Announcement

The President's Report
by: Rod Betit (October 27, 2006)

Summary: This election update was reported in the Anchorage Daily News Blog The Trail on October 25. “A poll by Marc Hellenthal is also showing a virtual tie between Palin (41.9 percent) and Knowles (42.6 percent).

Full Story: PRESIDENT’S REPORT October 27, 2006 ________________________________________ This election update was reported in the Anchorage Daily News Blog The Trail on October 25. “A poll by Marc Hellenthal is also showing a virtual tie between Palin (41.9 percent) and Knowles (42.6 percent). That's with Halcro at 6.8 percent and 8.7 percent undecided, according to an Oct. 18-21 poll he conducted for lobbyist Sam Kito. The margin of error is 5.9 percent.” A separate poll conducted by Craciun on behalf of Alaska Newspapers Inc. puts the race at a tie with 8 percent undecided. We do not yet have the margin of error on the Craciun poll. NOTE: ASHNHA’s Political Action Committee endorsed the Tony Knowles for Governor campaign on October 12, 2006. ________________________________________ Alaska’s Workers’ Compensation 2005 Annual Report has been released and shows some interesting trends. The data shows that: • $226.3 million was paid out in benefits in 2005 vs. $232.5 million in 2004. • 23.4% of this was paid by self-insured employers ($52.9 million). • $120.7 million was paid for medical benefits in 2005 (53.4%). This compares to $120.0 million in 2004. (Keep in mind the Legislature has frozen medical payment rates at the 2004 level!) • # of injuries in 2005 declined 1% from 2004. • 66.9% of cases filed in 2005 involved no time lost on the job. • Top 10 kinds of injuries reported in 2005 were back (14.9%), finger (12.3%), multiple parts (11.1%), leg (9.8%), hand (5.9%), arm (5.4%), eye (5.4%), shoulder (4.8%), body system (4.2%), and ankle (3.6%). The Legislature’s Workers’ Compensation Task Force has begun meeting again to develop long term improvements to the Alaska program. Fundamental to this discussion is obtaining helpful analysis of Alaska medical costs to understand the basis for rising medical care costs in this program. This analysis is finally expected to be provided after more than one year of delay since it was requested. ________________________________________ ________________________________________ Prince William Sound Community College and Providence Valdez Medical Center partnered to win a grant to develop a two year associate nursing degree program for rural and native students. According to the Valdez Star, “The program is federally funded through a Title III grant. Only two grants were awarded nationwide. The Alaska Native and Native Hawaii Program will provide the college with $499,962 in the 2006/2007 fiscal year, with the grant scheduled to run five years and total $2,487,250. The primary purpose of the funding is to develop a two year associate nursing degree program that is deliverable to rural and Native populations through traditional on-campus instruction as well as distance learning technology. This program is intended to help address the demand throughout the State, particularly in rural communities, for qualified health care professionals.” ________________________________________ Alaska's first Long Term Acute Care Hospital, St. Elias Specialty Hospital, will open in December 2006. St Elias is a joint venture between Providence Health System and Bridge Care, a Birmingham AL company that owns & operates LTACHS. Bridge Care is the management partner, and has hired Chad Carpenter as CEO and Administrator. Chad has experience in Alaska, having worked for Providence, Alaska Regional and Valley Hospital prior to serving as CEO of LTACHs Outside, and most recently as CEO of Dayton Heart Hospital in Dayton, Ohio. Long Term Acute Care Hospitals are designed to care for patients requiring acute care, but experience longer lengths of stay (mean length of stay of 25 days or more) During the first six months of operation, St Elias will be licensed as an acute care hospital, and be in a "CMS demonstration period", after which they will be certified as an LTACH. They anticipate accepting up to 10-12 patients during the demonstration period, beginning December 15, 2006. Their capacity at full operation during the summer of 2007 will be 60 patients. Chad, from staff at ASHNHA and from all our members, welcome back to Alaska!! ________________________________________ ASHNHA has mailed each ASHNHA Board member a copy of the Report of the Alaska Physician Supply Task Force - 2006. This report reflects the first time in recent history that an exhaustive assessment of physician needs has been conducted specific to Alaska, and a menu of strategies to address the physician shortage in the State. This report will become the framework for ASHNHA’s efforts to bring attention to this serious public health problem during legislative sessions, and will give us a benchmark against which to measure whether our efforts are successful. ASHNHA encourages you to look for opportunities to use this resource document with Board members, Rotary Clubs, Chamber of Commerce, local government officials and other civic groups to educate as many leaders as possible about the importance of supporting the recommendation contained in the report. An electronic copy of the report can be obtained by emailing rbetit@ashnha.com ________________________________________ The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-Rasmuson grant that ASHNHA is part of is a 2 year-grant scheduled to begin this Fall. ASHNHA’s role is to develop a rural nursing preceptorship program for both preceptors and preceptees. This program is aimed at closing the experience gap facing a new nursing graduate. The grant’s premise is that critical thinking, prioritizing and specialized nursing skills are best learned under a preceptor in a hospital setting. While the formal grant award has not been received, work has begun. This week a needing of the Nurse Leadership/Educations from all facilities met via teleconference to understand what was to be accomplished and to begin putting together the organizational materials and resources needed. The next steps include a needs assessment of what facilities think the basic competencies of the rural generalist program should be, and to develop goals as well as objectives to meet those goals. Information and questions regarding the grant should be directed to Tova Cladouhos at the Anchorage ASHNHA office, 907-646-1444, or tova@ashnha.com. ________________________________________ Upcoming Meetings of Interest: • ASHNHA 2007 Winter Meeting (Juneau) - March 8 & 9, 2007. A room block has been reserved at the Gold Belt Hotel for the nights of March 7 and 8. Rates are $104.00 Mountain View (weather permitting) and $109.00 Water view (there is always water). 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 9. • AHA Annual Meeting (D.C.) - May 5 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. If there are other meetings you would like posted please let Rod know at rbetit@ashnha.com

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