Iowa News

FMCH to expand with rehab center
About a year from now, a new outpatient rehabilitation center will be serving patients of Fort Madison Community Hospital. FMCH has approved the construction of a 23,500-square-foot building, to be attached to the current northeast side of the hospital. (Fort Madison Daily Democrat)

Honoree Garcia-Padial followed father into medicine
The Alegent Health Foundation will honor four individuals from southwest Iowa for their professional and personal contributions to the community during the 2010 Heritage Dinner March 20 at Harrah’s Council Bluffs Casino & Hotel, 1 Harrah’s Blvd. Jorge Garcia-Padial, M.D., will be honored in the category of health and medicine. (Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil)

Professor leads probe into rare eye disease
Vinit Mahajan has one very ambitious aspiration. “My mentors have invested their efforts into training me for one goal,” said the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics doctor. “Cure the blind.” (University of Iowa Daily Iowan)

Mercy Brain & Spine Center concentrates on complex cases
Mirza Baig, a neurosurgeon at the recently formed Mercy Brain & Spine Center, can easily rattle off three recent cases where the new team of surgeons, physical therapists, pain managers and other support personnel sprang into action to treat an injured or seriously ill patient with speed and efficiency. (Des Moines Register)

WHC offers sports enhancement program
Waverly Health Center Physical Therapy will offer a unique Sports Performance Enhancement Program for area athletes in conjunction with Wartburg College. (Waverly Democrat)

GRMC shows positive financial report
While many aspects of the economy continue to struggle and fall, the finances at Greater Regional Medical Center are looking up. The hospital’s financial report, which was updated by Greater Regional Healthcare Foundation and released last month, showed a good fiscal year for 2009. (Creston News Adverstiser)

U.S. News

Obama takes health care overhaul push to Missouri
The nation’s top health official challenged insurers on Wednesday to join President Barack Obama’s push to overhaul the medical system, arguing that if the effort fails it will hurt them as well as other Americans. Obama is to speak Wednesday in suburban St. Louis and then travel to northeastern Ohio on Monday, his third health care event in a week. (Associated Press)

Parliamentary hurdle could thwart latest health care overhaul strategy
The White House and Democratic Congressional leaders said Tuesday that they were bracing for a key procedural ruling that could complicate their effort to approve major health care legislation, by requiring President Obama to sign the bill into law before Congress could revise it through an expedited budget process. (New York Times)

Health care ad cyclorama to clog airwaves
It’s not quite election season, but President Obama is on the stump, pushing his health care bill. Now, millions of dollars in political ads aimed at swaying Congress are hitting the airwaves. (USA Today)

New tool lets patients call the shots at end of their lives
The document has an awkward name — Provider Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment, or POLST — but it seems to work. Where it is standard practice, most notably Oregon and La Crosse, Wis., far fewer people die in intensive care units hooked up to machines they didn’t want. (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

Group appointments give patients better access to physicians
Caring for multiple patients simultaneously has gotten a new boost as the nation urgently searches for sustainable models of health care. The group visit was cited as one of 10 trends to take seriously by the Future of Family Medicine Project, a national effort headed by the American Academy of Family Physicians looking for ways to improve the delivery of health care for both patients and their doctors. (Washington Post)

Mayors want health costs on ballot
A group of Massachusetts mayors, fed up with what they say is legislative inaction on skyrocketing municipal health care costs, has launched a ballot initiative for 2012 aimed at giving cities and towns more flexibility in reducing expensive benefits for employees, retirees, and elected officials. (Boston Globe)

Cost of medical school rises in recession
A family is struggling to pay for their daughter’s medical school education. They know that the average doctor graduates with about $150,000 of student loans, and wonder how they’re ever going to pay it. (National Public Radio)

Iowa News

Medicare cuts could limit care, doctors say
Local health-care providers warn a proposed 21 percent reduction in their Medicare reimbursements could reduce care for the tri-state area’s older adults. (Dubuque Telegraph Herald)

