In Greater Cincinnati, the CMS funding will allow the Council on Aging (COA) to expand a successful program it started at University Hospital, The Christ Hospital and The Jewish Hospital that uses coaching, health information technology, help with medications, and chronic disease management to help hospitalized seniors better manage their conditions to help prevent the need for re-hospitalizations.

How It Will Work: Better Care, Better Health, Lower Cost

Patients that will benefit from the service are Medicare patients hospitalized at the five participating hospitals and diagnosed with heart failure, heart attack, pneumonia, or multiple chronic conditions.

During their hospitalization, hospital staff should conduct a risk assessment for readmissions and if certain criteria are met, the Council on Aging will get notified. Eligible patients receive a visit from a COA care transitions coach before leaving the hospital and the transitions coach continues to work with the patient once home to provide the care transition services that aim to prevent a readmission.

It is estimated that the program will serve an additional 5,400 seniors per year and will bring an annual net savings (achieved through reductions in hospital readmissions) to Medicare of more than $1 million dollars due to reduced hospital readmissions.

Roles and Responsibilities

All of the following organizations will work together in new or more efficient ways to improve the coordination of care between hospitals and caretakers such as nursing homes or home health providers to prevent medical complications and costly, potentially avoidable return trips to the hospital:

• Participating hospitals (Clinton Memorial Hospital, The Jewish Hospital – Mercy Health, Mercy Health – Fairfield Hospital, The Christ Hospital, and UC Health – University Hospital) – facilitation of discharge planning to transition coaches and physician offices

• Council on Aging (the leading partner in the newly formed Southwest Ohio Community Care Transitions Collaborative which will carry out the contract with CMS) – project management, data collection and analysis. They will provide transition coaches who will provide the care coordination services.

• The Health Council - overall program coordination with COA, coordination of quality management processes, program evaluation

• HealthBridge – health information technology and exchange

• Health Care Access Now - coordination of patient access to primary care and specialty services

• Hamilton County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board - mental/behavioral health assessment of identified patients

• Health Collaborative – facilitation of physician participation and physician education

A Leadership Team comprised of leaders from all of the partner organizations has been crafting the implementation plan and timeline, and work teams are already actively putting pieces in place for the program launch.

Work teams are fine-tuning the processes that will be used to alert partner organizations when a patient is nearing release from the hospital; identifying the best way to facilitate the data exchange needed to successfully provide these care transition services; and identifying measures for success. Learnings will be shared with all Health Council member hospitals.

Also, this region will benefit from the CMS-funded programs going on in the other seven regional markets. Learning Collaboratives will be held, allowing project leaders from Greater Cincinnati to share and bring back best practices from other regions.

For more information about the Health Council and hospitals’ roles in this program, please contact Nancy Strassel at (513) 878-2854.

PEOPLE:

• Alyssa Alden is the new manager of care management at Clinton Memorial Hospital and Mike Meade is the new manager of laboratory services. 

• Mercy Health has announced the appointment of new medical chiefs of staff at three of its hospitals: Donald Buckley, MD, Mercy Health – Anderson Hospital; Joe Renusch, MD, Mercy Health – Clermont Hsopital; and William Beckmeyer, MD, Mercy Health – Mt. Airy Hospital.

• TriHealth has announced the appointment of new medical staff presidents: Stuart Donovan, MD, president of Queen City Surgical Consultants, will oversee the medical and dental staffs at Bethesda North Hospital, Bethesda Medical Center Arrow Springs and the recently purchased Butler County Surgery Center. Stephen Blatt, MD, FACP, TriHealth’s medical director for infectious diseases and vice president of Infectious Diseases Consultants of Cincinnati Inc., will oversee the medical and dental staffs at Good Samaritan Hospital and Good Samaritan Medical Center Western Ridge.

• TriHealth has appointed Lisa Dye, RN, MSN, executive director for the TriHealth Heart Institute, a unified program of comprehensive cardiac services, and Mark Witte as executive director for the TriHealth Cancer Institute.

• TriHealth’s Jenny Skinner and Darla Olsen will be involved in a presentation on the Health Careers Collaborative being given to the White House Council on Community Solutions. The Health Careers Collaborative is a partnership with the mission to develop a pool of workers for career pathways into health care.

• Two area hospital leaders were named CMS “Innovation Advisors”: Srikant Iyer, MD, of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and Margaret Namie of Mercy Health. The Innovative Advisors Program focuses on efforts to transform the health care system by supporting individuals who test and refine new models to drive delivery system reform.

HOSPITALS AND OTHER COUNCIL MEMBERS:

• Care Tech Solutions, a Health Council affiliate member, has earned the Best in KLAS designation for the fourth straight year. KLAS is an independent monitoring organization that surveys and ranks health IT vendor performance in areas of knowledge, quality, implementation, service and support.

• Cedar Village Retirement Community is launching the first elder abuse prevention shelter in Ohio and one of the first in the nation. The Shalom Center will care for abused seniors, age 65 and older, from Hamilton, Warren, Butler and Clermont counties. Services will include medical, nursing and therapy services as well as meals, legal services and other programming to care for victims in the community.

• The Christ Hospital and St. Elizabeth Healthcare received the “Get with the Guidelines – Heart Failure Gold Quality” achievement award from the American Heart Association, given to hospitals that follow treatment guidelines in certain key measures at least 85 percent of the time and have maintained this level of performance for consecutive 12-month intervals.

• The Christ Hospital has acquired Cincinnati Hematology-Oncology, a multidisciplinary group of eight physicians.  Also, Christ is expanding its office space for non-clinical offices into Mount Auburn. This expansion will boost the Uptown Cincinnati community and allow The Christ Hospital to remain in the neighborhood that has been its home since 1893.

• As a result of an eight-month construction and renovation project, Dearborn County Hospital has added two operating rooms and a second endoscopy suite bringing the surgical department of the hospital to a total of five operating rooms plus the endoscopy and cystoscopy accommodations.

• HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital began seeing patients last month at its new Drake Center location. The new hospital renovated the east wing of Drake and has 40 beds for patients recovering from conditions such as stroke, traumatic brain injury, hip fractures, and cardiac and pulmonary conditions.

• Mercy Health has implemented a new software, Care Everywhere, from Epic Systems Corporation at Fairfield Hospital, Anderson Hospital, Clermont Hospital and The Jewish Hospital that enables health care providers in different parts of the country to access portions of electronic health records for patients whom both are serving. Also, Mercy Health has started a $2.5 million expansion and renovation project of its emergency department at Mercy Health – Clermont Hospital that will include a four-room suite for behavioral health patients to better serve their needs. In other news, three Mercy Health hospitals (The Jewish Hospital, Anderson Hospital and Fairfield Hospital) recently earned three-year accreditation with commendation by the Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons.

• St. Elizabeth Healthcare and Select Medical have entered into a partnership to offer long-term acute care at St. Elizabeth Fort Thomas, and the 33-bed facility will be called Select Specialty Hospital. In other news, Cranley Surgical Associates has entered into an agreement to join St. Elizabeth Physicians. The agreement, which covers only physicians in Northern Kentucky, is effective March 1. Also, St. Elizabeth Business Health Services is adding a third Business Health Center in Hebron in April to better meet the needs of Northern Kentucky employers. 

