeks to change state vaccination law
The legislation also has the support of labor unions and the Oregon Health Care Association, but is opposed by the hospital association (the Oregon Association of Hospital and Health Systems), which wants individual hospitals to be able to decide what’s best for them. “We support repealing the language from current statute (that prevents health care facilities from requiring vaccinations) to allow for flexibility, community by community, hospital by hospital, provider by provider,” said Andy Van Pelt, its director of communications. “Oregon is the only state that has language in the statutes that prevents the vaccination from being a condition of employment.” (Lund Report)

Nursing homes offer plan to help cut Medicare spending
A proposal from the American Health Care Association, which represents skilled nursing facilities, has offered lawmakers a plan the group believes will help cut the readmission rate for nursing home patients to the hospital. That, the association says, would save Medicare money. Nursing homes would prefer their ideas over another money-saving provision in the payroll tax extension/Medicare “doc fix” legislation passed last year by the House. That bill would reduce Medicare’s reimbursement to cover “bad debt” incurred by skilled nursing facilities, hospitals and other providers from 70 percent to 55 percent by 2015. (Kaiser Health News)

Komen breast cancer charity severs ties with Planned Parenthood
In what looks to be a break between two organizations dedicated to women’s health, a national breast cancer awareness group said it would stop providing funds to Planned Parenthood centers for breast cancer examinations and other breast health services. Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a leader in fundraising for breast cancer research and famous worldwide for its iconic pink ribbon, said Tuesday that it was halting all partnerships with Planned Parenthood affiliates because of recently adopted criteria that forbid it from funding any organization under government investigation. (Los Angeles Times)

Hospitals give crime lab $10K to fight ‘bath salts’
A $10,000 grant from a Dayton-area hospital association will help medical and law enforcement personnel identify the ever-changing ingredients in deadly designer drugs such as “bath salts.” The Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association on Tuesday announced a partnership with the Miami Valley Regional Crime Laboratory, which has investigated 17 deaths stemming from synthetic stimulant use since March 2011. “When we identify a compound, they change its chemical structure and we have a new compound that is out being ingested by our children,” said Ken Betz, the crime lab’s director. (Middletown Journal)

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

Iowa News

Country doctors: Center draws doctors to underserved areas
Dr. William Durbin believes family medicine is the second-best career in the world. The best? Rural family medicine. “Rural medicine gives you a unique opportunity to do things you won’t experience in a big city,” Durbin recently told a small group of third-year medical students from Des Moines University. “And by big city I mean anything over 1,000.” Durbin is a bit biased. He practices family medicine in Parkersburg. (Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier)

Woman says fitness program saved her life
Cherubim Hurdle weighs less than 400 pounds now, but her goal is to get under 200. Still, she says it’s not just the pounds that are relevant.  Hurdle was one of the first participants to successfully complete the FIT Start program. The program is being rolled out by one of Iowa’s largest medical providers, Iowa Health, as a way to cut the number of morbidly obese patients who seek gastric bypass surgery, which can be risky and expensive.  The goal is for Iowa Health patients to drop their plans for bypass surgery and instead, improve their health the natural way. (Radio Iowa)

Fairfield is ‘ready’ to become a Blue Zone
Out of 54 remaining towns, several will be selected for a site visit, and ultimately, 10 will be chosen to become a designated Blue Zones community. Fairfield will begin planning for that step when the time comes.  On Tuesday, Fairfield will host a Blue Zones Winter Walk to show continued support of the project. Supporters and community members will gather at noon in Howard Park and walk one kilometer. (KTVO)

Ban on vaginal births after C-sections increases Sioux City C-section rates
While the percentage of C-sections has increased a bit, there’s a pretty easy explanation that doesn’t involve elective inductions, a practice frowned upon by many medical professionals. “If there has been an increase, it would have been starting five years ago when we stopped doing vaginal births after C-sections,” said Dr. Paul Eastman, OB-GYN, with Siouxland Obstetrics and Gynecology. “And in Sioux City, we only do vaginal births after C-sections because we don’t have 24-hour surgery, anesthesia and surgeon coverage, OB coverage, for subsequent pregnancies.” (Sioux City Journal)

Cargill donates $100,000 toward new Iowa Falls hospital
As part of its longstanding commitment to support the communities in which it does business, Cargill has donated $100,000 to the Ellsworth Municipal Hospital Foundation to support the construction of the new hospital. The foundation has raised a current total of $6.6m to fund the construction of a new hospital in Iowa Falls, which will improve health care for area residents, attract more businesses and create jobs for the community. The new hospital will replace the outdated facility that currently serves the community. It will also include a health education area, which will be named for Cargill. (FoodBev.com)

National News

‘Romneycare,’ meet ‘Obamacare’
It’s something supporters of President Barack Obama’s health reform law will say again and again: The health care overhaul put into place in Massachusetts by Mitt Romney is the big (but smaller) sister of the federal law. His rivals for the Republican presidential nomination like to say it, too. But that doesn’t mean Romney’s law gets to stay just like it was just because it got there first. It still has to conform to the federal law, and that won’t exactly be an easy lift. (Politico)