Paradigm shift: Broadlawns builds for the future
“Our long-term goal, and we’ve talked about this at the board level, is really to be the best small public hospital in America, and I think we’re well on our way to doing that,” said Jody Jenner, CEO at Broadlawns Medical Center in Des Moines. (Des Moines Business Record)

Future is bright for Trinity Muscatine
Trinity Muscatine still offers convenient access to local health care with knowledgeable, yet familiar, physicians, nurses and staff. People can expect hometown care, but we are also able to tap into more specialized services that the Trinity system has a stellar reputation for providing. (Muscatine Journal)

VA’s decision on clinic site coming soon
In just a few weeks, Winneshiek Medical Center should know if the Veterans Administration plans to locate a community based outpatient clinic (CBOC) on its campus. According to WMC Chief Medical Officer Dan Werner, the VA has extended its application process by one day, for entities interested in submitted a proposal for a CBOC site. (Decorah Public Opinion)

Coalition seeks to address Iowa’s nurse shortage
As Iowa’s Baby Boomers get older, will there be enough nurses to provide care for them? If present trends continue, the nursing work force will fall far short of the increasing demand from the state’s aging population, say health-care experts. (Des Moines Business Record)

Employers expect to hire more
According to the latest Manpower Employment Outlook Survey, 14 percent of companies in the Cedar Rapids metropolitan area, which includes Iowa City and Johnson County, said they expect to hire more people from April to June. That is more than the 11 percent of area employers who said they planned to add more people from January through March. (Iowa City Press-Citizen)

U.S. News

Obama makes health care pitch
“We can’t have a system that works better for the insurance companies than it does for the American people,” Mr. Obama said. “We need to give families and businesses more control over their own health insurance.” House Minority Leader John Boehner (R., Ohio) characterized Mr. Obama’s speech as a rerun of past rhetoric. (Wall Street Journal)

Lights, camera, reconcile!
The yearlong debate over health care reform — a titanic contest involving big ideas, passionate convictions and lofty principles — is headed toward a highly unlikely endgame: a clash between parliamentary procedure attorneys. (Politico)

Anyone remember what’s in the health care bill?
Since the Senate passed its version of a health overhaul on Christmas Eve, most of the debate has focused on the politics of the effort. By now, many people have forgotten — if they ever knew — what the bill would actually do. So here’s a short refresher. (National Public Radio)

Lawsuit caps proposal could be headed to Illinois voters
In response to the Illinois Supreme Court’s decision last month overturning the state’s cap on medical malpractice awards, state Sen. Dave Luechtefeld, R-Okawville, has introduced a constitutional amendment that would prevent the state’s high court from overturning future medical malpractice reform laws. (Legal Newsline)

N.C. hospital infection data kept from public
Don Dalton, an N.C. Hospital Association spokesman, said public reporting is not mandated in North Carolina because the state isn’t ready. “The state recognizes that to put out inaccurate and insufficient data would be potentially as much harm to the public as much as a benefit to the public,” he said. But Dalton, as well as legislators and other health care officials, said he thinks N.C. hospitals will be required to report infection rates to the state government soon, possibly within the next two years. (Charlotte Observer)

Senate panel to investigate deaths at long-term care facilities
The Senate Finance Committee has opened an investigation into patient deaths and allegations of substandard treatment at long-term care hospitals, small specialty medical centers that treat chronically ill patients. (New York Times)

Iowa News

Look out for Iowans, not just insurers
Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield raised premiums an average of 18 percent this year for Iowans who buy health insurance on their own. People are wondering how the company can justify this when it’s spending $250 million on a new headquarters and $2.4 million on its chief executive’s pay. Iowans have a lot of questions. So do state lawmakers. But getting satisfactory answers isn’t easy. (Des Moines Register)

Health premiums depend on cultural changes
The current health care crisis of double-digit rate increases by insurance companies, including Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Iowa, was predictable. In fact, a statewide study warned six years ago that rising medical costs were on the brink of creating a financial crisis for Iowa employers. But little was done, and things got worse. (Des Moines Register)

Legislators split over how to handle the Iowa Power Fund
Democrats at the Statehouse are divided over a key component of the budget. They’re wrangling over how much money to invest in the Iowa Power Fund. The $25-million-a-year grant program was created in 2007 to support renewable energy projects across the state. The top two Democratic leaders in the senate say they want to protect it from the 10 percent budget cut applied to the rest of state government. (Radio Iowa)

