2011 December Newsbyte

UHA launches rebrand in January

At its November meeting, the UHA Board of Trustees approved a new logo and the return to an old name for the Association as part of a large scale rebranding effort.

Effective January 1, 2012, the Association will go back to the name “Utah Hospital Association,” with the acronym “UHA” as an alternative abbreviation for the organization. The Association has been known as Utah Hospital Association for most of its existence. However, during the transitional years of the 1990s, the organization changed its name to Utah Association of Healthcare Providers, later revising this name to UHA, Utah Hospitals and Health Systems Association in 1998.

The UHA board and staff has been working with Love Communications to rebrand and reposition UHA as Utah’s leading voice in healthcare. As a part of this effort, the UHA website will be refreshed, and the Association will take a more pro-active stance on healthcare issues of interest to Utah opinion leaders and the community at large. A targeted media campaign will also be launched in concert with the beginning of the 2012 Utah State Legislature in late January.

UHA members will notice a new look for the Association’s newsletter and other publications in the coming year as well. We hope you like UHA’s new look!

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UHA 2012 events calendared

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Joplin tornado response featured at December 12th best practices program

UHA, in conjunction with the Utah Disaster Advisory Committee (UDAC) and the Utah Dept. of Health, is offering Picking up the Pieces: Best Practices in Emergency Preparedness on Monday, December 12 at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Salt Lake City. Featured presentations include a review of the emergency response by Mercy-St. John’s Hospital CEO Gary Pulsipher, a facility in Joplin, Missouri that was wiped out by

a tornado earlier this spring. Mr. Pulsipher will be joined by Leslie Porth, Vice President of Health Planning for the Missouri Hospital Association, to discuss the response of the Missouri healthcare community to this devastating event. Gary Duncan, CEO of Freeman Health in Joplin, as well as Renee Denton, RN, Inpatient Clinical Director for Freeman, will discuss how they handled the surge created by St. John’s closing. Other best practices related to hospital evacuation, shelter in place and emergency surge will be featured in a panel discussion moderated by emergency physician Mark Shah, M.D.

All hospital CEOs and emergency preparedness staff are invited to attend at no charge and have been sent registration information. For more information, please contact jill@utahhospitals.org . Registration deadline is December 7th.

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PCN enrollment open in December

Utah’s Primary Care Network (PCN) will open enrollment for parents December 10-23. To qualify as a parent, adults ages 19-64 must have a dependent child under age 19 living at home with them.

PCN is a primary preventive health coverage plan for uninsured adults. Benefits include primary care physician services, prescriptions, dental services, eye exams, birth control, and general preventive services.

Since November 2010, PCN's enrollment has been closed and new applications have not been accepted. Beginning December 10 through December 23, all uninsured Utah parents may apply online, by mail, or in person to receive primary health care.

For more information or to apply, call 1-888-222-2542 or visit www.health.utah.gov/pcn.

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Happenings around the state

David Entwistle, CEO of University of Utah Health Care, has been named to serve as the RPB Region 8 Delegate to the AHA Section for Metro Hospitals. His appointment begins January 1, 2012.

MountainStar Healthcare has announced plans to build a 30-bed hospital on its Lone Peak Medical Campus in Draper. The new hospital will bring additional inpatient services to South Valley communities, especially in the areas of obstetric care and surgical services. Existing outpatient diagnostic services will also be expanded. Construction on the project will begin in the first half of 2012 and is slated for completion by the end of 2013.

Timpanogos Regional Hospital has expanded and remodeled its neonatal intensive care unit, expanding from 5 to 24 specialized beds and upgrading much of its advanced equipment. The hospital’s NICU will be the only unit in the state equipped with a HeRO® monitor, an early warning system that predicts sepsis infection and other serious conditions before symptoms are visible in premature babies.

Linda Leckman, M.D., vice president of Intermountain Healthcare and CEO of Intermountain Medical Group, was elected treasurer of the American Medical Group Association (AMGA). The American Medical Group Association represents medical groups and organized systems of care, including some of the nation’s largest, most prestigious integrated healthcare delivery systems. Dr. Leckman will begin her term in January 2012.