Feeling strain when violent patients need care
I didn’t know much about the patient—just that he’d showed up on my floor the previous evening after some confusion about whether his room was ready. When I went into his room that morning, he was still asleep. I gently roused him while his doctor, who had followed me in, explained that he needed to do a physical exam. The patient, suddenly fully awake, challenged him: “Are you going to examine me or are you just going to stand there and talk about it?” His voice had an edge to it that, I’ll reluctantly admit, scared me, especially when he quickly got up out of the bed and started yelling at the doctor and me. (New York Times)

Highest health care pay found in California, Alaska
California dominates the pay rankings for several lines of work, so it comes as no shock that California markets set the U.S. pace for health-care salaries. But Alaska? Its strong performance is much more surprising. On Numbers has analyzed compensation data for two closely related employment sectors — health-care practitioners and support staffers — in 406 metropolitan areas and divisions. The following rankings are based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics figures for 2010, the latest year for which official numbers are available. (The Business Journals)

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

Iowa News

Ward: Bill would set up mental health services by region
After months of meetings on the redesign of the Mental Health and Developmental Disability plan, we finally have a bill. Thursday morning the bill was distributed to Legislators and the public at the Capitol. The bill pulls together the recommendations from seven work groups and more than 100 people consisting of state legislators, county supervisors, providers, consumers, and family members. We spent months identifying what we believed would be the best system, regardless of cost. The governor and the Department of Human Services are determining the costs of the proposed changes to the mental health services. (Des Moines Register)

Advocates encouraged by mental health plan
Patient advocates were heartened by many provisions of a state mental health reform plan unveiled at the Statehouse on Thursday, but they were concerned by the measure’s repeated use of this phrase: “Subject to the availability of funding.” “That’s huge, huge, huge,” said Teresa Bomhoff, a Des Moines activist for the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Bomhoff remains optimistic that legislators will make big improvements in Iowa’s patchwork mental health system. But the lack of a firm commitment to spend tens of millions of dollars on the effort worries her and others who work closely with the system. (Des Moines Register)

Eastern Iowa cities striving for blue

Both Cedar Rapids and the Iowa City area plan events this week to ramp up efforts as they compete to become one of the first Blue Zones communities in Iowa. About 20 Eastern Iowa communities have applied, with hundreds of people seeking to solidify each town’s chances. The Blue Zones Project is a main component of Iowa’s healthiest state initiative, an effort to make Iowa the nation’s healthiest state under the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. (Eastern Iowa Health)

Ames hospital receives $250,000 gift
Sauer-Danfoss has pledged $250,000 to the Mary Greeley Medical Center Extraordinary Visions campaign. The hospital’s foundation launched the Extraordinary Visions campaign in late September. The $6 million campaign will support the medical center’s $129 million building project, the largest in the hospital’s history. To date, $3.7 million has been raised, including the gift from Sauer-Danfoss. The project includes a new six-story tower with larger patient rooms that will provide better healing environments and accommodate new technologies. (Mary Greeley Medical Center)

Mercy mom delivers 13-pound baby; no epidural
A woman gave birth to a 13-pound, 12-ounce baby boy without medication at Mercy Medical Center on Thursday. When asked about the birth experience Kendall Stewardson, 24, of St. Charles, said she couldn’t talk about it. “It wouldn’t be TV appropriate,” Stewardson joked. Baby Asher was born healthy and nine days late. He was 23.5 inches long. His family has a history of big babies. Asher’s big brother Judah weighed 12 lbs., 1 oz. when he was born. Both Stweardson and her husband Joshua were born weighing more than 10 Lbs. (KCCI)

National News

Hospital hiring of physicians picks up steam
Hospitals increased their physician hiring in 2011, and hospital employment of doctors shows no signs of slowing in 2012, with doctor hiring becoming a major strategy for hospitals getting ready for health system reform. “We have a work force shortage,” said Alan Kaplan, MD, vice president with Iowa Health System and president of Iowa Health Physicians and Clinics, based in Des Moines. “We would look at any physician seeking employment. I’m not saying we would want to employ all specialties, but we would look at them.” (American Medical News)

Minor mistakes, deadly results
Alarms have been sounding for more than a decade, ever since the Institute of Medicine—the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences—estimated that as many as 100,000 people a year were dying in US hospitals due to preventable errors. Despite those warnings, the situation has gotten worse. In 2010, the federal government estimated that faulty medical care contributed to the death of about 15,000 Medicare patients per month. By these measures, faulty hospital care is one of the leading causes of death, behind heart disease and cancer. Why haven’t hospitals made more progress on patient safety? (Washingtonian)

Outpatient move saves hospital
Genesis Health System in Davenport, IA, is in the midst of an agreement with Mercer County, IL, to run the county’s hospital. When the 670-licensed-bed Genesis system took over operations a few years ago, Mercer had an $800,000 deficit. Genesis began a slow process of changing the hospital culture, with the biggest emphasis on a change in outpatient care, says Ted Rogalski, hospital administrator. The latest financial figures showed a $500,000 positive margin, with immediate changes in vendor contracts and improved management controls helping to better the hospital’s fiscal status, Rogalski says. “It was really putting policies and procedures to ensure that we were collecting dollars owed us,” he adds. Once those financial areas were strengthened, hospital officials then focused on revised clinical improvements, with better outpatient care as a primary target. (HealthLeaders Media)