This won’t hurt a bit
A physician talks about his experience as a hospital patient and how it changed the way he perceives patients and practices medicine. (Alegent Health Blog)

U.S. News

Healthcare overhaul comes down to Pelosi and Obama
The bill’s fate depends on whether the House speaker can land enough votes – and whether the president can take control of the debate, which Democrats say he has not done. (Los Angeles Times)

Under health reform, Medicaid would cover many childless adults
While Medicaid is the main government health insurance plan for the poor, the joint state-federal program has excluded Matthews and millions of other adults with no dependent children since the 1960s. Medicaid has been limited mainly to children in poor families, the elderly, pregnant women and the disabled. Some states have tried to fill the gap, but childless adults now comprise a majority of uninsured Americans. (Kaiser Health News)

How would health care overhaul help young people?
Critics warn that low-cost policies would leave young people financially vulnerable and reluctant to seek care. Supporters counter that the plans would help young people who otherwise might be uninsured. “Any coverage is always better than no coverage,” says Leslie Norwalk, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services during the George W. Bush administration. (USA Today)

How Blue Cross became part of a dysfunctional health care system
The only solution is to prohibit all insurers from discriminating against the sick and to make sure that everybody is part of large, financially sound insurance groups in which there are enough healthy people to subsidize the cost of the sick. (Kaiser Health News)

Medical care vanishing in rural Wisconsin
Since 2001, several rural hospitals have cut services that typically lose money, according to an analysis of a Wisconsin Hospital Association database by the Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative and the Wisconsin State Journal. (Wisconsin State Journal)

Costs of insuring the poor shift to Minnesota hospitals
About 30,000 poor Minnesotans will continue to receive health insurance coverage under a deal reached Friday by Gov. Tim Pawlenty and DFL legislative leaders. General Assistance Medical Care was scheduled to run out at the end of the month and supporters of the program were worried the state’s poorest would have no health coverage at all. (Minnesota Public Radio)

Lawmakers consider banning hospital advertising
After year upon year of struggling to rein in the ballooning cost of health care, a Vermont state legislator is unsure whether hospitals should be spending their money — or ratepayers’ money — that way. He has proposed legislation that would prohibit them from using money for advertising and marketing. (Burlington Free Press)

Miami’s Jackson Health System puts 2 hospitals on chopping block
With cash set to run out in May, Jackson Health System has announced plans to lay off 4,487 employees — more than a third of the work force — and close the system’s two satellite hospitals. (Miami Herald)

‘Speed-dating’ doctors woo patients
New in town, Brandy Preston reasoned that it was only lunch. She liked the fact that there were no strings attached. If she didn’t like the person, she could just say, “It was nice to meet you,” and leave. “I was surprised because it felt so comfortable and I wasn’t afraid to ask questions,” the 29-year-old said. “I mean, I’d finally met the right match. This gynecologist was exactly who I wanted.” (CNN)

Iowa News

Culver: Iowans should prep for floods
Spring flooding is all but inevitable this year, Gov. Chet Culver warned Thursday, urging Iowa residents to prepare for high water by assembling emergency kits and to consider buying flood insurance. The biggest dangers are in the basins of the Des Moines, Raccoon, Iowa and Cedar rivers, Culver said at a news conference. (Des Moines Register)

Orange City hospital developing new nursing home
Orange City is preparing for the future by developing a new senior care campus. The Orange City Area Health System purchased 37 acres to develop over the next few years. The 83-bed nursing home will be just west of the Landsmeer Ridge senior living community on the north side of the city. It will offer a village-style care center for the aging Baby Boomer generation. (KMEG)

Help for Haiti
Registered nurse Johnna Lindstrom of Oelwein, who works at Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids, recently decided to take her life quest a step above and beyond her regular duties. Although she knows she helps people every day in her current profession, she felt she could do even more by extending her skills to the people of earthquake ravaged Haiti. (Oelwein Daily Register)

Iowa Health System launching scholarship
Iowa Health System is partnering with the Des Moines branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to offer scholarships for under-represented high school seniors pursuing careers in health care. Each year, one student will be selected based on an essay about his or her commitment to improving America’s health care system. (Des Moines Register)

Lab tech develops good swimmers
Get involved, the boss said. Make a difference in the community, the boss said. Not only did Robert Volpe comply to the request of his employer, Fort Madison Community Hospital, but he was able to help out in an area he is familiar with: swimming. “The hospital is very big on employees being involved with the community,” Volpe said. “This (being swim coach) was a chance to get involved.”