•  TriHealth recently announced the implementation of a brand advertising campaign, which includes a new logo, with the goal of further strengthening the position of the health system in the Greater Cincinnati region. Also, TriHealth has been named among 2011 Top Performing Hospitals in the Premier health care alliance’s national QUEST collaborative, in recognition for performance in increasing delivery of recommended evidence-based care as well as safely reducing the cost of care in the community. Premier is a performance improvement alliance of more than 2,500 U.S. hospitals and other health care sites.

• Wesley Community Services, a Health Council affiliate member, will receive an “Outstanding Contribution by a Non Member” award from the Ohio Dietetic Association for its Meals-on-Wheels program that provides texture-modified meals as well as physician-prescribed diets for their clients with renal or cardiac disease or diabetes. They are also doing a pilot study on the effectiveness of oral nutritional supplements for clients with unintentional weight loss.

• Three hospitals/health systems have been named among 19 finalists in the Business Courier’s 2012 Green Business Awards competition: The Christ Hospital (for its Community Supported Agriculture program, created in partnership with the Health Council, Ellenbee Leggett, Laughery Valley Growers Co-op, UC Dietetic Interns and The Christ Hospital food service); TriHealth (for its environmental commitment statement); and UC Health (for its operating room recycling program). Winners will be named at a March 20th event.

• Mercy Health and TriHealth been named among the top 20 percent of health systems nationwide by Thomson Reuters. The fourth annual health system study evaluated 321 health systems on eight measures of clinical quality and efficiency. The study relied on public data from the 2010 Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MedPAR) data and the CMS Hospital Compare data sets.

Clinical Quality Director

Project Manager (part time)

About the Initiative

The Southwest Ohio Community Care Transitions Collaborative is a promising opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of seniors in the region. The Council on Aging of Southwestern Ohio, in partnership with the Greater Cincinnati Health Council and several area hospitals and health care organizations, is one of the nation`s first recipients of a major federal contract designed to reduce preventable hospital admissions among seniors.

In November the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced its first seven site selections for the Community-based Care Transitions project of the Partnership for Patients initiative. Council on Aging is the leading partner in the newly formed Southwest Ohio Community Care Transitions Collaborative which will carry out the contract with CMS.

It is estimated that the program will serve nearly 5,400 seniors per year and bring an annual net savings (achieved through reductions in hospital readmissions) to Medicare of more than $1 million dollars. The funding will allow the Care Transitions Collaborative to expand a successful program Council on Aging has started at University Hospital and The Christ Hospital that uses coaching, health information technology, help with medications, and chronic disease management to help hospitalized seniors recover without coming back to the hospital.

To apply for the CMS funding, Council on Aging worked with the Health Council to form a collaborative with five hospitals and several other health care organizations. The hospitals include: Clinton Memorial Hospital, The Jewish Hospital – Mercy Health, Mercy Health – Fairfield Hospital, The Christ Hospital, and UC Health – University Hospital. The other partners include: HealthBridge (health information technology and exchange), Health Care Access Now (coordinate patient access to physicians), Hamilton County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board (for behavioral health needs), and the Health Collaborative (for physician education).

The funding will allow this initiative to expand Care Transitions to Medicare patients hospitalized at the participating hospitals and diagnosed with heart failure, heart attack, pneumonia, or multiple chronic conditions.

Mike Abrams, an experienced health care association executive with expertise in physician relations, has been selected to succeed Jim Castle as president and CEO of the Ohio Hospital Association. Abrams, 50, has been executive vice president and CEO of the Iowa Medical Society since 1996. He previously led government relations for the Indiana State Medical Association. Castle is retiring December 31, and Mike will take over in February.

The Health Council’s Dora Anim, assistant vice president, quality and data, and Sharon Fusco from the Council on Aging of Southwestern Ohio were invited to speak as part of a plenary session at the IHI National Forum on Quality Improvement in Health Care earlier this month to an audience of thousands of attendees from across the nation and world. The invitation was a result of the recent CMS announcement that Greater Cincinnati has been selected as one of seven communities across the country for its Community-based Care Transitions Program, which will look at methods to improve collaboration among caregivers to reduce preventable readmissions. The primary funded agency is the Council on Aging along with the following partners: the Greater Cincinnati Health Council, HealthBridge, Health Care Access Now, the Health Collaborative, Hamilton County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board, Clinton Memorial Hospital, The Jewish Hospital – Mercy Health, Mercy Health - Fairfield Hospital, The Christ Hospital, and UC Health – University Hospital.

St. Elizabeth Physicians has appointed Bruce Henley as its new chief financial officer. Prior to joining St. Elizabeth, Henley was CFO at the Oklahoma Physicians Group in Tulsa.

Amy Katz, PhD, from Baker & Daboll LLC (a Health Council affiliate member) was awarded the runner-up award for Woman of the Year – Entrepreneur in the WE Celebrate Awards program, part of the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber’s Women Excel, a women’s leadership initiative that honors women in business, woman-owned businesses and their advocates for achievement, innovation, social responsibility and mentoring.

UC Health has announced the appointments of Robert G. (Bob) Wones, MD, as vice president and chief quality and medical informatics officer, UC Health and John Deledda, MD, as vice president, medical affairs, University Hospital.

The Cincinnati Business Courier has selected George Strike, chair of the UC Health board, as the 2012 recipient of the Health Care Heroes Lifetime Achievement Award.

Also, many Health Council members have been chosen as finalists for the 2012 Health Care Heroes awards, which recognize individuals and organizations that make an impact on health care in the Greater Cincinnati region. View list. Finalists and winners will be announced in March.

Hospitals

The Christ Hospital has announced a new outpatient center coming soon to Northern Kentucky. The Christ Hospital Outpatient Center in Fort Wright will be located at 1949 Dixie Highway in the former Stein Mart location. The 44,000 square-foot center is scheduled to open in spring 2012.

The Christ Hospital has been named to the Leapfrog Group’s 2011 class of top hospitals. The Christ Hospital is one of 65 hospitals nationwide named to the list, and the selection is based on the results of the Leapfrog Group’s national survey that measures hospital performance in crucial areas of patient safety and quality.

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center has been named to the Leapfrog Group’s 2011 list of top children’s hospitals.

Brown County General Hospital has announced that it is changing its name to be Southwest Regional Medical Center (SWRMC) and that the new SWRMC is now an affiliate of The Christ Hospital.

Health Council affiliate member Garden Manor Retirement Village received a national quality award from the American Health Care Association.

After a lengthy and sometimes grueling negotiation process, Duke, PUCO staff and the vast majority of stakeholders including the Council agreed on a new three-year plan in late October to become effective January 1, 2012.

Background

Ohio’s Electric Energy Program (SB 221, passed 5/08) gave a utility two options for setting electric rates, either a Market Rate Offer (MRO) or an Electric Security Plan (ESP). Duke’s first ESP plan as a result of that legislation expires at the end of 2011. ‘Succession planning’ began in earnest in last fall.

