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

Iowa News

Cedar Rapids hospital reports more babies treated for drug withdrawal
Growth in prescription drug abuse is also impacting the littlest members of society. “I’ve definitely seen more babies that have been born dependent on methadone,” said Denise Sorensen, a social worker with St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids. Methadone is a legal prescription pain killer used to treat withdrawal from illegal drugs, most often heroin. It’s also the drug frequently used to wean infants off their mother’s prescription addiction. “You can hear a very screechy cry the baby may have tremors.”  (KCRG)

New hospital stroke alert helping eastern Iowans
When it comes to diagnosing and treating a stroke, time lost is brain loss. From the radiology department to the emergency room, staff at Covenant Medical Center in Waterloo are ready if a stroke call comes in. “Within 45 minutes of the arrival time to the report time, the ER physician can make a diagnosis and determine what method of treatment he wants to use,” said Luanne Blasberg, Covenant CT Supervisor. (KWWL)

Renovation of emergency, surgery areas planned at Mitchell County hospital
A $2.29 million remodeling project at Mitchell County Regional Health Center is now under way. The emergency and surgery departments will receive the lion’s share of the renovation. The new surgery area will feature four same-day recovery areas separated by walls and sliding glass doors. A family waiting area near the surgery suite will be constructed as part of the plan. (Mason City Globe Gazette)

St. Luke’s kicks of a new wellness campaign
Getting fit and healthy have been in the news lately and to help, Saint Luke’s Regional Medical Center in Sioux City is kicking off a new wellness program. StairWELL is a new campaign that encourages employees and the general public to take the stairs instead of the elevator. St. Luke’s received a grant from the Siouxland Community Health Center so they could put up posters and vinyl artwork to make the stairwells more appealing. (KTIV)

Police learn to deal with mentally disabled people
For law enforcement officers, dealing with unruly suspects is risky enough, but when the person suffers from a mental disorder, it can be downright dangerous. “Even if they have a disability, they can still be threatening, and they can still be hurtful to other people. And it’s that officer’s primary job, to maintain the safety of the environment he’s in. He is the person that is called to handle the situation,” said Cyndee Davis, staff psychologist at the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy. (KCCI)

National News

Suspicious Medicare bills found at 2,600 U.S. pharmacies
More than 2,600 U.S. drug stores, or 4 percent of all retail pharmacies, may have suspicious or excessive billing to Medicare, government investigators said. Some pharmacies dispensed unusually high percentages of painkillers and other controlled substances or expensive brand- name drugs, according to a report today from the inspector general for the Health and Human Services Department. (Bloomberg)

Reform pushes patient satisfaction, hospital quality efforts
With hospitals bracing themselves for changes under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, they are primarily focusing on the patient experience, one of the care measures under value-based purchasing, according to a new study by Healthcare Research & Analytics. With patient satisfaction determining 30 percent of Medicare incentive payments and improved clinical outcomes deciding 70 percent starting in October, hospitals are prioritizing efforts that monitor and drive quality and patient satisfaction, according to study respondents. (Fierce Healthcare)

Doctors trained to take on health care transformation at new leadership institute
Good physicians are tireless caregivers and patient advocates focused on delivering high-quality care in primary care offices, emergency departments, operating rooms and other settings. However, medical schools don’t train doctors to lead teams, manage departments or understand complex financial plans. Yet, increasingly, clinicians are being asked to take on key leadership and management roles and develop policy as Maine transforms the way health care is delivered and paid for. (Bangor Daily News)

Tips to keep patients engaged with Facebook pages
People will usually become a fan of your page because they are aware of your brand or because they see a friend “liked” your page. But once they’ve liked you, how do you keep those fans? Being on Facebook is not just about how many “likes” you can build up. If you’re not listening to those folks and interacting with them, then it’s pointless to even have a page. On top of that, if you’re not giving them a reason to continue paying attention to your page, then you’re going to lose them. It’s very easy to “unlike” a page. (Hospital Impact)

Is this patient privacy crusader doing more harm than good?
If the electronic health records industry has a nemesis, it’s Deborah Peel, the founder of Patient Privacy Rights. At a time when doctors and hospitals are digitizing their paper medical records as mandated by the government, Peel, a psychiatrist, has been the most vocal agitator against loss of patient privacy. (Forbes)