Sunshine circle working to brighten the day at Finley Hospital
If you often visit loved ones in the hospital, you may be very familiar with the hospital gift shop. But what you may not know is at Finley Hospital in Dubuque all the profits made in the gift shop are donated back to the hospital. More than $58,000 was donated to Finley hospital in 2009. (KCRG)

U.S. News

Obama intensifies health-care efforts
An aide to President Obama urged lawmakers on Thursday to make substantial progress on his health-care plan before he leaves on a foreign trip in mid-March, as Obama summoned wavering House Democrats to the White House for a private sales pitch. (Washington Post)

Pressure mounts for/against health care bill
As President Obama pushes for a prompt up or down vote on his health initiative, lobbyists and activist groups on both sides of the issue have launched grass-roots and high-dollar advertising campaigns on the roughly two dozen members of Congress who may be the final swing votes on the controversial issue. (Los Angeles Times)

I’m a Medicare doctor. Here’s what I make
When you think of low-paying jobs, doctor doesn’t usually come to mind. But with a 21 percent cut in Medicare payments slated to take effect later this month, physicians who say they are making an OK living may be reduced to income levels that no longer make their profession viable. That’s especially true for those still paying medical school costs and other training. (CNN)

How much fraud and abuse is there in U.S. health care
The regulations surrounding the rendering of health care services to the federal government are immensely complex. They seem to be based on the idea that every provider of these services is a latent crook. Other countries manage the process by exception. They go by the assumption that the bulk of providers of care are honest and then merely go after the statistical outliers. Far less money is spent on billing in those countries. (New York Times)

Minnesota residents sue to save expiring health plan
Three Minnesota recipients of General Assistance Medical Care filed a lawsuit against Gov. Pawlenty and other state officials Thursday to keep the subsidized health care program in place, at least temporarily. (Minnesota Public Radio)

Hospitals present 3.5 percent fee to raise TennCare funds
Tennessee Hospital Association leaders briefed state officials Thursday about their plan to raise $229.5 million from a 3.5 percent fee on hospitals. Hospital officials said the money — meant to offset many of Gov. Phil Bredesen’s proposed TennCare cuts — will be raised through what they are calling an “enhanced coverage fee” and would draw an additional $429.6 million in federal matching funds. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

Health and care
Primary medicine may be on the decline in prestige and pay, but the fancy surgical specialties can’t offer the same daily dose of satisfaction, heartbreak, and connection. Judy Paley, a primary care doctor with a two-person practice and a load of bills in Denver, has started a blog brimming with what she calls “close encounters of the life-saving kind.’’ Reading it is good for what ails you. (Boston Globe)

Dr. Judy Paley

Anyone who spends enough time around health care and medicine knows there is no shortage of reading material.  More heavily regulated than the nuclear power industry, the sum of federal, state and local health care policies make the tax code look like a walk in the park.  The 2,400-page health care reform bill? Somewhat impressive, but far from unprecedented.

Outside the regulatory arena, the reading becomes somewhat more interesting. Journals and assorted periodicals cover every specialty.  Health care books could fill a whole aisle or more at Barnes & Noble, and they do.  Many of them are huge tomes by self-indulgent practitioners that leave one immediate impression: When did this guy have time to see patients? 

But there are treasures out there, and one of them is a blog by Judy Paley, a primary care doctor with a two-person practice in Denver.  And the Denver she works in is the one in Colorado, not in northwest Iowa.  That needs to be pointed out, because Dr. Paley sounds and writes like a small-town, patient-centered, community-loving doc.  Her “Medical Moments in 55 Words or Less,” as she calls her blog, have been described as health care haiku.  They are sad, funny, illuminating and the very definition of poignant. 