In October 2010, Duke proposed an MRO plan that was ultimately rejected by the PUCO in February, largely in accordance with Council arguments. In June 2011, Duke filed a new ESP plan with a nine-year term and average 50 percent rate increase for members, which the Council opposed. Duke eventually abandoned that plan in favor of a three-year term plan with annual credits.

Benefits to Health Council Members

Following is a list of key benefits tied to the Health Council’s Intervention:

• Elimination of 50% rate increase, cost avoidance of $2.7 million
• Half million dollars in annual credits for Health Council hospital members (Duke will recover $110 million/year for three years through this new plan, but due to a negotiated adjustment favoring high load factor customers like hospitals, most of our members will ‘net’ a credit)
• Term of the plan was shortened from the proposed nine years to three years
• No increase in distribution charges; existing distribution reserve capacity was preserved for Health Council member hospitals at no charge for the duration of the ESP

For now, hospital performance data continues to be available on the Council’s website (updated 2010 data will be added next month). It will move to the YourHealthMatters (YHM) website around mid-year 2012.

YourHealthMatters launched last year and provides public reporting on physician performance. It is considered “top in class” among communities that have pursued similar public reporting efforts and was developed with extensive input from consumers and in consultation with leading-edge national experts to ensure it is relevant and actionable.

As the Health Council works with the Health Collaborative to expand the website to include consumer-friendly and relevant hospital data, it is important to secure local consumer input to inform the development of hospital reporting. Consumer research is currently under way.

An Ad Hoc Committee on Hospital Public Reporting has been formed to provide guidance on the overall plan to expand YHM reporting of consumer-relevant hospital data. It is chaired by Gayla Harvey, Senior VP, Strategic Planning and Business Development at UC Health, and members include:

• Berc Gawne, CMO, The Christ Hospital 
• Joe Kelley, PR, TriHealth
• Paul Hiltz, President – Physician Hospital Organization, Mercy Health
• Bob Prichard, CMO, St. Elizabeth Healthcare
• Nancy Strassel, Senior Vice President, Greater Cincinnati Health Council
• Lori Barhorst, Project Manager, Greater Cincinnati Health Council

Participating hospitals in the Council’s public reporting effort have succeeded in vastly improving community core measure performance for targeted health conditions over the last five years as they have used this transparency to make continual adjustments to further improve care while sharing best practices with one another. This change will facilitate the continuation of this progress while also making the data more meaningful and useful for consumers.

This year is the third and final year of a continuation grant from the Ohio Department of Health that allocates more than $1.2 million in federal funds to the Southwest Ohio region. Approximately $500,000 of these dollars will be provided to individual hospitals for sustainment, enhancement, and preparedness efforts. The remainder of funds is utilized to support community partnerships, regional initiatives, sustainment, and grant administration.

“Results of the Council’s annual regional Hazard Vulnerability Assessment guides priorities on a regional level,” says Tonda Francis, vice president and regional hospital coordinator. For example, recent priorities have focused on water mitigation with the purchase of a system that will supplement members’ HVAC systems during a water outage. The funds also purchased an evacuation trailer stocked with multiple evacuation devices that could be utilized by fire departments, EMS, hospitals or long-term care facilities to evacuate a minimum of 100 patients out of any facility.

The coming year’s grant cycle will purchase a water purification system that can be requested by any facility in the region. This device can provide purified drinking water to any facility that has lost water supply or whose current water supply becomes contaminated or compromised. In addition to the water mitigation efforts, the region will be purchasing additional radios to be used during an event. Funds have also supported the Emergency Medical Service providers with DuoDotes that are stocked on each squad. This is a life-saving medication to be administered to providers if exposed to chemicals. Dollars are also used to provide educational opportunities and exercises throughout the grant cycle.

The Council also facilitates the storing and maintaining of a regional cache of supplies and equipment that can be used to quickly augment the hospitals in the most extreme cases, and it coordinates mutual aid agreements among the hospitals for the sharing of resources and assets during a time of need.

Charles W. Crowther (“Chip”) was recently named Bethesda Inc.’s new chief investment officer. He is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the Bethesda, Inc. Investment Programs including investment strategy, policy development, monitoring of investment managers, selection of service providers, reporting and communications.

Local surgeon James Fitzpatrick, MD, has been named the new medical director of the Center for Wound Healing at Fort Hamilton Hospital. The Center celebrated its five-year anniversary this month.

Hospitals

TriHealth’s Bethesda North Hospital has been named one of the top 50 hospitals by Thomson Reuters in its annual study identifying the top U.S. hospitals for inpatient cardiovascular services. The study examined the performance of more than 1,000 hospitals by analyzing outcomes for patients with heart failure and heart attacks and for those who received coronary bypass surgery and percutaneous coronary interventions.

The Christ Hospital has earned the Get With The Guidelines®–Heart Failure Gold Quality Achievement Award from the American Heart Association. The recognition signifies that The Carl H. and Edyth Lindner Heart Failure Treatment Center has reached an aggressive goal of treating heart failure patients with 85 percent compliance for at least 24 months with core standard levels of care as outlined by the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology secondary prevention guidelines for heart failure patients. Also, The Christ Hospital has been accredited by The Joint Commission’s Disease-Specific Care Advanced Certification Program in Heart Failure and was fifth in the nation to be named an Accredited Heart Failure Institute by the Healthcare Accreditation Colloquium.

Clinton Memorial Hospital Home Care Services has again been named to the HomeCare Elite™, a compilation of the top-performing home health agencies in the United States and the only performance recognition of its kind in the home health industry. Winners are ranked by an analysis of performance measures in quality outcomes, process measure implementation, and financial performance. This year CMH ascended into the top 100.

Shriners Hospitals for Children® – Cincinnati has received designation by the American Cleft Palate Craniofacial Association as a cleft palate team. The designation recognizes the comprehensive services available for cleft lip and palate conditions at the hospital.

St. Elizabeth Healthcare has announced that it will implement a tobacco-free campus policy effective Dec. 31, 2011.

TriHealth finalized the agreement to purchase the Butler County Medical Center which will be consolidated into Bethesda Hospital, effective March 1, 2012. The center’s 180 current clinical and management employees join the other 10,000 employees at TriHealth. Bethesda Hospital Butler County Medical Center is a 10-bed surgical hospital with eight operating rooms, three endoscopy suites and two procedure rooms. Bethesda North Hospital will assume operation of the center’s surgery services, medical imaging services, sleep medicine center, pathology, laboratory services and physical therapy services. Cardiology and cancer care will be introduced in the next few months through the TriHealth Heart Institute and TriHealth Cancer Institute. In addition, Bethesda North Hospital will open a 15-bed emergency department at the medical center in 2013. The center is located on 23 acres at 3125 Hamilton-Mason Road in Hamilton, Ohio.

Nov. 17, 2011

Hospice of Cincinnati is the 2011 recipient of the Greater Cincinnati Health Council’s sixth annual Innovative Solutions Award, created to celebrate unique approaches to clinical or non-clinical health care process improvements, patient care initiatives, or innovative change projects. The award is sponsored by SANOFI and was presented to the winning team at the Health Council’s recent Solutions in Quality and Patient Safety event.