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

Iowa News

Legislature adjourns for 2012
What was expected in January to be a short, orderly legislative session focusing on four key priorities finally ended on Wednesday, weeks behind schedule and with the single biggest issue left undone. When the final gavels fell in the House and Senate, legislators could boast of a balanced budget, a solid start on education reform and a vast redesign of the state’s mental health care delivery system. (Des Moines Register)

Denison hospital achieves electronic health record goal
Almost two and one half years of research and planning has helped Crawford County Memorial Hospital achieve a major information technology goal resulting in an official reward by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). CCMH was recently notified it has attested to Stage 1 of Meaningful Use under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinic Health (HITECH) Act developed by HHS. (Denison Bulletin-Review)

Mercy sponsors ‘We Can Program’ for parents and children
Centerville has joined We Can! (Ways to Enhance Child Activity and Nutrition), a science-based National Institutes of Health movement that teaches parents, caregivers, kids and communities ways to eat healthier, increase physical activity and limit screen time to help children maintain a healthy weight. Sponsored by Mercy Medical Center, the We Can! Parent/Child program will begin on May 19 at the Rathbun Lake Area YMCA. (Centerville Daily Iowegian)

Officials work to stem synthetic drug use
Herbal incense, potpourri and bath salts may sound like harmless Mother’s Day gifts, but these items are fueling the latest drug craze throughout the country, synthetic drugs. These synthetic cannabinoids and cathinones have been reported in 2⁄3 of Iowa’s 99 counties, including Clinton County. “These drugs scare me more than anything else,” Mary O’Donnelly, RN Director at Mercy Medical Center, said. “The symptoms are so severe, we can’t even begin to interact with the individuals. They are so paranoid, they don’t even trust their family. These effects go on for days.” (Clinton Herald)

Help reduce stigma of mental illness
As part of the United Way of North Central Iowa’s commitment to the three building blocks of a good life, Education, Income and Health, one of our goals is to help educate the communities we serve on mental wellness and to help reduce the stigma of mental illness. (Mason City Globe Gazette)

National News

Medicare spotlights hospitals with especially costly patients
The new data appear to reaffirm decades of studies showing that patients in some regions of the country are bigger users of health care services than other places. Patients treated at most or all hospitals in Las Vegas, Fort Lauderdale, Newark, Miami, Los Angeles and Orange County, Calif., tended to cost more than the national median, which is $17,988. Patients treated at most or all hospitals in Anchorage, Des Moines, Honolulu, Minneapolis and Portland, Ore., tended to cost Medicare less. (Kaiser Health News)

Why nurses need more authority
One of the best ways to alleviate the coming shortage of primary care physicians is to expand the scope of practice for advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs), well-trained registered nurses with specialized qualifications who can make diagnoses, order tests and referrals, and write prescriptions. APRNs could provide a variety of services that primary care physicians now provide. (The Atlantic)

Non-profit US hospitals to do more with less, says Moodys
Nonprofit hospitals in the United States face a future of rising costs and dwindling funds as the healthcare reform is implemented and the Congress battles over the budget, according to a Moody’s Investors Services report released on Wednesday. Moody’s has a negative outlook for the sector and expects rating downgrades for nonprofit hospitals to outpace upgrades this year. Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has a stable outlook on the sector, but expects operating pressures to worsen over time. (Reuters)

Big data and public health: Reducing unwarranted services
Hospital organizations are sitting on large volume data sets, typically in the petabyte scale for each hospital. These are composed of individual patient electronic information that has the potential to root out these systemic inefficiencies in their healthcare services. Sorting through this data, however, presents a substantial challenge. (Government Health IT)

Hospitals turn up the heat on outpatient centers
Officials of outpatient centers say they provide personal care in a less stressful environment than hospitals and the procedures are less costly. It has become increasingly common for women to have breast reduction surgery at an outpatient surgery center. Hospital leaders insist there are questions about the ethics of some of the outpatient programs and their reliability. “We are at risk of blurring the line between commercial businesspeople and medically ethical doctors,” says Terry Myckatyn, MD, director of breast and cosmetic plastic surgery at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. (HealthLeaders Media)

