This toolkit outlines resources and models for meeting the challenges of health care organizations during disaster scenarios. These scenarios often overwhelm hospital resources, necessitating the development of preparedness and response strategies. The guide covers the importance of proactive planning, partnership-building among stakeholders, and development of scalable response plans in hospital disaster planning.
Hospitals facing a sudden rise in emergency department patients may find it necessary to establish a surge tent for triage purposes.
Active shooter events in a health care setting present unique challenges: a potentially large vulnerable patient population, hazardous materials (including infectious disease), locked units, special challenges (such as weapons and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines (these machines contain large magnets which can cause issues with firearms, or remove it from the hands of law enforcement), as well as caregivers who can respond to treat victims.
The topics covered in the Emergency Management Principles and Practices curriculum are vital for enhancing hospital planning efforts. These principles are essential for coordinating efforts among various agencies and ensuring a unified approach to crisis management.
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What’s happening: As required by the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) of 2023, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued a report on several aspects of the Acute Hospital Care at Home (AHCaH) initiative, which provided waivers that allowed individual hospitals to give inpatient-level care in the home environment.
What else to know: The waiver program launched during the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE), and the CAA extended it beyond the PHE’s end, allowing it to continue through Dec. 31 of this year.
Evacuation of a health care facility may be necessary following an emergency such as a facility fire or damage from a natural disaster such as an earthquake or flooding. The decision to evacuate a health care facility will be based on the ability of the facility to meet the medical needs of the patients. Immediate threats to life, such as internal fires or unstable structures, will require emergent evacuation, while other situations may allow for a planned and phased evacuation.
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With less than two months before America selects its next president, Congress has returned to Washington, D.C., to consider a federal funding plan, with action required before Sept. 30 to avoid a government shutdown. Given it is an election year, a shutdown is unlikely, and Congress will need to take temporary actions to keep programs operating.
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What’s happening: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is offering a web-based training course on the post-acute care (PAC) patient assessment instruments (PAI) and quality reporting programs (QRPs) for all PAC settings.
What else to know: The updated training provides a high-level overview of data elements within the patient/resident assessment instruments across PAC settings, including inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs), skilled-nursing facilities (SNFs), long-term care hospitals (LTCHs), and home health (HH) agencies, and discusses the relationship between these data elements and the QRP for each setting.
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What’s happening: The House Ways and Means Committee approved six bills that address a wide range of pressing health care issues facing rural communities.
What else to know: CHA will continue to work with members of the California delegation to support these measures and urge their passage into law.
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What’s happening: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the Accountable Care Organization (ACO) Primary Care (PC) Flex Model, a new voluntary payment model that will test how prospective payments and increased funding for primary care in ACOs impact health outcomes, quality, and costs of care.
What else to know: CMS will launch the model on Jan. 1, 2025.