MHA News Now

Read the latest edition of Mississippi Hospitals magazine

The latest edition of Mississippi Hospitals magazine (Winter 2011) is now available. Read articles about:

• First Baby Born at Baptist Celebrates Her 100th Birthday
• Extraordinary Days are the Life of a Gulf Coast Ophthalmologist
• With Donation from Warren Foundation,UMMC Researchers Better Equipped to Study Cancer
• Wesley Medical Center Announces Chest Pain Center Accreditation
• Anderson Regional Medical Center Unveils Innovative Monitoring System For Moms-To-Be
• UMMC Performs First Pediatric Heart Transplant in Eight Years
• St. Dominic Hospital First in State to Use RoboticFluorescence Imaging Technology
• Delta Regional Medical Center’s NICU Celebrates a Year of Miracles
• Seasonal Flu Shots Now Available at All County Health Departments
• The Tebow Treatment: Pine Grove Patients To Benefit From New Furry, Four-Legged Staff Member
• Miracle Born at St. Dominic Hospital
• Psychosis Survey: Twenty Percent Say No One Helped
• Mississippi Breastfeeding Rates Among Lowest in Nation
• Mississippi Receives Prestigious National Smokefree Cities Award
• Mississippi Elderly Suicide Prevention Campaign Launches

For more information on how to have your hospital news featured in this magazine, contact Shawn Rossi at (800) 289-8884, (601) 368-3237 or srossi@mhanet.org.

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Free TeamSTEPPS patient safety training available

Hospitals and other health care providers can register online to attend free master trainer courses for TeamSTEPPS (Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety), an evidence-based program being implemented nationally by the American Hospital Association’s Health Research & Educational Trust under a three-year contract with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Standard and advanced training sessions are available through Sept. 1 at six regional training centers.

For more information, contact the HRET National Implementation Team at AHRQTeamSTEPPS@aha.org or (312) 422-2609.

IOM report targets strategies to reduce chronic illness

The Department of Health and Human Services should help states develop strategic plans for managing chronic illness, including steps to collaborate with the health care delivery system, according to a new Institute of Medicine report. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should develop evidence-based goals and objectives to improve quality of life for people with chronic illness, and routinely adjust policies to ensure public health programs to manage and control chronic disease reflect the concepts and priorities in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the committee said.

Among other actions, the report calls for increased funding for research on how to disseminate effective lifestyle and prevention interventions, and an approach to federal legislation and regulation that assesses the health implications of all policies. The report was requested by the CDC and Arthritis Foundation to help identify ways to reduce disability and improve quality of life for people with chronic illness.

[ via AHA News Now ]

Grants to help hospitals apply for palliative care certification

Hospitals and cancer centers can apply through Feb. 10 for $10,000 grants from LIVESTRONG, the Lance Armstrong Foundation, to assist in achieving The Joint Commission's Advanced Certification for Palliative Care. The foundation's Community Impact Project expects to award 20 grants in April. Recipients will develop an action plan and receive mentoring from the Center to Advance Palliative Care.

[ via AHA News Now ]

2012 Nightingale Awards Nominees Revised

Nominees for the 2012 Nightingale Awards, which honors outstanding nurses and health care professionals in Mississippi, have been announced, according to Brenda Castleberry, MSN,BSN,RN chair of the 2012 Nightingale Awards Committee. "Each year the nominations are outstanding and, this year, the panel of out-of-state judges will have a difficult time selecting a recipient for each category."  

The annual awards gala, sponsored by the Mississippi Nurses Association and Foundation, will be at 7 p.m., Monday, March 5, at the Jackson Marriott in downtown Jackson and is the "academy award" of quality service in the nursing and health care industry.  

Marshall Ramsey, cartoonist for the Clarion Ledger and host of the Marshall Ramsey Show, will be the emcee for the event. Tickets are $60 per person or $550 for a table of ten. Sponsorships are also available. It is not too soon to make your reservation. This black-tie event will distinguish those men, women and organizations that have made a special effort to excel in the area of health care.

More information is available online here. Click here to view the nominees for the 2012 Nightingale Awards.

Mississippi Wireless Information Network (MSWIN) Improving Emergency Medical Care and Coordination for Mississippi

In April of 2010, the Executive Office of the Governor established a public/private partnership to submita grant application under the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s BroadbandTechnology Opportunities Program (BTOP). A significant component of this grant application is to addbroadband wireless co verage to 97% of the sta te of Mississip pi through the e xpansion of theMississippi State Wireless Information Network (MSWIN) which is a 700MHz radio system in currentdeployment throughout Mississippi.

Key Partners in the 2010 State of Mississippi BTOP Application:

• Executive Office of the Governor
• Mississippi Wireless Communication Commission
• Mississippi Department of Information Technology Services
• Mississippi MED-COM

The 2010 BTOP grant application dedicates over seventy million dollars for the expansion of thewireless broadband network to public safety agencies, emergency medical services and hospitalsthroughout Mississippi. This system will provide a robust and integrated, and secure medicalcommunications platform. This platform will allow over three hundred ambulances the ability totransmit secure images, streaming video and patient telemetry to secure portals. The grant willprovide upgrades to Mississippi MED-COM and applications utilized by emergency responders andemergency personnel in obtaining up-to-date information on bed availability, hospital services,and disaster communications. Mississippi MED-COM is tasked by the grant to coordinate thedeployment of this system and provide management of the health care applicationsassociated with this grant.

The grant was awarded on August 1, 2010.

For more information, see the document attached below.

Download MSWIN_release-final

ISMP surveying hospital pharmacists about CMS drug shortage guidelines

Conflicting requirements in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' interpretive guidelines for storing and dating the expiration of injectable medications may be making it harder for health care providers to manage drug shortages and reduce waste, the Institute for Safe Medication Practices reports. The organization is surveying hospital pharmacists and other health care practitioners through March 2 to learn more about the issue, and will share aggregate results from the survey with professional organizations, drug manufacturers, The Joint Commission and CMS.

For more information, see the ISMP's latest newsletter.

[ via AHA News Now ]

SSA to begin accepting electronic signatures on medical records form

The Social Security Administration encourages health care providers to accept electronic signatures on Form SSA-827 effective April 1, when Americans can begin applying for disability benefits online. The form is used to request applicants' medical records from health care providers.

SSA expects the optional electronic form to reduce application processing times by up to nine days, allowing the agency to provide Medicare and Medicaid coverage to qualified patients more quickly. Medical providers will continue to receive the form with each request for records.

According to the agency, the form complies with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act requirements. For more information, visit www.ssa.gov. 

[ via AHA News Now ]