Announcement

President's Report
by: Rod Betit (January 05, 2007)

Summary: The first batch of ‘pre-filed bills’ was released today on the Alaska Legislature home page.

Full Story: el PRESIDENT’S REPORT January 5, 2007 The first batch of ‘pre-filed bills’ was released today on the Alaska Legislature home page. Of interest to ASHNHA members are the following: Bill No. Sponsor Title HB 4 Rep Lynn Amending the certificate of need requirements to apply only to health care facilities that are nursing homes or residential psychiatric treatment centers or that are located in a borough with a population of not more than 25,000, in the unorganized borough, or in a community with a critical access hospital. Click on bill # to see actual text of bill. HB 35 Rep Kawasaki Extending the termination date of the Board of Certified Direct-Entry Midwives; and providing for an effective date. Bill text not available yet SB 8 Sen Davis Relating to a mental health patient’s right to choose the gender of the hospital staff providing intimate care to the mental health patient and to the duties of hospital staff in caring for patients receiving mental health treatment. Bill text not available yet SB 27 Sen Davis Relating to eligibility requirements for medical assistance for certain children, pregnant women and persons in medical or intermediate care facilities; and providing for an effective date. Bill text not available yet SB 28 Sen Davis Relating to limitations on mandatory overtime for registered nurses and licensed practical nurses in health care facilities; and providing for an effective date. Bill text not available yet SB 29 Sen Dyson Requiring certain hospitals to make certain disclosures on patient billings. Bill text not available yet ASHNHA President Rod Betit is gearing up for a busy session with a number of new faces and committee chairs in the Legislature. In addition Governor Palin and her team may very well be weighing in on these issues as well. If you would like to participate in formulating positions on these measures and others as they come along, please advise Rod Betit or Dennis Murray, ASHNHA Legislative Committee Chair. Contact Rod at rbetit@ashnha.com and Dennis at dmurray@cpgh.org ________________________________________ ________________________________________ The Legislature’s Hospital Acquired Infection Task Force continues to deliberate on whether to recommend mandatory reporting of all HAIs to the Alaska Department of Health. At its last meeting the Task Force turned away from recommending a mandatory reporting requirement due to the small number of hospitals in Alaska that have enough events to make reporting worthwhile, and due to the lack of a proven reporting model that could be included in such legislation. Only one state has moved to release a report since HAI reporting became a hot trend in 2003. That state is Pennsylvania and there are varied opinions at this time about the validity and usefulness of the report to patients when making decisions about where to obtain needed medical care. The Task Force opted to pursue the following as a framework for the most prudent course of action in Alaska at this time. These ideas will be further developed and voted on at the Task Forces’ next meeting on January 15, 2007 in Juneau. The framework includes the following components:  Create a Task Force to monitor, observe and evaluate what other states and CMS are doing.  Embrace the 5 million lives campaign  Create a Healthcare Collaborative focusing on Hand Hygiene and MRSA.  Educate the public on their responsibilities when they visit patients in the hospital. Jennifer Grogg, Infection Control Practitioner, Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, represents ASHNHA on this Task Force. Jennifer has done a terrific job of educating Task Force members of the activities already underway in Alaska facilities to address HAI, and the challenges of taking a reporting mandate too far without a clear picture of what is wanted and how the data could be reliably and fairly collected. ________________________________________ Central Peninsula General Hospital has changed its name in recognition of its newly completed renovation of the facility. The new Central Peninsula Hospital name was introduced to the community along with a tour of the 50 new private inpatient rooms. Ryan Smith, CEO, invites anyone visiting the area to drop by and see the new facility. ASHNHA extends its congratulations to Ryan and the CPH staff for reaching this milestone in their three-phase expansion project. ________________________________________ ________________________________________ A Northwest Conference on Patient Safety Thursday, March 22, 2007 from 8:00am - 4:30pm Doubletree Hotel Seattle Airport, 18740 International Blvd., Seattle, Washington To provide safe and reliable healthcare, organizations must create an environment in which teamwork, effective communication, and well-designed error-prevention systems are in place. A sampling of themes and topics include: • Human factors • Hand-offs between health care organizations and health care providers • Personal health records and chronic care • Disclosures and apologies • Medication reconciliation • Patients as partners • Ethical issues encountered in ensuring patient safety • Electronic variance/error reporting systems • Federal and State legislation dealing with patient safety Cost: Members of the Washington Patient Safety Coalition or employees of member organizations: pay $250 per person, non members pay $325 per person. Register by January 22, 2007 and save $50. Contact Linda Lekness for more info at llekness@qualityhealth.org 206 682-2811 ________________________________________ Upcoming Meetings of Interest: • ASHNHA 2007 Winter Meeting (Juneau) - NEW DATES March 29-30, 2007. A room block has been reserved at the Gold Belt Hotel for the nights of March 29 and 30. The phone numbers are - toll-free: 888-478-6909 or 907-586-6900. Meetings will be held at the Centennial Hall adjacent to the Hotel. The ASHNHA Board meeting will occur on March 30. • AHA Annual Meeting (D.C.) - May 6 through 9, 2007 in Washington, D.C. • National Rural Health Association Meeting (Anchorage) - May 14 through 17, 2007 in Anchorage, Alaska. • ASHNHA 2007 Annual Meeting (Petersburg) – to be held in conjunction with education sessions August 6 through August 9, 2007 in Petersburg. The ASHNHA meeting will take place on August 8 & 9.

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February 3 2007.pdf