Hospital food so fresh even the healthy come to dine
Twice a week, local seniors in Warrenton, Virginia, flock to a hip new dinner spot called the Bistro on the Hill for good food, a great view, and musical accompaniment by a retired piano player from a nearby Nordstrom’s. Only “The Bistro” is no stand-alone restaurant. It’s the cafeteria of Fauquier Hospital, one of a new group of “patient-centered” health facilities focused on meeting more than just people’s medical needs. (National Public Radio)

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

Iowa News

Legislative deal reached on mental-health redesign
The Iowa House and Senate finally found compromise Wednesday on a plan to remake the state’s mental health-care delivery system. Lawmakers have been in agreement on the policy provisions of the redesign for weeks, but Senate Democrats and House Republicans have repeatedly clashed on how to fund the transition from the current system to the new one. A joint committee of House and Senate lawmakers approved a final plan Wednesday morning, clearing the way for final votes in each chamber later today. (Des Moines Register)

The future of rural hospitals
Desiree Einsweiler has had an eventful year. In January, she was named interim administrator of Mitchell County Regional Health Center in Osage, Iowa, a partner facility of Mercy Medical Center-North Iowa in Mason City and a Trinity Health hospital. While overseeing the organization, she continued her previous role of as regional clinic director of MMC-North Iowa, the northern outpost of Des Moines-based Iowa Mercy Health Network — a position she has held for four years. On May 7, she’ll step down from the interim role at Mitchell to take a permanent CEO position at Palo Alto County Health System in Emmetsburg, Iowa. (Becker’s Hospital Review)

Nurse leaders an emerging role in the field
Two Iowa nursing schools are doing their part to train clinical nurse leaders, an emerging role poised to improve quality and safety in patient care. Grand View University in Des Moines and the University of Iowa in Iowa City both offer master’s degree programs to prepare nurses for the role. Currently, 1,926 clinical nurse leaders are practicing in the United States. In the Midwest, there are 410 such leaders. The concept was developed by the American Academy of Colleges of Nurses in collaboration with educators and employers, with the first program offered in 2004. (Des Moines Register/Juice)

National News

HHS Announces first 26 health care innovation awards
Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced the first batch of organizations for Health Care Innovation awards. Made possible by the health care law – the Affordable Care Act – the awards will support 26 innovative projects nationwide that will save money, deliver high quality medical care and enhance the health care workforce.  The preliminary awardees announced today expect to reduce health spending by $254 million over the next three years. (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)

Health care for Congress examined
The Congressional Research Service report, dated May 3, addresses an issue that commonly arises during debates over health insurance policy. Nearly all federal employees, including elected federal officials, are eligible to participate in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. FEHBP also has no requirement for medical examinations on enrollment, no pre-existing condition exclusions or waiting periods, the choice of self-only or self-and-family coverage, and an employer contribution toward premiums that averages about 72 percent of the total cost. (Washington Post)

Jawboning by HHS Doesn’t Scare Insurers
The health reform law gave HHS the power to scrutinize “unreasonable” rate hikes in states that didn’t have robust review programs. But “scrutiny” doesn’t give the department power to actually block the rates from going into effect. HHS can use its bully pulpit to publicly shame insurers whose rates don’t pass its sniff test – and HHS has done just that, holding four media calls since November to scold insurers each time it’s made a new “unreasonable” determination. (Politico)

No more ‘pill-now, pay-later’ at Utah hospitals
Two days before undergoing a diagnostic CT scan of her misfiring heart, Jessica Pierce got a phone call from Intermountain Healthcare’s Valley View Medical Center asking her to pay for the procedure up front. The 24-year-old college graduate is on her dad’s insurance plan. But the billing office was adamant: pay your portion of the bill now or we may not schedule the scan. Consumers pay in advance for all types of goods and services, from groceries and gas to airline tickets. But national outrage over news that a debt collection firm, Accretive Health Inc., placed bedside bill collectors in emergency rooms at nonprofit hospitals in Minnesota suggests Americans view healthcare differently. (Salt Lake Tribune)