This year, the Health Council partnered with the American Society for Quality (ASQ) to present the award. ASQ is the world’s largest membership organization devoted to quality, including health care.

Hospice of Cincinnati won for its project to improve diversity outreach in hospice care. Through the work of the Hospice of Cincinnati Diversity Outreach Initiative, hospice care information is more readily available to all minority groups. As part of the project, cultural diversity training was provided, and cultural consideration sheets for various groups (such as Latinos, Muslims, Asians and others) were developed and made available to all staff to ensure that the care provided is respectful of the many cultural preferences and beliefs found in this region’s diverse community. Access to hospice care has increased for minorities; for example, Hospice of Cincinnati had a 43 percent increase in hospice patient days among African American patients as a direct result of the Diversity Outreach Initiative.

In addition, The Christ Hospital received Honorable Mention recognition for its project to ease the burden of serious illness in its palliative care department. Palliative care supports the Patient and Family-Centered Model of Care utilized by The Christ Hospital by attending to the body, mind, and spirit of people struggling with serious illnesses and assuring that the medical care provided aligns with a patient’s and family’s wishes, values and beliefs.

A total of nine health care projects from six hospitals were submitted by area health care organizations and were under consideration for the award. The total nominees:

• Atrium Medical Center – Emergency Trauma Center/Laboratory Collaboration of Specimen Management
• The Christ Hospital – Inpatient Palliative Care Consult Service
• The Christ Hospital – Outpatient Lactation Program
• Good Samaritan Hospital – Readmission Risk Assessment and Intervention Algorithm
• Good Samaritan Hospital – Zero in on Zero (Improving Joint Replacement Outcomes)
• Hospice of Cincinnati – Diversity Outreach Initiative
• The Jewish Hospital – Mercy Health – The Clostridium difficile (Cdiff) Project
• St. Elizabeth Healthcare – Fall Reduction Program
• St. Elizabeth Healthcare – Total Care Plan

Submitted projects were evaluated on a multitude of criteria, including project purpose, improvement opportunities, methodology, results, goal attainment, sustainability of innovation and the ability to replicate the project in other health care settings.

This is the first time a non-hospital Council member has received this award. As winner, Hospice of Cincinnati will also receive a complimentary Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEA) – a $5,000 value – from Johnson Consulting Services, LLC. An FMEA is an analytical process for identifying all possible failures in a design, process or service. The results can then be fed into a continuous quality improvement process to reduce the probability of errors or mitigate their impact.

Learn  more about all nine nominated projects.

Registration and Networking: 5:30 p.m.
Dinner: 6 p.m.
Location: Raffel’s Catering, 10160 Reading Rd., Cincinnati, OH 45241, (513) 563-9996
Register Now

Please join ASQ for its annual health care quality improvement project presentation, award and dinner.

The Greater Cincinnati Health Council and ASQ-hosted Innovative Solutions Award winner will be invited to present their award-winning project. Additionally, Pat Matt, a six sigma black belt process improvement consultant with Barnes Jewish Healthcare System in St. Louis, will discuss her organization’s network quality management system and present the project that took her team to the ASQ International Team Excellence Award Finals, “Improving Patient Care Processes and Patient Safety in Women & Infants Services.” Learn how they prevented sentinel events, eliminated bottlenecks, and reduced costs by $1.5 million.

At the recent Accountable Care Transformation (ACT) Leadership meeting, members examined regional hospital readmission data, completed an analysis of heart failure patient chart reviews and selected two areas of patient experience for future improvement. There was also initiation of planning and collaboration with partners on a community-wide medication management intervention program. Further, there was consideration of a partnership with a community agency to apply for a grant that would deliver therapeutic meals to patients recently discharged from the hospital. This opportunity will be further explored and next steps will be completed as appropriate. A special drill-down session is being held on Dec. 1 to identify readmission reduction gaps and formulate solutions. This session is free of charge and is a benefit of membership to the ACT Leadership Committee. The group’s priority focus is to reduce heart failure readmissions.

The Limited English Proficiency Committee met in October for the final step in a rigorous telephonic interpreting request for proposal process and vendor presentations. The presenting companies were finalists chosen from a pool of 16 different providers who submitted information in the early phases of the process. Key decision factors for members included interpreter qualifications and training, accessibility and competitive pricing, which led to members selecting incumbent provider Pacific Interpreters. The committee will meet again in November to plan their annual, all-day retreat, which will be held in January.

At the Occupational and Environmental Safety Committee, Amy Chapman from the Ohio EPA provided an in-service on Pharmaceutical Waste for the group. Committee members will receive updates on “green” initiatives taking place in the hospitals at the next meeting.

A sub group of the Utility Committee (the Electric Power Workgroup) has been working diligently over the past several months intervening with the Public Utility Commission of Ohio in regards to Duke Energy’s proposed Electric Security Plan. Over the course of nearly nine months of negotiations, Duke proposed a variety of plans ranging from a 10-year plan that would have resulted in increases of 25 percent or more to the final three-year plan that will have a very modest impact on large hospital accounts. In addition, Duke committed to meet with member hospitals to discuss distribution infrastructure, reliability and service issues. Other important projects the Utility Committee has been working on include energy efficiency benchmarking and a discounted group buy for chillers.

Isaiah Fidler, DVM, PhD, one of the world’s leading experts in brain metastasis, has been recruited to head the University of Cincinnati Brain Tumor Molecular Therapeutics Program’s new scientific advisory board. Dr. Fidler is the distinguished chair in cell biology and head of the metastasis research laboratory in the department of cancer biology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The Molecular Therapeutics Program is a collaboration between the UC Cancer Institute and the UC Neuroscience Institute.

Edward “Ted” Inman has been named the CEO of Oncology Hematology Care (OHC), an affiliate member of the Health Council. Inman comes to OHC from Spectrum Health Medical Group, a multispecialty group of 400 physicians and 150 advanced practice providers in Grand Rapids, Mich., where he was senior vice president of Strategic Planning and Business Development.

Hospitals and Affiliate Members

The Health Council congratulates the Cincinnati Association for the Blind & Visually Impaired on its milestone birthday of 100 years.

McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital’s imaging department has been awarded a three-year term of accreditation in computed tomography (CT) as the result of a recent review by the American College of Radiology (ACR). The ACR gold seal of accreditation represents the highest level of image quality and patient safety.

As Mercy Health Partners evolved into a comprehensive system of care, its name changed to Mercy Health in September with a new logo and identity to signal the evolution publicly. The new logo builds on the organization’s history of serving Greater Cincinnati for more than 150 years and builds on its mission of providing compassionate clinical care. To help present one clear voice to the community, Mercy Health is also updating the name of each of its hospitals. Going forward, please use the official names listed below for the Mercy Health family of hospitals.

Mercy Health – Anderson Hospital
Mercy Health – Clermont Hospital
Mercy Health – Fairfield Hospital
Mercy Health – Mt. Airy Hospital
Mercy Health – Western Hills Hospital
The Jewish Hospital – Mercy Health
Mercy Health – West Hospital (scheduled to open in 2013)

A study released by HealthGrades named Bethesda North Hospital and St. Elizabeth Edgewood recipients of its 2011 Women’s Health Excellence Award for ranking among the top 5 percent of all hospitals in the nation in women-specific care. To determine which hospitals excelled in women’s care to receive the 2011 award, HealthGrades analyzed mortality rates and in-hospital complications among 16 of the most common procedures and diagnoses among women ages 65 and older.

