Featuring hospital and health care headlines from the media and Web from December 12-December 18.

Iowa Headlines

Harkin takes to radio, TV to back bill
The Iowa Democrat has been dispatched to ease the concerns of liberal groups and leaders who have voiced their frustrations with compromises the Democratic leadership has made to hold together its tenuous coalition. (December 18, Des Moines Register)

Union membership to decide whether to back Culver, leader says
Whether Iowa’s largest public employee union will work to help Democratic Gov. Chet Culver in his re-election bid will be up to the members of the union, its leader said Friday. GOP challengers are lining up for the chance to take on Culver, who is expected to seek his second term next year. Support for Culver from at least one union is not yet assured. (December 11, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier)

Official: UIHC turns financial corner
University of Iowa Health Care officials say the hospital has “turned the corner” after months of financial woes, and they are prepared to move forward with work on a new outpatient clinic in Coralville.  (December 17, Iowa City Press-Citizen)

Allen Child Protection Center to open next year
Each year more than 100 sexually or physically abused Black Hawk County children are sent to Cedar Rapids for a forensic interview and treatment. Nina Thomas has made that journey to the St. Luke’s Child Protection Center with several young people. She has seen the extra stress placed on the families and the child. (December 14, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier)

We should shoot for higher Iowa health ranking
Just as the Hawks were a few plays from maybe making the Top 5, Iowans could be a few calories or a couple of packs of cigarettes away from sliding further down the rankings.  (December 14, Dubuque Telegraph Herald)

Iowa set to get Mercy Capitol keys
The people of Iowa are about to become the new owners of an old hospital. The east-side Des Moines facility, most recently known as Mercy Capitol, “is not the greatest building,” said Ray Walton, director of the state Department of Administrative Services. But it’s in a valuable location, just northeast of the Statehouse, and it could house about 400 government employees now using rented space elsewhere. (December 14, Des Moines Register)

Experts weigh in on health care reform
If Mid-Iowa is to get meaningful health care reform, there has to be a focus on what’s causing spiraling costs, and Iowa must get a better level of Medicare funding, according to experts who addressed the Ames Chamber of Commerce Friday. Four panelists from the fields of medicine, politics and private health insurance spoke to a group of about 50 people at Mary Greeley Medical Center. (December 12, Ames Tribune)

Broadlawns’ Hall fights audit release
The chief pharmacist at Polk County’s public hospital wants a judge to block release of documents related to allegations the pharmacy was mismanaged.  Mark Hall has asked for an injunction to prevent Broadlawns Medical Center from giving The Des Moines Register copies of the documents, including an internal audit of how the pharmacy tracked drug supplies. (December 17, Des Moines Register)

U.S.  Headlines

Hospital, physician lobbyists fought Medicare buy-in plan
The proposal to allow people ages 55 to 64 to buy insurance through Medicare — one of the most significant ideas to emerge from the Senate’s side of the debate — appeared and vanished in a mere six days.  (December 16, Washington Post)

Unified, yes; united, no
As the new nursing union behemoth – the National Nurses United – is unveiled, some of its new members aren’t exactly jumping for joy. (December 16, Modern Healthcare)

California hospital vote pits upstart union against colossus
Hundreds of workers at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital are scheduled to go to the polls in a closely watched union vote pitting the giant Service Employees International (SEIU) against an upstart rival. The balloting at has drawn scrutiny in labor circles nationwide because of the nasty underlying conflict between the SEIU and its breakaway competitor, the National Union of Healthcare Workers. (December 17, Los Angeles Times)

Public cooling to health-care reform as debate drags on, poll finds
Anew Washington Post-ABC News poll finds the public generally fearful that a revamped healthcare system would bring higher costs while worsening the quality of their care. A bare majority of Americans still believe government action is needed to control runaway healthcare costs and expand coverage to the roughly 46 million people without insurance.  (December 16, Washington Post)

Top 10 health care issues in 2010
Some might say that there’s no juice left to squeeze from the cost of providing care, but a new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Health Research Institute says health leaders are going to have to try.  (December 18, HealthLeaders Media)

Smoking rate drops in Massachusetts, drawing attention
When Massachusetts began offering virtually free treatments to help poor residents of the state stop smoking in 2006, proponents hoped the new Medicaid program would someday reap benefits. But state officials never expected it would happen so soon. (December 17, New York Times)

New hospital debuts in Minnesota; patients wanted
The construction crews have gone. Balloons and bouquets dot the lobby, and fish swim placidly in an aquarium near the lounge. Now the Twin Cities’ newest hospital just needs some patients.  (December 16, Minneapolis Star Tribune)