A hospital mission is more than a slogan on the wall
Consider some of the most challenging issues you and your healthcare organization are currently facing–be they financial, personnel, service, or other–and assess whether you truly believe your potential solutions are aligned without exception to your hospital’s core values. Now consider where/if these solutions are not aligned and identify the disconnect. Why is there misalignment? Are your values wrong? Are your solutions wrong? As Sean Connery said in “The Untouchables,” … “What are you prepared to do?” (Hospital Impact)

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

Iowa News

Iowa lawmakers send 4 budget bills to governor
The Iowa Legislature’s logjam on spending measures broke loose Monday when the Senate passed three budget bills in 16 minutes. It was a sign that lawmakers, now three weeks past the scheduled April 17 adjournment, are finally ready to go home. The votes came after committees reached deals on most of the major budget bills Monday. Senators quickly passed education, administration and infrastructure budget bills without debate. And four bills were sent to Gov. Terry Branstad’s desk: education, administration and regulation, the court system and economic development. (Sioux City Journal)

Wheaton partners with Marquette University to build simulation center
The new facility, to be named the Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare Center for Clinical Simulation at Marquette University, will combine the expertise of Marquette’s nursing faculty with the real world experience of Wheaton’s nurses and clinical care providers. It will include a six-bed hospital with two intensive care rooms, two medical surgical rooms, one pediatric/neonatal intensive care unit, and one labor and delivery suite. (Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare)

Iowa baseball parks offering free sunblock to keep fans safe
Projects are underway at several minor league baseball parks that are designed to make sure Iowans return home “safe” without a painful sunburn. The Iowa Cubs, Cedar Rapids Kernels, Clinton LumberKings and the Burlington Bees will be providing free sunscreen in their stadiums this season along with sun-safe messages. Several local hospitals are partners in the initiative. (Radio Iowa)

National News

Health care access to erode if law struck down, study says
The study, one of a series on the fractured state of the $2.6 trillion U.S. health care system published in the May issue of the journal Health Affairs, says access to health care deteriorated for U.S. adults aged 19 to 64 between 2000 and 2010, even among those with private health insurance. The age group represents about 195 million people, according to U.S. Census data, and has been targeted for expanded health coverage under the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement. (Reuters/Chicago Tribune)

Hospitals lose millions from cancelled surgeries
Patient no-shows and cancellations on the day of surgery are costing hospitals millions of dollars each year, Anesthesiology News reported. Researchers at Tulane University Medical Center found that 6.7 percent of scheduled elective outpatient surgeries were cancelled in 2009, totaling almost $1 million in lost revenue for that year. Since surgeries account for almost 60 percent of the hospital’s revenue, such losses can significantly hurt the bottom line, researchers noted. (Fierce Healthcare)

Medicare’s ‘no-pay’ HAI policy reshifts hospital priorities
What’s been the impact of the 2008 law that empowered Medicare to refuse payment for additional care necessitated by so-called “never events” such as wrong-site surgeries and healthcare-associated infections that should never be allowed to happen? The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services initially estimated it would avoid spending $20 million the first year the policy was in place and $50 million in subsequent years. (HealthLeaders Media)

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

Iowa News

Muscatine hospital reflects on financial turnaround
There was a danger of the hospital defaulting on its bonds. Patients were dissatisfied and employee morale was low. After working with medical and hospital experts to turn the situation around, the hospital’s downward spiral still continued until the hospital began a relationship with Trinity Regional Health System. Trinity initially signed a management agreement in May 2008. Operational processes such as coding and billing immediately improved. “The efficiency and effectiveness and knowledge share of being in a bigger system made it a better system,” John Beckey, president of the hospital’s board of directors, said. (Quad-City Times)

Celebrating health care professionals
The week of May 6 -12 is Nurses Week and Hospital Week. It is a time for us to stop, and take a moment to reflect and appreciate the impact we, as health care providers, make each day in the lives of our family, friends and community. Though it may feel as if we are patting our own backs, as employees of Trinity Regional Medical Center we have a lot to celebrate and to be proud of. (Fort Dodge Messenger)