St. Elizabeth Healthcare will launch the first emergency department-based telepsychiatry program in Northern Kentucky this winter thanks to a $100,000 Social Innovation Fund grant announced by The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky. The high-tech program will enable patients experiencing mental health emergencies to receive timely, “face-to-face” professional evaluations at all five St. Elizabeth emergency departments. NorthKey Community Care is partnering with St. Elizabeth to provide this service during nighttime hours.

Thomas Broderick, MD, FACC, has been selected by his peers as the next medical staff president at The Christ Hospital, succeeding Patrick Kirk, MD. Dr. Broderick, an interventional cardiologist, will also serve as chairman of the Medical Executive Committee and as an Ex Officio member of all other medical staff committees.

The board of trustees of Dearborn County Hospital announces that the hospital’s executive director and CEO, Peter Resnick, will retire effective May 2012 after heading up the regional hospital for the past 19 years. In preparation for Resnick’s retirement, the board will work with a national search firm in its selection of a new chief executive.

William Schubert, MD, former president and CEO of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center from 1983-1996 and current member of its Board of Trustees, has been inducted into the 2011 Greater Cincinnati Business Hall of Fame.

St. Elizabeth Healthcare has announced the appointment of Larry Warkoczeski as vice president of its Foundation. Before joining St. Elizabeth Healthcare, Warkoczeski was the chief development officer and vice president of a health care foundation which is part of the 4,800-employee Pinnacle Health System in Harrisburg, Penn. He also served as chief development officer of Mountain States Health Foundation, part of a Tennessee-based health care system with 10 hospitals, physician practices, outpatient clinics and more than 9,000 employees.

Hospitals

The Christ Hospital has been named one of the “70 Hospitals with Great Cardiology Programs” by Becker’s Hospital Review. Final selections were based on clinical accolades, quality care and contributions to the field of cardiology. Also, the hospital’s cardiovascular rehabilitation program has received certification by the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation (AACVPR).

Cardiology Associates has joined the TriHealth Heart Institute. Its 13 physicians and staff will become employees of TriHealth, and Cardiology Associates will continue to see patients in its offices in Clifton, Anderson, Montgomery, Western Hills, Mt. Airy, Montfort Heights, Batavia and Sardinia.

The Psychiatric Emergency Services department of University Hospital has moved off of the hospital’s main campus and into its new location at the Deaconess building (311 Straight Street). The move was effective October 17. Any patient being transported should be taken to the new location. All police, EMS and medical transport services are asked to call ahead when transporting a patient: (513) 585-9890. Please note that patients displaying both a medical and psychiatric condition should be taken to the nearest emergency medical facility.

HealthBridge and the Greater Cincinnati Health Council announced a new Transitions of Care demonstration today as part of the Greater Cincinnati Beacon Collaboration (GCBC). This demonstration is one of several health care innovation projects planned under the $13.75 million GCBC grant to improve care and health outcomes while addressing rising health care costs.

Currently, patient records are typically printed then faxed or mailed to community providers after patients are discharged from the hospital. This demonstration is testing a new way to send the information electronically at discharge – or just before – and do so in a secure and confidential way. The demonstration is an example locally of a national movement away from paper processes to more secure and efficient electronic communication among health care providers.

The Transitions of Care demonstration uses a new, open source technology protocol developed under the HHS Nationwide Health Information Network (NwHIN) Direct Project. NwHIN Direct connects health providers who care for the same patient across multiple organizations.

Specifically, the demonstration is testing the transmission of patient discharge documents electronically between hospitals and primary care providers, long-term care facilities and home health care agencies. Two Cincinnati area hospitals – The Christ Hospital and Mercy Health – Anderson Hospital – are participating in the initial pilot. Plans are to have three additional hospitals begin using the new transitions in care technology in 2012 after the testing and pilot phase is complete.

“This is an opportunity to speed the exchange of patient information along the continuum of care, using simple, secure and easy-to-use technology,” said Keith Hepp, interim Chief Executive Officer of HealthBridge. “It truly puts the IT into transitions and moves us toward more efficient, effective information flows to support better patient care.”

Greater Cincinnati is one of 17 innovative Beacon communities nationwide selected by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health IT to develop and showcase new models for health care transformation. In Sept. 2010, HHS Secretary Sebelius announced the Beacon Community award at a ceremony at the University of Cincinnati.

This announcement is part of the Greater Cincinnati Beacon Collaboration’s effort to focus on care transitions, pediatric asthma, adult diabetes, and consumer engagement. The Transitions of Care work is sponsored by the Greater Cincinnati Health Council. The aim of the new Transitions of Care work is to reduce significantly the avoidable 30-day hospital readmissions rate for heart failure by the end of 2012.

“Hospitals in Greater Cincinnati are active participants in seeking innovative approaches to care transitions,” said Colleen O’Toole, President of the Greater Cincinnati Health Council. “The Greater Cincinnati Health Council is pleased to facilitate collaboration and demonstrations among health care providers across the continuum of care to make transitions of care smoother and more efficient using electronic technology.”

For more resources and information on the Greater Cincinnati Beacon Collaboration, visit www.healthbridge.org/beacon. For more information for providers, patients and families related to health information technology and exchange, visit the new ONC sponsored website www.healthit.gov.

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About HealthBridge

Founded in 1997, HealthBridge started as a regional effort to improve health care quality, by sharing health information electronically in the Greater Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky tri-state area. Today, HealthBridge is recognized as one of the nation’s largest, most advanced and most financially sustainable health information exchanges (HIE). HealthBridge’s innovative information network has grown to encompass more than 50 hospitals, 800 physician practices and 7,500 physicians in five different communities in three states. HealthBridge’s secure electronic network sends roughly 3.2 million electronic messages per month, including clinical lab tests, radiology reports, discharge summaries and other information vital to better care for more than 2.5 million patients.

About the Greater Cincinnati Health Council

The Greater Cincinnati Health Council is a widely recognized association that provides a unique forum where hospital and health care leaders connect to create a stronger health care community. For more than 50 years, the Council has served as a trusted voice on hospital and health care issues for the Tristate region.

Support for the Greater Cincinnati Beacon Collaboration is provided under cooperative agreement 90BC0016-01 from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services.

In an effort to increase the amount of blood donated locally to serve patients in Greater Cincinnati, the Greater Cincinnati Health Council and Hoxworth Blood Center have collaborated to increase blood donations at hospital blood drives. Area hospital blood drives produced a combined 7,283 red blood cell donations for the community in fiscal year 2011. This past week five hospitals were recognized for their outstanding results.