Intermountain Healthcare has announced that Wesley Valdes, DO, will be the organization’s first medical director of Telehealth Services. Dr. Valdes will be responsible for telehealth efforts across the Intermountain system. In this role he will help Intermountain physicians and clinical teams to identify and develop the best methods and services to deliver patient care through telehealth technology. Before joining Intermountain, Dr. Valdes served as the director of the Center of Telehealth and as assistant professor of clinical surgery at the University of Illinois. He is the chairperson of the American Telemedicine Association Research Task Force.

Have news to share? Email your announcement to Jill Vicory by the 20th of the month for inclusion in the next month’s issue of Newsbyte.

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Educational update

Intermountain Healthcare is hosting a free language access symposium for medical interpreters and those helping patients receive culturally competent care on Thursday, December 8th, 8 a.m.-11:30 a.m. at Intermountain Medical Center’s East Auditorium. The program is free of charge but an RSVP is requested. Please contact angela.outzen@imail.org to register.

The 2012 Western Regional Trustee Symposium is set to take place June 13-15 at the Big Sky Resort and Montana Conference Center in Big Sky, Montana. Registration materials will be available in early spring 2012. For more information, go to www.trusteesymposium.org .

The American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) has opened registration for the 2012 Congress on Healthcare Leadership, taking place March 19-22 at the Hyatt Regency Chicago. For more information, visit ache.org/Congress .

Carelearning Webinar Calendar—UHA continues to partner with Carelearning to provide a variety of educational sessions online for the convenience of our members. Go to http://carelearning.com/ to view the available programs.

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UHA calendar of events

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News from HealthInsight

Reducing Healthcare Associated Infection (HAI) – Collaborative Efforts Beginning in 2012

The goal of reducing healthcare-associated infection (HAI) is a priority on everyone’s agenda, as well as a national goal for the country. At any given time, one in twenty hospital patients develops a HAI and more than a quarter of them are caused by catheter associated urinary tract infections (34%), surgical site infections (17%), bloodstream infections (14%) and pneumonia (13%). HAI alone is responsible for $28 to $33 billion dollars in preventable healthcare expenditures every year.i

Over the course of the next year, HealthInsight will launch a Reducing Healthcare- Associated Infection Learning and Action Network (LAN), collaborative effort with all Utah hospitals and other statewide partners to take up the strategic aim of reducing HAI in Utah. We will answer the question “How will we know that what we’ve done has reduced HAI?” and “What actions will we take to reduce HAI in Utah?” In other words: “What are we trying to accomplish?” “How will we know that change is an improvement?” “What changes can we make that will result in improvement?”ii In the following two years, using PDSA rapid cycle improvements, we will support the action plans Utah hospitals develop to reach their individual and statewide improvement goals.

We recognize that there are many efforts to reduce HAI, both locally and nationally, already in progress. To reduce hospitals’ commitment of time and resources to these efforts, the HealthInsight LAN will work in partnership with the State HAI Governance Committee, HAI Work Group, Utah APIC Chapter, Utah Hospital Association, Utah Department of Health (Epidemiology, Patient Safety, FLEX), Utah Healthcare Association, Utah Association of Healthcare Quality, Utah CUSP-Stop BSI, and other interested stakeholders to achieve a coordinated approach, promote synergies, and avoid duplication. We will focus on the topics of catheter-associated bloodstream infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, C. difficile, and surgical site infections. An interactive learning day for all hospitals and partners is planned for early 2012, with ongoing learning opportunities via webinar, tool dissemination, self-learning vehicles, and on-site technical assistance. We will sponsor an annual learning day where all hospitals and partners can come together to share successes; discuss current best practice, and share tools and experiences. We also want to bring patients and governing board members to the table, and encourage them to be a part of the change process.

HealthInsight is committed to assisting all Utah hospitals at whatever level of participation they can support. If you have questions, have suggestions for the LAN, know of additional partners, or have staff, patients, or board members who would like to be involved in planning, please let us know. Your HealthInsight contact is Linda Johnson at 801-892-6677 or ljohnson@healthinsight.org.

This material was prepared by HealthInsight, the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization for Nevada and Utah, under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The contents presented do not necessarily reflect CMS policy. PUB #10SOW-UT-2011-PS-10.

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