Give yourself a treat and check out what Dr. Paley so generously shares.

Iowa News

Grassley stands firm on health care bill
Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley said Wednesday that President Barack Obama was sincere in incorporating into health care legislation Grassley’s suggestion that Congress put more money into insurance programs for low-income Americans. But Grassley said the gesture was insufficient to win his support for the president’s bill. Grassley also noted the provision Obama suggested did not include Grassley’s proposed spending cuts to pay for it. (Des Moines Register)

Iowa surgeon featured on Discovery TV program
Dr. Dan Waters, cardiac surgeon at Mercy Heart Center in Mason City, will be featured on a Discovery Channel program today. Waters will appear in “Stone Cold,” one in a series of programs on “Surviving Death” being broadcast on the Discovery and Discovery HD Channels. The program will air at 8 and 11 p.m. tonight. (Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier)

County delays building new ambulance facility
Budget cuts for fiscal 2011 led the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to propose holding off on pledging funds for a new building to house the ambulance and medical examiner facilities. By not immediately pledging money toward the building project and postponing other payments, the property-tax increase in 2011 will be 1.8 percent rather than 4.3 percent. (University of Iowa Daily Iowan)

U.S. News

Obama’s new game plan: Be more assertive
President Barack Obama will be more assertive with Congress after disappointing members in his first year with mixed signals during the healthcare debate, Democrats say. Obama made a crucial mistake not rallying the party behind a detailed healthcare reform proposal earlier in the debate, Democrats in both chambers broadly acknowledge. (The Hill)

Obama summons waffling Members to the White House to talk health care
Obama reached out to different factions of House Democrats on Wednesday night and asked them to meet with him this afternoon in two separate meetings. Several lawmakers who were invited said Obama didn’t tell them what the meetings were about, but that it was fairly obvious based on the guest list. (Roll Call)

Some small businesses see burden in ‘Cadillac’ tax
Higher-cost plans, dubbed “Cadillac” policies by some, often have generous benefits with low deductibles and co-payments, but this is not always the case. Premiums may also be high because customers are charged more because of their age, gender, geographic area or heath status. (Kaiser Health News)

21 District hospital workers fired for being blizzard no-shows
Washington Hospital Center fired eight more employees this week after they failed to show up for work during last month’s crippling snowstorms. The hospital announced that it has also rehired three of the 16 workers it had terminated. (Washington Post)

Concern over ‘metal on metal’ hip implants
Some of the nation’s leading orthopedic surgeons have reduced or stopped use of a popular category of artificial hips amid concerns that the devices are causing severe tissue and bone damage in some patients, often requiring replacement surgery within a year or two. (New York Times)

Iowa News

Scott County mental health service cuts less deep than expected
A revised budget from the Iowa Department of Human Services will save Scott County from slashing four programs and $1.36 million from its mental health and developmental disabilities budget. The Scott County Board of Supervisors heard the news Tuesday that the DHS budget won’t have any further cuts and will stay at the same funding level as last year. In fiscal year 2010, Scott County received $13.9 million in state revenue. (Quad-City Times)

Harkin announces nearly $4 million for improvements to Van Buren County Hospital
Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) today announced that a loan of $3,871,000 and grant of $100,000 have been awarded to the hospital in Keosauqua for the expansion and rehabilitation of the existing facilities. The funding comes through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Community Facility Program. (IowaPolitics)

Program discounts eye surgery for soldiers
Thanks to Sight for Soldiers, a new program organized by the Iowa Academy of Ophthalmology, soldiers are able to receive laser eye surgery at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics at an almost 50 percent discount. (University of Iowa Daily Iowan)

Allamakee County health rankings reveal success upon which to build
A new report from the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute ranks Allamakee County 20th out of Iowa’s 99 counties in Health Outcomes, the primary ranking used to rank the overall health of counties. The County Health Rankings were developed through a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. (Waukon Standard)