Winners were announced at the Council’s recent Solutions in Leadership event, and Health Council president Colleen O’Toole, PhD, joined Gregg Boothe, interim associate director of Hoxworth, to present the awards:

• The Most Improved Award (given to the hospital that increased its overall donation rate by the most substantial amount over the previous fiscal year) was presented to Mercy Hospital Fairfield for the 68 percent increase in its blood donations. Honorable mentions were given to St. Elizabeth Ft. Thomas and Dearborn County Hospital for commendable increases.
• The Award of Distinction (based on a variety of factors including overall donation rate and meeting/exceeding individual goal) was presented to Dearborn County Hospital. Margaret Mary Community Hospital and Veterans Affairs Medical Center received Honorable Mention awards.

“We are proud of the hospitals that were specifically recognized through the Blood Donation Awards as well as the other hospitals that have taken steps to increase donations and for their outstanding commitment to assuring a stable and adequate blood supply for the community,” said Boothe.

The Health Council and Hoxworth provided support to hospital blood drive coordinators in various ways to positively influence the number of units donated locally both at hospital blood drives and at neighborhood donor centers on behalf of hospitals. Together they shared best practices for successful drives and strategies to increase donations, and regularly reviewed blood drive donation data.

“By working together, we’re able to not only improve the quality of care for patients in our community, we’re able to save lives,” said O’Toole. “We hope these awards highlight the great work of our hospitals to increase the blood supply in our region by engaging both their employees and their communities in the effort. Hospital blood drive teams worked very hard to meet and exceed their individual hospitals’ goals, as well as to contribute to the overall community goal.”

The Hoxworth/Health Council Blood Donation Awards program continues into 2012, and hospitals have already begun to host and schedule blood drives. Individual donations may also be made on behalf of any hospital at Hoxworth neighborhood donor centers. Visit http://www.hoxworth.org for a complete schedule of on-site hospital blood drives or to find a neighborhood donor center and schedule an appointment to donate.

The Greater Cincinnati Health Council is a widely recognized association that provides a unique forum where hospital and health care leaders connect to create a stronger health care community. For more than 50 years, the Council has served as a trusted voice on hospital and health care issues for the Tristate region.

Hoxworth Blood Center, University of Cincinnati, founded in 1938, serves 31 hospitals in 17 counties in Southwestern Ohio, Northern Kentucky and Southeastern Indiana. Annually, Hoxworth collects more than 90,000 units of blood from local donors to help save the lives of patients in area hospitals.

Terry Foster, RN, clinical nurse specialist at St. Elizabeth Edgewood, has been inducted into the Academy of Emergency Nursing (AEN) by the Emergency Nurses Association. The AEN fellowship is a prestigious honor recognizing emergency nurses for their contributions to patient care in and out of the emergency department.

Greer Glazer, PhD, dean and professor of nursing at the University of Massachusetts Boston, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, has been appointed dean of the University of Cincinnati College of Nursing. The appointment is effective Jan. 1, 2012, pending UC Board of Trustees approval. Glazer replaces Cheryl Hoying, PhD, who has served as interim dean since Jan. 1, 2011, following the retirement of Andrea Lindell, PhD. Hoying will now return full time to her position as senior vice president of patient services at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

The Academy of Medicine installed its president and 2011-2012 Council at its annual meeting last week: Thomas Maynard, MD, president; Barry Webb, MD, past president; Robyn Chatman, MD, president-elect; and councilors Elizabeth Alexander, MD, Steven Johnson, MD, Christopher Juergens, MD, Peter Kambelos, MD, Eric Kuhn, MD, Thomas Lamarre, Jr., MD, Andrew Markiewitz, MD, Emmett O’Neal, MD, Manisha Patel, MD, and James Sosnowski, MD.

Hospitals

The Business Courier has named 50 finalists for the 2011 Best Places to Work program – including Catholic Health Partners and the Health Collaborative. Other finalists include Health Council associate members Cintas Corp., HORAN and Paycor, Inc. and affiliate member Oncology Hematology Care Inc. More than 100 firms were nominated to participate in the competition. Of these finalists, winners in five categories will be selected at a Nov. 3 afternoon event at the Duke Energy Convention Center.

Various Health Council members – including TriHealth, Hospice of Cincinnati, The Christ Hospital and University Hospital contributed to a series of articles on end of life care that were part of the forum section in Sunday’s Cincinnati Enquirer on Sept. 18.

The Christ Hospital Outpatient Center in Anderson Township opened in September. Located on Beechmont Avenue (former Kroger location), it includes offices for primary care, cardiovascular care, women’s health, physical and occupational therapy, diagnostic imaging and lab testing. Also, a new physician practice dedicated to women’s health and wellness has opened at that location, and a second location in The Christ Hospital Medical Office Building in Mt. Auburn will open in fall 2011.

The Christ Hospital has been named among the Top 100 Hospitals for Patient Experience by WomenCertified® and has earned the company’s Women’s Choice Award. It ranked #19 nationwide among major hospitals (400+ beds) based on female consumer satisfaction. Hospitals are selected based on a proprietary scoring process that incorporates Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) scores along with a higher level of analysis that weighs criteria identified as the most important to women for patient satisfaction.

Clinton Memorial Hospital recently celebrated its 60th anniversary. On Sept. 21, 1951, more than 3,000 people attended an open house where the new 64-bed, $950,000 hospital was called a “cathedral to healing.”

Fort Hamilton Hospital and Mercy Hospital Mt. Airy are two of 14 in Ohio to be included in a list of the nation’s top-performing hospitals, according to an annual report released for the first time by The Joint Commission. They were two of 405 top performers nationally listed that excelled in 22 accountability measures for heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, surgical care and children’s asthma. The list of top performing hospitals and the measure set or sets for which the hospitals were recognized are available at www.jointcommission.org/accreditation/top_performers.aspx.

TriHealth has established a new physician practice, Premier Obstetrics and Gynecology, located on Glenway Avenue in Green Township. Services include pre-natal care for routine and high-risk obstetrics (including diabetes and hypertension), basic fertility treatment and care, well-woman care including annual exams and treatment for gynecological concerns and menopausal treatment.

Working Mother Magazine has selected TriHealth for the seventh time as one of the 100 Best Companies with family-friendly benefits. This year TriHealth ranked seventh on the list out of hundreds of companies nationally who participated in the survey. TriHealth has also been recognized among the top employers to receive the 2011 AARP Best Employers for Workers Over 50 award. It ranked number 23 nationwide on the top 50 list. This is the third time TriHealth has received this honor. Major areas of award consideration include recruiting practices, education and career development, job sharing, flexible scheduling, health care and retirement benefits, and workplace accommodations.

Veterans Affairs Medical Center’s Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program for COPD – in existence for roughly three years – has received certification by the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation. It is the second VA program of its kind in the United States to receive this certification. The program is a 12-week, multidisciplinary program that incorporates breathing exercises, education about the disease and treatments to help patients live a more satisfying life.

West Chester Hospital has earned a U.S. EPA Energy Star certification – the only Ohio hospital to receive the designation – for its energy efficient operating procedures. To qualify, a building must perform in the top 25 percent of similar facilities nationwide for energy efficiency and meet strict energy efficiency performance levels set by the EPA. Commercial buildings that earn Energy Star certification use an average of 35 percent less energy than typical buildings and release 35 percent less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. West Chester Hospital was built with energy-efficient electrical and mechanical equipment, such as tankless water heaters and automated lighting controls that turn lights off when areas of the hospital are unoccupied. In addition, heating and cooling systems automatically adjust to account for weather temperature variations.