Burgess nurse certified in field that embraces information technology
Over the past 27 years, Kate Garred has worked in many clinical areas — the emergency room, critical care, school nursing and nursing education. The clinical analyst at Burgess Health Center is now board-certified in nursing informatics, an applied science that combines nursing science, information and computer science. As a clinical analyst, Garred is a link between the clinical world and the technology world. “I work with all of the hospital departments to help develop the best documentation practices and work with information flow throughout the hospital and clinics so that everyone has the information they need to make clinical decisions and do their jobs,” she said. (Sioux City Journal)

Mercy Air Care celebrates 25 Years in Sioux City
After hitting the skies and saving lives for a quarter of a century, it’s time to party. Mercy Medical Center’s celebrating the 25th anniversary of Mercy Air Care in Sioux City this weekend. The service started back in 1987 with a single engine helicopter. Now some of the people who helped get Air Care off the ground are back in town, including Dr. David Greco. Over the years that helicopter service has airlifted more than 9,000 patients to safety. (KMEG)

Spencer teen acknowledged for bringing home the blue
Spencer was in the spotlight, and specifically one Spencer student who got the Blue Zones Committee’s attention and sang her way to victory. “The very first thing was Katie Simpson,” said “Blue Zones-Lessons for Living Longer from the People who’ve Lived the Longest,” author Dan Buettner. Katie is a 13-year-old who took her talent to the Web. “I just felt that there was some way I could get involved, and that was the way I could do it, because music is a passion of mine,” said Simpson. Simpson wrote and sang Spencer’s theme song, “My town.”

Opportunity still exists for Blue Zones progress
While Ottumwa was not chosen in the first round of Blue Zones demonstration sites, that doesn’t mean the work is over. Four cities were announced as Blue Zones demonstration sites Friday morning: Cedar Falls, Mason City, Spencer and Waterloo. “We will continue to look at this as an opportunity,” said Lynelle Diers, Wapello County’s clinical director of public health. “We plan on applying again in the next round.” (Ottumwa Courier/Chicago Tribune)

Area communities aren’t giving up on project
Although Clinton and Muscatine were not among the four Iowa communities picked for the Blue Zones project designed to promote healthy lifestyles, local organizers say they hope to build on what they have done and be ready for the next round. Davenport officials said Thursday they planned to try for the designation in the next round after learning that the city also had not been selected. (Quad-City Times)

National News

Medical billing, a world of hurt
Reading a medical bill can feel like trying to solve a puzzle — and determining whether something listed is accurate or a mistake can take multiple phone calls to an insurance company, hospital, doctor’s office or laboratory. “The whole billing stuff from everybody’s point of view is, well, I’m not sure you could make it more complicated,” said Ken Hertz, a principal with the national consulting firm Medical Group Management Association. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

Doc-nurse relationships: A sore subject in sore need of a solution
But what struck me in the reader feedback were the calls for education and training. Those readers appear to be onto something, as recent research found that hospital training programs aimed at increasing physician-nurse communication and teamwork helped reduce surgery-related complications, including blood clots and infections. Moreover, hospitals that used teamwork training saw a 15 percent decrease in patient deaths, compared to a 10 percent drop at hospitals that didn’t use the program, according to a December 2011 study in the Archives of Surgery. (Fierce Healthcare)

Virtual doctors’ visits catch on with insurers, employers
NowClinic, which started in 2010 and has expanded into 22 states, is part of the explosion of Web- and telephone-based medical services that experts say are transforming the delivery of primary health care, giving consumers access to inexpensive, round-the-clock care for routine problems—often without having to leave home or work. Insurers such as United Healthcare, Aetna and Cigna, and large employers such as General Electric and Delta Air Lines are getting on board, pushing telemedicine as a way to make doctor “visits” cheaper and more easily available. (USA Today)

Ambu-bus is Kentucky’s new emergency vehicle
Authorities in Kentucky are making use of old school buses that are being turned into ambulances. Each one can carry up to 18 patients, which officials say will be of great help in case of a major accident or disaster. The Kentucky Hospital Association is helping with the conversions through a grant program. Counties must buy the buses, but the association will help pay to convert them into ambulances. (Huffington Post)