Hospital could up tax asking 48%
“The important thing,” said Crawford County Memorial Hospital Chief Financial Officer Nancy Carlson, “in the last five or six years we have kept our tax asking very flat.” She contrasted the tax revenue with community services provided by the hospital: “When we talk about community benefit, it’s the things we offer to the community free or at reduced price.” (Denison Bulletin & Review)

New moms benefit from Hein’s care
Marilyn Hein has worked as a nurse for 45 years, most recently as the breast-feeding educator at Broadlawns Medical Center. In that role, she’s helped increase the breast-feeding rate for new mothers and formed a new monthly breast-feeding support group. (Des Moines Register)

U.S. News

Grassley pushes back
The pushback against President Obama’s overtures to Republicans is under way. Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, who was cited in Mr. Obama’s letter to Congressional leaders on Tuesday, has issued a statement that’s more of a billy club than an olive branch. (New York Times)

In final push, Obama urges ‘up-or-down’ vote on health
“I believe the United States Congress owes the American people a final vote on health care reform,” Mr. Obama said in a brief 15-minute speech in the East Room of the White House. He called on Democratic leaders of both chambers to schedule a vote in the next few weeks, adding, “From now until then, I will do everything in my power to make the case for reform.”  (New York Times)

Lawmakers expand investigation into health insurance rate hikes
The House Committee on Energy and Commerce has summoned the chiefs of WellPoint, UnitedHealth Group, Humana and Aetna to testify about denying claims for policyholders with preexisting conditions. (Los Angeles Times)

Nurse shot inside Connecticut hospital
The 34-year-old nurse at Danbury Hospital who was shot by a patient Tuesday remains hospitalized, police said. He has been identified as Andrew Hull, a former marine and an assistant nurse manager at the hospital. Hospital officials said he was shot after throwing his body in front of another employee. (Hartford Courant)

Deadline for e-health rollout may do more harm than help
Hospitals and physicians in the U.S. have until 2015 to deploy comprehensive electronic health records and the accompanying technology to meet federal guidelines and qualify for billions of dollars in reimbursements. But some health care experts are concerned that the quality of e-health systems might be at risk because of unrealistic deadlines and confusion about what to do first. (BusinessWeek)

Hospital breaks new ground in luxury
A salon for couples’ massages with private shower. Life-coaching sessions in low-lit rooms with cushy chairs. A lineup of services to make clients’ skin appear younger and their bodies thinner. This isn’t a retreat resort. It’s the new face of luxury at the nonprofit Virtua Health system’s recently opened Health and Wellness Center. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Iowa News

Hospitalists revive on-site focus
Both hospitals in Dubuque employ doctors who specialize in caring for hospitalized patients. (Dubuque Telegraph Herald)

Senate approves IowaCare changes
State senators Monday rejected an attempt to offer a basic health plan to more Iowans, but they agreed to let the program pay for care outside of Iowa City and Des Moines. Senators approved a bill, Senate File 2356, designed to improve the IowaCare program. The limited-benefit program now serves about 35,000 uninsured adults who earn less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $22,000 for a single person. (Des Moines Register)

House sends reorganization bill to Culver with just 1 ‘no’
Iowa House lawmakers late Monday approved a final version of a government reorganization bill that projections say will save taxpayers an estimated $126.4 million. The governor is expected to sign the bill, which includes dozens of recommendations made by a consultant he hired to help find savings. (Des Moines Register)

U.S. News

Obama to highlight cost in new health bill push
President Obama this week will begin a climactic push to rally restive Congressional Democrats to pass major health care legislation by hammering the argument that the costs of failure will be higher insurance premiums and lost coverage for individuals and businesses. (New York Times)

Battle brews over tactic to win passage of health bill
The White House said Monday the leading tactic to win passage of the health-care bill was nothing extraordinary, rehearsing a key argument in the final public-relations battle over the bill. For their part, Republicans accuse the Democratic majority of trying to ram through legislation using a parliamentary trick that Republicans say was never designed for such a big bill. (Wall Street Journal)

