To Improve Patient Care, Remember the Nurses

Health Affairs and the Center to Champion Nursing in America convened a high-level Forum in June, bringing together nursing leaders, health care experts and policy-makers to consider the nursing workforce in the 21st Century, and offer recommendations to expand nurse education.

Read about it here.

INQRI Team Hosts Briefing in DC

The GW Department of Nursing Education in partnership with Baruch College, held a special briefing of research findings from the INQRI project entitled: Developing and Testing Nursing Quality Measures with Consumers and Patients on June 11, 2009.

Click here to view the presentation, read about the National Quality Forum's Nursing-Sensitive Measures and view the team's bios.

All Roads Lead To Payment: Squeezing Value from Health Reform

Webcast Explains Models Currently Being Discussed to Reform the Way Providers are Paid

Ideas about how to pay providers to improve quality and reduce costs are the starting point for many discussions about national health reform. A variety of solutions are being discussed to correct widespread deficiencies and increase value in our health care system—with concepts like “Accountable Care Organizations” and “medical homes” getting a lot of attention. There are others, however, that are transforming care and already being tested in real communities across America.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and experts in the field of health care payment came together to discuss these ideas during a luncheon briefing on June 10, 2009, in Washington, D.C. In this webcast of the event, listen to guest speakers provide an overview of the various payment models currently being discussed—identifying what they have in common and what separates them. Representatives from the PROMETHEUS Payment® project and its Rockford, Ill., pilot site report on how their project to reward high-quality, consumer-driven care allows providers who do the right things for patients to also do well financially.

NICHE Web Based Learning Series Presents: "The Never Events Series: The Experts Respond"

Followers of this blog may be interested in an upcoming web event sponsored by NICHE:

The Never Events Series: Focus on Physical Restraints

For the past 15 years, U.S. regulatory and accrediting agencies have launched major initiatives aimed at restraint reduction/elimination in all health care settings, including hospitals. Despite these regulatory pressures, physical restraint use remains a common practice, especially in critical care settings. As a CMS regulated hospital condition of participation, there is financial imperative to reduce physical restraint use, while maintaining patient safety and preventing avoidable complications. Drs. Minnick and Mion will host a detailed discussion of how to utilize evidence based best practices to reduce physical restraints within acute care settings.
Drs. Minnick and Mion have collaborated extensively on research specific to physical restraint use in hospital settings. Their authoritative work has informed current understanding of the influence of patient characteristics, care processes, work force and environment and administrative factors upon practices related to the use of physical restraints.

Ann Minnick, PhD

Ann Minnick, PhD, RN, FAAN is the Associate Dean of Research & Chenault Professor of Nursing at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing (VUSN). Internationally recognized as an accomplished health services researcher, Dr. Minnick is also Director of the Center for Research Development and Scholarship (CRDS) at VUSN. Additionally, she serves on the National Advisory Council on Nurse Education and Practice (NACNEP). Dr. Minnick has led numerous national grants that have influenced the environment of nursing practice and has consulted with education and service institutions as well as state, federal and international projects. Her current research concerns are issues related to health service delivery, nursing human resources and patient-centered care.

Lorraine Mion, PhD

Lorraine C. Mion, PhD, RN, FAAN is the Independence Foundation Professor of Nursing at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing. A nationally recognized nursing researcher, she has helped shaped health care practices and policies related to the hospitalized older adult by involvement in the Joint Commission Task Force on Physical Restraints and as an adviser to the Society of Hospital Medicine for Geriatric Care. Her research and practice has focused on hospital-based interventions to minimize use of physical restraints in non-psychiatric settings and identification of risk factors (patient-, nurse- and unit-level) for patient-initiated therapy disruption in critical care settings. A senior advisor to the NICHE program at the New York University College of Nursing NICHE program, she continues to provide consultation on program and resource development, as well as essential, ongoing support to both senior and fledgling NICHE sites.

Click here to register.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009 Time: 1:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. EST

NICHE Sites $89 per phone line (Discount Code:nich09jul)
Non-NICHE Sites $99 per phone line

Two New RWJF-Funded Health Reform Reports Now Available

Five Steps to Health Care System Savings

The Center for American Progress released a new report that identifies five promising reform options that have the greatest potential for controlling health care costs:

• increasing the amount Medicare pays for primary care;
• paying for episodes of care instead of individual procedures;
• encouraging Medicaid and private insurers to adopt Medicare’s payment methods;
• reforming the tax treatment of employer-based health benefits; and
• expanding research that identifies best practices in treating diseases effectively and affordably.

According to the report, the current system results in government programs that pay too little for primary care and too much for specialty care, which the authors say leads poor quality and higher costs. The report also states that the current way in which health benefits are taxed results in consumers using too much health care and suggests guidelines to curb the over-use of new, expensive procedures that may not yet be proven to be most effective.

What is ‘Post-Claims Underwriting’ and Why is Congress Paying Attention?

The little-known practice of “post-claims underwriting” is when an insurer investigates an individual or small group policyholder’s medical history after the policy has been issued—and after claims have been submitted. Insurers have said that post-claims underwriting prevents fraud and therefore helps keep premiums low. For individuals whose health coverage has been canceled after the onset of a serious medical condition, post-claims underwriting can have serious consequences for their health and financial well-being.

A primer developed by Peter Harbage and Hilary Haycock of Harbage Consulting—and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation—explores the practice, which is increasingly getting attention on Capitol Hill. The primer explores what is known and unknown about post-claims underwriting, and related state and federal regulations.

HRET Receives Funding to Help Hospitals Implement AHRQ Quality, Safety Tools

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has awarded the Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET) a $1.8-million contract to assist hospitals as they implement the agency's quality and safety resources, AHA News Now reports. Slated to begin June 1, the 20-month project will require HRET to develop innovative methods to encourage hospitals, health systems and policy-makers to more broadly adopt AHRQ's various toolkits and educational resources. According to a release, HRET will collaborate with American Hospital Association affiliates, state hospital associations, quality improvement organizations and an advisory panel of experts to provide free assistance to participants (AHA News Now, 5/28/09; HRET release, 5/28/09).

http://www.rwjf.org/qualityequality/digest.jsp?id=10909

Creating Opportunities and Breaking Down Barriers to Adoption

On July 8 and 9, 2009, the Donaghue Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Intiative will host a health funders forum in Princeton, NJ. To promote this event, "Creating Opportunities and Breaking Down Barriers to Adoption," we have created a new blog: Bending the Curve.