Hospitals are required to conduct a Community Health Needs Assessment according to a provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 that amends the IRS Code. The CHNA project, with its multi-stakeholder partnership, serves as a cost-effective way for hospitals to meet this requirement. And, by working together to analyze and address any community needs that are revealed, greater impact can be made than if hospitals were tackling this alone. This will also help the region make even better use of charitable dollars for community health improvement.

The data collection process has begun with the collection of secondary data by the UC Action Research Center (ARC). The status of the remaining data collection process includes focus groups, surveys and stakeholder interviews.

Following the completion of data collection, an analysis will be conducted to identify disparities, determine health trends and needs, and gain insight from consumer experiences of care. The findings will be presented in a report that will be designed to demonstrate, and lead to dialogue around, the opportunities related to improving health status and eliminating the challenges that impact residents of the communities in the Tristate. This report is expected to be released in January 2012.

The CHNA will be conducted on a regular cycle moving forward, with consistent data elements that can be monitored over time.

Funding for the CHNA has been secured from participating hospitals, Health Departments of Hamilton, Highland and the city of Middletown, Greater Cincinnati United Way, and the Greater Cincinnati Foundation.  The Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati and Health Landscape are providing in-kind support.

The Food Service Resource Committee (FSRC) participated in an Association for Healthcare Foodservice webinar and heard from local health care consultant Dianne Carroll on resolving staff issues. The FSRC will meet again on October 12 at the Ellenbee Leggett Foodshow, located at the Sharonville Convention Center.

The Infection Prevention Advisory Group reviewed results of the annual Healthcare Workers Immunization Program. Results are dramatically increasing as more facilities implement vaccination requirements. Discussion was held regarding community-wide vaccination changes. Dora Anim attended the meeting to obtain a clinical perspective for infection prevention as it relates to the Council’s efforts in transitions of care. The group also reviewed articles written for publication in October for Infection Prevention week.

The Limited English Proficiency Committee met earlier in the quarter to conduct a surprise audit of the on-site interpreter companies; some discrepancies were identified, discussed with the companies and corrected. Companies were required to submit qualification documentation for individuals who served hospitals in the prior 30 days. Members reviewed the documentation to assure that interpreters met the contract requirements, including legal work status, criminal background check, drug test, updated immunizations and basic and continued language or interpreter training. 

The Tristate Trauma Coalition reports that the transition to the new web-based TraumaLite software, used by all non-trauma hospitals to report trauma data, occurred in July. A dashboard of the quarterly report was presented with great discussion. There are some Trauma Nursing Core Courses and Advanced Trauma Life Support courses remaining for 2011, as well as plans for additional courses for 2012. See the website for details. The Coalition is also working on strategic operational and educational goals for the upcoming years.

Last week the Health Council sponsored a community-wide decontamination training at Good Samaritan Hospital, and earlier this year a training was held at West Chester Hospital. Marty Conway, Advanced Eco Systems, conducted the trainings and provided an overview of the scenarios (an overturned truck from a chemical plant with hazardous materials) before attendees were given the opportunity to deploy and dismantle the decontamination tent on their own. More than 170 first responders and first receivers attended these trainings.

Current hospital decontamination capability for the region is 822 victims per hour. There are several regional decontamination trailers available for deployment upon request, and most hospitals have the specialized tents that would be utilized in the case of a large community exposure (such as an Anthrax exposure).

The Health Council advocates that hospitals practice deploying their decontamination tents every six months. The next Health Council training will be offering in spring 2012. For more information, contact Tonda Francis.

Mercy Health Partners is developing the new Mercy Physician Hospital Organization (MPHO) and has named Paul Hiltz as the president. Hiltz spent the past five years as president of Mercy Hospital Mt. Airy. In this new executive leadership role, Hiltz is responsible for the planning, development, implementation, and ongoing management of a clinically-integrated network of care – part of Mercy’s assessment of the Accountable Care Organization model that is being proposed under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Mary Irvin has been promoted to senior vice president, chief nurse executive, at TriHealth. Irvin previously spent 11 years as Good Samaritan’s vice president and chief nursing officer.

University of Cincinnati Physicians has named Myles Pensak, MD, as its CEO. Pensak also becomes senior vice president of UC Health and senior associate dean for clinical affairs at the College of Medicine. Pensak replaces Thomas Boat, MD, who became dean of the College of Medicine.

Hospitals

The Christ Hospital has received the American Heart Association’s (AHA) Mission: Lifeline® Bronze Quality Achievement Award. Hospitals that receive this award have demonstrated for 90 consecutive days that at least 85 percent of eligible ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) patients are treated within specific time frames upon entering the hospital and discharged following the AHA’s recommended treatment guidelines. The Christ Hospital achieved an overall compliance score of 94 percent for STEMI care in 2010.

Cincinnati Children’s has purchased land to build an outpatient pediatric facility in the western Cincinnati area. The facility, to be built on land located off Harrison Ave., south of the I-74 exit 11 (Harrison-Rybolt Road), will feature pediatric subspecialty clinics, therapies, urgent care, and laboratory and radiology services.

CMH Regional Health System/Clinton Memorial Hospital is implementing new information technology and a comprehensive electronic health record in collaboration with Healthcare Management Systems Inc. (HMS) of Nashville, Tenn. The implementation process began in July and is expected to take several months. In other news, the Ohio Heart & Vascular Center is offering expanded cardiovascular service to the Wilmington community with the opening of a heart failure clinic located in the Clinton Memorial Professional Building, located next to Clinton Memorial Hospital.

St. Elizabeth Physicians in Williamstown became the first primary care physician office in Kentucky to achieve a level three rating as a patient-centered medical home from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA).

University Hospital, Christ Hospital and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center had programs rated among the country’s best in the U.S. News & World Report 2011-12 Best Hospitals rankings. University was No. 21 nationally in ear, nose and throat care and No. 45 in pulmonology. Christ was No. 50 in cardiology and heart surgery and 42nd in pulmonology. Cincinnati Children’s achieved the following rankings: gastroenterology (1), pulmonary (2), nephrology (3), neonatology (3), urology (4), cancer (5), orthopedics (5), diabetes and endocrinology (6), neurology and neurosurgery (8), and cardiology and heart surgery (9).

TriHealth and Vantage Oncology have formed a joint venture. The venture will manage the radiation oncology services of the TriHealth Cancer Institute and Vantage Oncology’s Cincinnati outpatient radiation oncology centers. The move adds two outpatient radiation oncology centers, in Mount Airy and Eastgate, to TriHealth’s existing two locations in Clifton and Montgomery.

The Council recently convened hospital emergency preparedness representatives to analyze results of the exercise and develop improvement plans where opportunities exist.

“The Shaken Horizons drill provided all of the hospitals in the area with a much better understanding of the impact of an earthquake on our community,” said Terry Hellman, TriHealth safety manager and chair of the Council’s Disaster Preparedness Coalition. “The drill was very ambitious and stretched the response of all entities involved – whether it be the hospitals or communities.

