Search Results for: "Continuity Planning"

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Federal Court Temporarily Stops Dialysis Premium Assistance Law

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A federal court in California has granted a preliminary injunction to prevent Assembly Bill (AB) 290 (2019) from taking effect. The law is targeted at dialysis providers that donate money to nonprofit organizations that, in turn, pay for private health insurance coverage for low-income patients — even though the patients qualify for coverage under Medicare or Medi-Cal. 

Relaunching Your Volunteer Program During COVID-19

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The Relaunching Your Volunteer Program During COVID-19 Zoom session took place Wednesday, August 5. Thank you to Kathleen McIntire, CAVS, for presenting important and much desired content to the many members who participated.  The recorded session and resource materials are available now.

Executive Order Directs HHS to Implement Market-Based Reforms to Medicare

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President Trump has issued an executive order instructing the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to pursue policies to strengthen the Medicare program “through alternative payment methodologies that link payment to value, increase choice, and lower regulatory burdens imposed upon providers.”

Urge Assemblymembers to Modify Seismic Mandate, Reject AG Authority Over Hospital Transactions

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Action needed:

WRITE and CALL your assemblymember this week, asking them to support Senate Bill (SB) 758 (Portantino, D-La Cañada Flintridge) related to the 2030 seismic mandate and oppose SB 977 (Monning, D-Carmel) giving the Attorney General unprecedented oversight over hospital transactions. The time is now for hospitals to ensure their voices are heard on these two critically important bills. CHA has developed template letters and background documents about both bills for your use (see below). Please send your letter to Dawn Vicari at dvicari@calhospital.org.

Timing:

Call your assemblymember and send your letter by August 24. ​​Contact information for California assemblymembers is here.​

Background and Core Messaging for Both Bills: 

When COVID-19 hit, hospitals and health systems throughout the state responded quickly — converting physical space, suspending many procedures and services, purchasing personal protective equipment for employees and staff, hiring additional staff, and more. The fight against COVID-19 continues today. This unprecedented response has come at a high cost for all of California’s hospitals. A national, independent consulting firm with extensive health care finance expertise has found that the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to lead to long-term changes to financial stability and care delivery for California hospitals. Lawmakers must recognize that:

California’s communities have benefitted from health care systems during this public health crisis. As they do in many types of emergencies, they have leveraged economies of scale to ensure key supply (PPE, medical equipment)  and staffing needs are met throughout the state — wherever they are most needed — and all communities have a hospital to turn to.
Hospitals’ scarce resources should now be focused on preparedness and key services, not long-term infrastructure requirements like the 2030 seismic safety mandate or limitations on access-increasing and cost-lowering partnerships among health care providers.
COVID-19 has taught invaluable lessons about the need for a strategic, holistic, and efficient approach to disaster readiness and the strength of the health care system – an approach that must be based on flexibility and interconnectedness, not one-off measures that fail to consider unintended consequences.

Data Analyst

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The Hospital Quality Institute (HQI) is a non-profit organization committed to provide timely, accurate information and data reports for California hospitals to help them continually improve patient care.  The Data Management and Analytics Staff at HQI collaborate to design, implement, integrate, and maintain systems of data acquisition to provide analytics for supporting hospital safety and quality improvement activities.  Current projects include developing and improving the Hospital Quality Improvement Platform (HQIP), which is a data hub and web application allowing California

Agenda Set for 2019 Disaster Planning Conference

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California may experience any number of disasters in the coming years — from fires to flooding, and more. The agenda for this year’s Disaster Planning for California Hospitals Conference, to be held Sept. 10-11 in Pasadena, reflects the diverse skill sets required of our responders. Covering topics such as lessons learned from active shooter events, integrating business continuity and emergency preparedness, creating resiliency across the continuum of care, and earthquake early warning systems, the event is not to be missed.

Will Glaspie Q&A

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Will Glaspie, director of volunteer services, at Oroville Hospital is retiring this month after a 40+-year career in health care. Before he heads off to enjoy his well-earned retirement, CAHHS had a few questions for him. Some answers have been edited for clarity.

1.  How long have you been the director of volunteer services with Oroville Hospital?

New Meaning for ‘Keeping the Lights On’

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This week, California communities experienced the largest intentional blackout yet in the latest power company strategy for mitigating fire risk during extremely dry and windy conditions.

Intended to keep power lines from sparking potentially devastating fires, utility companies intentionally cut electrical power for nearly 1 million people — and their hospitals ­— across the state over the past few days (even more experienced the uncertainty of pending planned outages). 

The question that should be at the top of every Californian’s mind is, “When does a public safety power shutoff jeopardize public safety?”

Hospitals, of course, are better prepared for these events than most other businesses and residents. You’ve got expertise, your staff is well trained, and you have backup generators — as a matter of course, your disaster preparedness plans and requirements kick in and you’re poised to continue caring for patients.

But we know that managing and sustaining the complex and life-saving work that happens in a hospital during a power outage is challenging and not without risk. Surgeries must be preemptively rescheduled, nurse shortages grow as workers are faced with addressing the needs of their own children and families, and all are on high alert to ensure the power backup plan holds. In the community, people in need of nursing homes and dialysis centers are at risk, diabetics with home refrigerators full of insulin are at risk, and people in need of home medical supports are at risk. Add the uncertainty about when power will be restored to public safety concerns, because longer term outages are fraught with greater risk. 

Wildfires can be destructive, with devastating impact for the individuals and communities involved. The risk of fire is greater than it has ever been, but so too is the growing risk to health and safety caused by widespread power outages. If this is the power companies’ public safety strategy for California, it is unacceptable. The way the shutoffs have been rolled out and managed must change. Preventing the need for shutoffs in the first place is the goal. 

Together, CHA and the Regional Associations will press the power companies, state government, and regulators for better. We’ve been working with Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric, and local government officials to ensure they grasp the obstacles you must overcome during power shutoffs, in order to continue providing seamless care. And we’ll press for additional solutions.

We want to hear about and collect your experiences. If your hospital has been affected by one of the public safety power shutoff events, please share your story with us via email.

In the meantime, thank you for standing strong for your communities. For hundreds of thousands of Californians this week, their homes and businesses were dark, but the lights were on — as always — at their local hospital.

— Carmela