House fails to override Pawlenty health bill veto
Despite intense lobbying from religious leaders and community activists, the Minnesota House on Monday failed to override a veto of legislation that would have restored a state health care program for some of the state’s poorest and sickest residents. (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)

Team overseeing national database of dangerous or incompetent caregivers is removed
Federal officials have removed the management team overseeing a national database of dangerous or incompetent caregivers after questions were raised about its accuracy.  A recent news story found the repository was probably missing thousands of serious disciplinary cases against health providers. (Los Angeles Times)

A look at the new field of palliative care
Palliative care is medicine’s response to the dismal way people have died. One purpose is to help patients and families make hard decisions when facing chronic illness or death. The end of life is also when the use and expense of health care soars. Medicare spent an estimated $143 billion in 2009 caring for people in their last year. That is enough to provide health insurance to 35 million Americans for a year. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Study explores child end-of-life scenarios
A small study published yesterday in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine reports that more than one in eight parents surveyed considered hastening the death of a child with terminal cancer, with the child’s suffering increasing the likelihood of such thoughts. Five parents said they actually asked a caregiver to speed up their child’s death. (Boston Globe)

Physicians plunging into EMRs, but expect lots of help
If the latest survey report of physicians proves correct, droves of small physician practices are going to try to install EMRs very soon. Accenture’s Innovation Center for Health and Institute for Health & Public Service Value worked with Harris Interactive to survey 1,000 U.S. physicians from practices of fewer than 10 practitioners to measure their views of EMRs. Approximately 15 percent of respondents were users of EMRs and 85% were non-users. (HealthLeaders Media)

Iowa News

Wellmark’s 18% rate increase scrutinized
Iowa hospitals and doctors say their cost increases for consumers have been moderate. Wellmark boosted pay to doctors 2 percent last year. And hospitals say cost increases range between 6 and 7 percent annually. (Des Moines Register)

Mahaska Health Partnership plans $22 million addition
Mahaska Health Partnership wants to continue to keep their patients well cared for. In order to do this, a new addition is needed, said MHP CEO Jay Christensen. (Oskaloosa Herald)

Health officials: Don’t delay care
Postponing treatment during hard times could result in a more serious condition, Dubuque health officials warn. (Dubuque Telegraph Herald)

Paying for future doctors
“Reimbursement from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for graduate medical education to UIHC is much less than the costs of running this crucial mission for our institution to train the next generation of outstanding physicians,” said Mark Wilson, the director of Graduate Medical Education program at UIHC. (Iowa City Press-Citizen)

ORHC creates $62 million impact on local economy
Ottumwa Regional Health Center generated 849 jobs that added more than $44 million to southeast Iowa’s economy in 2008, according to the latest study by the Iowa Hospital Association. (Ottumwa Courier)

Scott County mental health programs brace for cuts
Vera French Community Mental Health Center is bracing to lose up to 15 jobs and more than $800,000 in state funding. That’s as Scott County supervisors prepare to vote on its budget next week. That leaves agencies which serve the most vulnerable population preparing for cuts. And county decision makers really have their hands tied. (WQAD)

Local paramedic sees aftermath of Haiti earthquake
Brett Mayne had seen much devastation as a Marine Corps reservist serving in Iraq five years ago. However, it was nothing compared to what he saw in late January when he traveled to Haiti to help victims of a massive earthquake that struck Jan. 12. (Iowa City Press-Citizen)

U of I Hospitals to block social network Web sites
Beginning Monday, the hospital system will implement technology that blocks access from all clinical workstations to Web sites “that are inappropriate for the health care workplace,” Ken Kates, U of I Hospitals’ chief executive, wrote in an e-mail to staff members. (Des Moines Register)

‘Frazzled’ Iowa lawmakers get ready for deadline week
It’s Grim Reaper week for scores of issues facing a do-or-die legislative deadline. Lawmakers have until Friday to move non-money bills through the House or Senate and a committee in the other legislative chamber to survive the session’s second “funnel” — a self-imposed deadline designed to winnow the work load as they push for adjournment in another month or so. (Quad-City Times)

U.S. News

Pelosi confident on health vote
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday expressed confidence she will have enough votes to pass a health overhaul, but acknowledged it could come at a political cost to lawmakers who back the measure. (Wall Street Journal)

