Announcement

President's Report
by: Rod Betit (March 17, 2007)

Summary: HB18, WWAMI, has cleared the House and as of yesterday cleared Senate Finance with a unanimous vote. The bill will now go to Senate Rules for Senate scheduling of a floor vote. The Senate floor vote should happen on Monday.

Full Story: PRESIDENT’S REPORT March 16, 2007 ________________________________________ HB18, WWAMI, has cleared the House and as of yesterday cleared Senate Finance with a unanimous vote. The bill will now go to Senate Rules for Senate scheduling of a floor vote. The Senate floor vote should happen on Monday. The bill will return to the House for concurrence with Senate amendments but that is not expected to be a problem. We are getting very close to officially increasing our 2007 medical class at University of Washington from 10 students to 20 students!!  Work continues by ASHNHA to find a solution to the Workers Compensation (WC) reimbursement issue. Representative Mike Kelly (Fbx) has agreed to introduce a bill if an administrative fix cannot be found. As of today, Friday, the Administration has agreed to a face-to-face meeting to attempt to resolve the looming problem. We hope that will happen next week.  SB62, establishing the Advisory Committee on Public Reporting of Health Care Associated Infections, was heard and passed from Senate HES this week. Big kudos go to Jennifer Grogg, RN, from Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, ASHNHA’s designated spokesperson for this bill. Jennifer did a great job of explaining the need to move forward slowly in prescribing mandatory reporting of health care infections. SB62 would require the advisory committee to (1) by January 1, 2009, provide a report to the Department of Health and Social Services that includes recommendations to the department on the establishment of a program to provide useful data to the public on patient safety related to health care associated infections; and (2) by January 30, 2011, provide a report to the legislature evaluating actions taken by the Department of Health and Social Services and making recommendations for future mechanisms or standards for reporting and dissemination of data on patient safety related to health care associated infections. The bill now goes to Senate Finance.  HB4 and SB65, identical CON bills, are expected to appear on Committee schedules in the next two or three weeks. HB 4 is tentatively scheduled for a hearing in House HES on April 10, but this date could slide further. While SB65 is not scheduled at this time, it could appear on the Senate HES schedule the week of March 25. Strategy for dealing with these bills will be a key discussion topic for the upcoming ASHNHA membership meeting on March 29 & 30. ________________________________________ Back row left to right: Lauren Painter (Homer), Diana Lingle (Fairbanks), Raine Clark (Sitka SEARHC), Starla Fox (Kanakanak), Marge DeGreef (Kodiak), Dorothy Kinley (Providence), Sue Mulkeit (Kanakanak). Front row, left to right: Dianna Bigge (Bartlett), Molly Owen-Palmer (Fairbanks), Mary Viveiros (Maniilaq), Dara Whalen (Maniilaq) and Cindy Roleff (ANMC). Not pictured: Lottie Leader (Elmendorf), Jean Ballantyne and Jackie Phlaum (UAA), Julie McNulty (ANMC). The Alaska Coalition of Educators in Health Care (ACE-HC) met in Anchorage March 5-6, 2007 to work on the development of the Rural Generalist Preceptor Program as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/Rasmuson Grant ASHNHA received. The goal of the project is to develop a statewide rural generalist curriculum for training preceptors statewide to teach newly graduated nurses specialty and facility-related skills. The group outlined the needs to develop a draft curriculum, core competencies, content, teaching methods, and terminology to be standardized. Cindy Roleff of ANMC volunteered to draft the curriculum. Once that is complete, the group will work to refine and define it to become a statewide standard. This outstanding group of people has worked very hard to put this program together and we at ASHNHA want to express our appreciation for their efforts. 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.