“It demonstrated the dependence we all have on one another and illustrated our region may be better prepared than others, thanks to the Memorandums of Understanding we have in place and the collaborative nature of our Disaster Preparedness Coalition,” he continued. “There are also many opportunities for improvement that the group will begin working on immediately.”

After-Action Report and Improvement Plan Highlights

Major Strengths

• The various communications systems utilized during the exercise worked well. These systems include the DisasterNet Radios, Everbridge, the GCHC Disaster Portal, SurgeNet, and others.
• The Tristate region has numerous mutual aid agreements, memorandums of understanding, and other community partnerships in place to assist in handling staffing and resource shortages during an emergency.
• Exercise participants were able to utilize internal plans and policies, regional resources and community partnerships to help manage the evacuation of patients within their facilities and into other facilities.

Primary Areas for Improvement

• Many exercise participants had difficulty accessing and operating the various communications systems in use during the exercise. In particular, many users did not have the appropriate log-in information available during the exercise, which limited their access to many of the systems in use. Recommendations: Regular trainings on various communications systems should be offered to all users. Log-in information should be available to system users while off site or not at their normal computers.
• SurgeNet bed reporting numbers were not provided by a large number of hospitals within the 20 minute standard. Recommendations: Verify that each hospital has sufficient access to the system and all users are trained.
• A large scale and regionally coordinated approach to mass fatality management is not available. Current solutions for mass fatality incidents are small in scale, and often limited to the use of hospital resources. Recommendations: Work with the appropriate community partners to develop a large scale plan for mass fatality management.

Victoria Buyniski Gluckman, a member of the board of directors and chairperson of the Board Quality and Patient Safety Committee at The Christ Hospital, is the 2011 recipient of the Greater Cincinnati Health Council’s Richard M. Smith, MD Leadership in Patient Safety Award. Dr. T.J. Redington, medical director of quality and patient safety at The Christ Hospital, accepted the award on Gluckman’s behalf at the Health Council’s recent annual meeting.

“Patient safety is a priority for the Health Council and for its member hospitals,” said Colleen O’Toole, PhD, president of the Health Council. “There are many innovative initiatives under way through Council-led projects and at hospitals throughout our region. This awards program not only recognizes outstanding leadership in patient safety, but also aims to promote the sharing of best practices as we raise the bar across the entire community.”

Gluckman has transformed board leadership at The Christ Hospital through widespread board engagement around quality and patient safety. She is at the forefront of discussions about how the fiduciary responsibility of governance extends beyond financial outcomes to quality of care, and as a result of her passion and efforts, the Quality and Patient Safety Committee report is the first agenda item on the board report. She also has successfully lobbied to have quality measures, such as falls and hospital acquired infection rates, incorporated into the management/leadership team’s incentive plan.

With her leadership, the hospital has:

• Achieved zero ventilator-associated pneumonias for more than 15 months
• Reduced patient falls by almost 50 percent in two years
• Reduced hospital-acquired infections by nearly 50 percent
• Increased patient satisfaction to >90^th percentile nationally
• Increased outpatient satisfaction scores to 82^nd percentile nationally

The hospital’s Board Quality and Patient Safety Committee is a group that Gluckman championed and initiated due to her passion for promoting patient safety and quality. She has invited staff, physicians and Family Advisory Council members to be a part of the committee to facilitate a better understanding of the challenges that workers and patients face each day in trying to ensure that care is delivered in the safest possible manner.

Gluckman has focused on evidence-based care, system-wide best practices, transparency and data-driven improvements. She is known to tour the hallways of the hospital, visiting areas as diverse as central sterile supply, instrument processing and other “behind-the-scene” units. She does this in order to ensure that the employees in these areas know and understand that the work they do is recognized at the highest levels of the organization, and is vital to the success of the hospital – affecting everything from safety to patient satisfaction.

The 2011 awards program was sponsored by Vocalink Language Services, a Health Council contracted vendor for language interpreter and document translation services. The Health Council has hosted this patient safety leadership award annually since 2003, in memory of Richard Smith, MD, a tireless proponent of patient safety. It is given to a health care professional who exemplifies Dr. Smith’s dedication and commitment to patient safety, works to communicate the importance of making patient safety an organizational priority, and serves as an outstanding role model for those working to enhance the safety of patients not only within an organization, but also the greater community.

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The Greater Cincinnati Health Council is a widely recognized association that provides a unique forum where hospital and health care leaders collaborate to create a stronger health care community. For more than 50 years, the Council has served as a trusted voice on hospital and health care issues for the Tristate region.

Overall hospital employee vacancy rates have increased for the first time in three years, according to data just released by the Greater Cincinnati Health Council.

The Council’s annual Vacancy, Workforce Age and Retirement Report helps hospitals, health care leaders, schools and prospective health care students assess job openings and needs in Greater Cincinnati hospitals.

Overall vacancy rates increased to 5.3 percent for full-time equivalents (FTE), up from 3.4 percent in 2009 and 4.4 percent in 2008. This represents the highest overall vacancy rate for Cincinnati area hospitals since 2007 when the rate was 6.3 percent.

“While vacancy rates are up for some hospitals and down for others, the fact that overall vacancy rates are up should create optimism for job seekers,” said Mary Duffey, executive director of the Health Council’s Health Care Workforce Center. “The news is especially good for individuals in the nursing field, as the report shows increases in the number of available nurse practitioner and registered nurse positions.”

Registered nurses (RN) posted a 4 percent vacancy rate in 2010, up from 3 percent in 2009. Hospitals had 562 RN job openings at the end of 2010, significantly higher than the 382 openings one year earlier. “This information supports the anecdotal evidence we have been seeing in recent nursing graduates who are having more success finding RN jobs at local hospitals,” said Duffey.

Among the jobs included in this year’s survey, 24 of the 33 “hard-to-fill” jobs saw increases in overall FTE vacancy rates. The highest vacancy rates were for certified occupational therapy assistants (20.3 percent), patient care technicians/assistants (11 percent) and radiation therapy technologists (10.8 percent). Three other positions – nurse practitioners, surgical assistants and occupational therapists – posted vacancy rates at just over 8 percent.

The number of employees approaching potential retirement age increased slightly for the fourth consecutive year. “We expect this number to continue to trend upward in the coming years as more and more baby boomers begin to retire,” said Duffey. Employees over the age of 50 increased to 33 percent of the total work force, up from 32.2 percent in 2009 and 31.2 percent in 2008. The retirement rate (percent of total hospital employees who retired) was .72 percent in 2010 compared to.73 percent the year prior. A total of 77 RNs retired in 2010 (a retirement rate of .62 percent), up from 2009’s retirement rate of .61 percent during which time 67 RNs retired.

The vacancy and age data are obtained from an annual survey of Health Council member hospitals. Vacancy and age data are effective as of December 31, 2010, and the retirement

Data is effective for the period from Jan. 1-Dec. 31, 2010. A total of 23 hospitals participated in the report.

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The Greater Cincinnati Health Council is a widely recognized association where hospital and health care leaders connect to create a stronger health care community. For more than 50 years, the Council has served as a trusted voice on hospital and health care issues for the Tristate region.

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