Democrats will have votes for health bill, Obama aide says
Raising the prospect of a “simple up-or-down vote” on health-care reform, White House adviser Nancy-Ann DeParle said on Sunday she thinks Democrats will secure enough ayes on the measure and signaled that the administration could be moving toward trying to pass it along party lines. (Washington Post)

A health care issue both parties can agree on
If you listened carefully to the White House summit on health care last week, you could hear, among all the disagreements, a few points of agreement. One of those agreements is on something called rescission, where health insurance companies cancel policies after people run up heavy bills. Capitol Hill watchers say there could be legislation outlawing the practice within a few months. (National Public Radio)

In hard times, hospitals are bleeding money
Troubling economic times in Michigan and stalled state and federal health reforms are causing historic losses at Michigan hospitals left with soaring uncollected patient debts and bills for care from a growing number of uninsured people, a report expected to be released today concludes. (Detroit Free Press)

D.C. hospital fires 11 nurses, 5 staffers for snowstorm absences
The District’s largest private hospital has fired 11 nurses and five support staff members who failed to make it to work during the back-to-back snowstorms that paralyzed the region earlier this month. (Washington Post)

ED shooting shows why confronting hospital violence must be a priority
The Feb. 15 early morning shooting inside the emergency department of Scotland Memorial Hospital in Laurinburg, NC, provides an unwelcomed, frightening, and extreme example of the violence that healthcare professionals too often confront. (HealthLeaders Media)

Retail clinics: Struggling to find their place
As of February, there were 1,197 retail clinics, an all-time high. But that was only eight more than in March 2009. CVS and Walgreen not only did not expand, they closed clinics. Wal-Mart became more circumspect on where and when to open clinics. Some hospitals and retail clinic chains dumped plans to open clinics in favor of stand-alone urgent care centers. (American Medical News)

New Mexico law aims to rein in health care
New Mexico’s health insurance companies will be required to put 85 percent of every premium dollar toward health care services, instead of to administrative costs and profits, under a bill passed by the state Legislature. (New Mexico Business Weekly)

Marty Guthmiller

Martin “Marty” Guthmiller, CEO of Orange City Area Health System (OCAHS), was recently named a finalist for the American Hospital Association’s (AHA) Shirley Ann Munroe Leadership Award, which recognizes the accomplishments of small or rural hospital leaders who have improved health care delivery in their communities through innovative and progressive efforts. 

Given that there are thousands of small and rural hospitals all over the country (and more than 90 in Iowa), this is a great accomplishment that underscores the key role hospitals and their leaders play in their communities. 

Over the last 16 years, Guthmiller has transformed OCAHS, most notably in 2006 when the hospital replaced itself with a beautiful and modern facility.  But just as significant, Guthmiller has been a leader for the community as a whole, including chairing a special task force of the local development board that was convened to revitalize a large swath of downtown Orange City that was destroyed by a 2009 fire.  The “Phoenix Project” won the support of Orange City residents, who supported a $4 million bond issue. 

What Marty Guthmiller has accomplished is outstanding, but it also comes with the territory.  Hospitals, even those in urban areas, are high-profile entities that require leaders with an unusual combination of business acumen and community minded-ness.  It’s no coincidence that hospital leaders are constantly chosen to head up boards and committees for important community organizations and events.  And it follows that those who are especially successful (and based on the press we see here at IHA, many of them are) receive their due recognition, like Marty Guthmiller. 

But it’s more than the CEOs.  The expectations that surround medical care are always high – no other entity, public or private, can begin to take on the roles and responsibilities put upon the local hospital.  Hospital leaders are often the community “face” of their hospitals, but those expectations follow all hospital employees.  Today, the most effective and successful hospitals embrace that kind of culture, where every employee is equally responsible for upholding the hospital’s mission. 

That mission, which in Iowa focuses on patients, the community and service excellence, is at the heart of IHA’s existence and its advocacy.  By providing Iowa’s hospitals with the support, education and information they need to accomplish their goals, IHA advances health care for everyone.