July 13, 2009 News Headlines

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has agreed to conduct a second “dry run” of Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) quality measures for public reporting on the CMS Hospital Compare Web site. During the first dry run, HANYS and its members identified errors in the data. HANYS and the American Hospital Association brought these errors to the attention of CMS, which agreed to fix the errors and conduct a second dry run.

CMS plans to re-analyze the AHRQ measures and provide hospital-specific reports to hospitals. In the reports, CMS plans to provide hospitals with additional data that hospitals requested to enhance the usefulness of the reports. Hospitals will have an opportunity to comment on the second dry run and preview their final reports before the data are reported on Hospital Compare next summer.

CMS adopted nine AHRQ Patient Safety and Inpatient Quality Indicators for the Reporting of Hospital Quality Data for Annual Payment Update (RHQDAPU) program. The five AHRQ Patient Safety Indicators (PSIs) reflect quality of care for adults inside hospitals, but focus on potentially avoidable complications and iatrogenic events. The four AHRQ Inpatient Quality Indicators (IQIs) reflect quality of care for adults inside hospitals and include: inpatient mortality for medical conditions; inpatient mortality for surgical procedures; utilization of procedures for which there are questions of overuse, underuse, or misuse; and volume of procedures for which there is evidence that a higher volume of procedures may be associated with lower mortality.

Hospital Compare currently contains data on clinical process measures (acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, pneumonia, and surgical care), patient experience of care, mortality, and readmissions. Contact: Mary Therriault

The Department of Health and Human Services announced that it would release $350 million in preparedness grants nationally to help prepare for the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus and the fall flu season. New York State will receive $9.5 million in public health emergency response grants, and $3.3 million in hospital preparedness grants. New York City will get an additional $7 million and $2.4 million in those categories.

Public health emergency response grants help state public health departments perform a variety of functions, including preparing for potential vaccination campaigns, implementing strategies to reduce exposure to the 2009 novel H1N1 flu, and improving influenza surveillance and investigations.

Hospital preparedness grants enhance the ability of hospitals and health care systems to prepare for and respond to public health emergencies. Local outbreaks of the novel H1N1 virus have produced a surge of patients at hospitals, and these grants will help ensure hospitals are ready for future outbreaks that may affect their community. The primary purpose of this new funding is to improve the health care system’s ability to develop and implement activities focused on health care workforce protection, and comprehensive medical surge strategy.

The New York State Department of Health and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene continue to update their H1N1 guidance for hospitals and health care providers. For federal updates on H1N1 and seasonal flu, visit www.flu.gov. Contact: Christopher Smith

Submissions for HANYS’ 2009 Public Relations Excellence Award are due by July 22. This award will recognize communications and public relations professionals for their state budget advocacy efforts on behalf of New York’s health care providers. Many members developed inspiring and innovative ways to tackle the devastating cuts that were proposed during this year’s state budget battle--one of the toughest ever for New York’s health care providers. HANYS seeks to recognize and honor our member institutions for their creative advocacy efforts. Members are encouraged to review the award brochure for details about award criteria and requirements. Contact: Melanie Dobiel