Massachusetts ER policy passes checkup
A new Massachusetts policy requiring crowded hospital emergency rooms to accept all patients delivered by ambulance has not worsened conditions, as some doctors had feared. According to an analysis by state public health officials, the average time patients spent in 75 of the state’s emergency rooms remained about the same since the rules went into effect in January 2009. (December 14, Boston Globe)

Immigrants lose lawsuit against Atlanta hospital
Efforts to force the public hospital here to continue providing free dialysis treatment to a group of immigrants, most of them illegal, suffered a setback on Tuesday when a judge dismissed a lawsuit challenging the recent closing of the hospital’s outpatient renal clinic. (December 15, New York Times)

Featuring hospital and health care headlines from the media and Web from October 31-November 6.

Iowa Headlines

Hospice workers get life out of caring for dying
Joyce  Hutchison continues to use her passion and years of experience to educate others about the benefits of hospice. Part of that is overcoming fear. Going to hospice won’t make patients die any sooner, she said.  (November 4, Des Moines Register)

Genesis will demonstrate da Vinci surgery system
Da Vinci offers a precise, minimally invasive procedure for hysterectomies and prostatectomies. Patients benefit with a faster recovery time, shorter hospital stay, less pain, less scarring and quicker return to normal activities.  (November 5, Quad-City Times)

Harkin asks big insurers to explain rate practices
Sen. Tom Harkin said this week he was launching an investigation into health insurance pricing, asking four major insurers to justify their pricing practices.  An industry spokesman called the move unfair and misguided.  (November 4, Des Moines Register)

U.S.  Headlines

Costs at urban hospitals may get extra scrutiny in health bill
As Congress struggles to rein in health care costs as part of its sweeping reform efforts, hospitals in New York City and other urban areas that provide some of the most expensive care are among the primary targets.  (November 2, New York Times)

Health bills aim a light on doctors’ conflicts
As part of the health care overhaul under consideration by Congress, lawmakers have included so-called sunshine provisions intended to shed light on the financial relationships between the medical industry and doctors.  (November 3, New York Times)

Program will monitor Maryland doctors’ hand-washing
State officials said this week they’re creating teams of staff members at hospitals around the state to secretly monitor their colleagues’ hand-washing habits as part of a first-of-its-kind program. The monitors will contribute to a systemwide report on hand-washing, using $100,000 in federal stimulus money.  (November 3, Associated Press)

Texas lawmakers try to give doctor-owned hospitals a dose of help
Texas House members are mounting a late effort to delay new limits on physician-owned hospitals, putting them at odds with Democratic leaders who think the facilities drive up health care costs.  (November 5, Dallas Morning News)

Nurses union reaches deal on H1N1 safety in U.S.
The H1N1 pact, announced on Monday as part of a contract settlement between the California Nurses Association and Catholic Healthcare West, averted a one-day strike threatened by thousands of registered nurses at more than 30 hospitals.  (November 2, Reuters)

Hospitals make slow progress in harnessing the ‘social’ aspects of social media
Hospitals’ current social media activties can be classified across to five major areas: brand management, real-time public relations, volume generation, non-marketing functions and community building. But only a small amount of hospital activity in the social media space could be described as “social.”  Rather, the majority of these efforts are either one-way “monologues” or bounded two-way conversations with little staying power.   (October 31, iHealthBeat)

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.

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.

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin has announced plans to visit four Iowa cities this weekend to meet with community leaders and discuss the billions of health care dollars included in the recently passed economic stimulus package.  According to a released statement, Harkin will discuss how the legislation “prevents health care loss and ensures states can prevent eligibility cuts for Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program…strengthens the health care workforce and invests in community health centers.”

Senator Harkin is involved with the ongoing health care reform efforts in Washington D.C. and in November he accepted an invitation by Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions to lead a working group tasked with crafting the prevention and public health components of health care reform.

Senator Harkin will be hosting meetings at the following times and locations:

March 13

• 4:00 pm
  Mt. Mercy College
  Flaherty Community Room, Basile Hall
  1330 Elmhurst Drive NE
  Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52402

March 14

• 9:30 am
  St. Ambrose University
  Rogalski Center – Third Floor
  518 W. Locust Street
  Davenport, Iowa 52803
• 12:30 pm
  Broadlawns Medical Center
  Hunsaker Conference Room – Fourth Floor
  1801 Hickman Road
  Des Moines, Iowa 50314

March 15

• 1:15 pm
  Community Health Center
  300 West Broadway #6
  Council Bluffs, Iowa 51503