Posts Tagged ‘Hospitals’

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AZ Kicks off the “No Place Like Home” Campaign

March 16th, 2012

Kathy McCanna, Alan Oppenheim, and Connie Belden (from Licensing) and Kristy Benton (from Behavioral Health) recently jumped head-first into a new Arizona health-care initiative called No Place Like Home which is Arizona’s approach to the Partnership for Patients: Better Care, Lower Costs project.  The project aims to prevent hospital-acquired conditions and hospital re-admissions.  The name No Place Like Home means that it’s better to be at home than back in a hospital. 

The (public-private) Partnership for Patients brings together leaders of major hospitals, employers, health plans, physicians, nurses, and patient advocates along with State and Federal governments in a shared effort to focus on preventing hospital-acquired conditions and decreasing hospital re-admissions.  The No Place Like Home Campaign engages hospitals, rehabilitation and skilled nursing facilities, hospices, home health agencies, community pharmacies, clinician offices, community-based organizations and other care providers in an intense collaborative to: 

  • Prevent 4,000 readmissions within 30 days of hospital discharge by June 30, 2013;
  • Reduce the overall readmission rate for Medicare beneficiaries by 20%; and
  • Decrease health-care expenditures related to these re-admissions. 

Our partners are the Health Services Advisory Group, Inc. (HSAG), the Arizona Partnership Implementing Patient Safety (APIPS),  the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association (AzHHA) & AHCCCS.  HSAG will manage the day-to-day operational aspects of the Campaign by providing staffing and resources to support participants. Our Licensing team (in their role with Medicare Surveys and Certification) will be an asset in providing assessment data that can be used for quality improvement strategies in Arizona. This Campaign is totally in keeping with the ADHS Vision of “Health and Wellness for all Arizonans” as well as our Strategic Map overarching goal to “Achieve targeted improvements in health outcomes”.

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Posted in Behavioral Health, Licensing

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Hospital Bloodstream Infection Rates Go Online

February 23rd, 2012

Bloodstream infections that start because of a “central line” in a person’s body are among the most serious of all healthcare-associated infections- causing thousands of deaths each year and about $700M in added costs.  The CDC estimates that there were about 41,000 infections like these U.S. hospitals last year…  and 25% percent of patients who get a central line associated bloodstream infection will die from it.  Each patient with an infection like this costs about $17K extra to boot. 

As is the case with everything in public health, measuring and reporting rates of central line associated bloodstream infections (called CLABSIs) is a key ingredient in developing effective interventions to reduce these deadly and expensive (and often preventable) infections.  To that end, this week Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services added data about how often these preventable infections occur in hospital intensive care units across the country to their Hospital Compare website.  Providing data that will help hospitals and the public health system to bring down these rates, saving thousands of lives and millions of dollars each year.  

The data on the website comes from data reported from hospital ICUs to CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN).  In many places, this is the first time consumers can see how well their local hospitals prevent CLABSIs, one of the most deadly healthcare-associated infections.  You can also read more and join the conversation at http://blogs.cdc.gov/safehealthcare/. 

Hospital Compare also provides a host of additional indicators about the quality of care provided in over 4,700 of America’s acute-care, critical access and children’s hospitals.  The website features free, easy-to-use information about these hospitals, including mortality and readmission rates for each, along with 10 measures that capture patient experience with hospital care, 17 measures that assess patient safety at each hospital, 25 process-of-care measures and three children’s asthma care measures.

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Posted in General, Prevention

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Providing Transparent Inspection Results is a Key to Effective Compliance

June 29th, 2011

Our Division of Licensing Services monitors a wide range of facilities including hospitals, assisted living and skilled nursing centers, behavioral health facilities, child care facilities, and group homes for folks with developmental disabilities.  Our teams of surveyors conduct inspections, on-site surveys, and complaint investigations to make sure all of our licensed facilities promote quality care and safety and meet their performance standards.  Our goal is always to gain compliance without having to resort to enforcement actions as I described in a blog post a few months ago.

One of the tools we use to make sure they meet our health and safety expectations is to provide the public with easy to access information about each and every facility’s inspection results.  That way, the public can decide for themselves whether they want to use the services of a licensed facility.  This brings the consumer into the mix and helps us with our mission.  That’s why we developed our electronic tool we call AZ Care Check.  It provides the consumer an easy-to-use tool that allows them to look up the compliance history of any of our licensed facilities, allowing them to make informed decisions about where to seek services for themselves or their loved-ones and how to spend their money.

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Posted in Licensing

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Wildfire Update

June 10th, 2011

I’m sure you know that a few wildfires are still burning in AZ, including the massive Wallow fire. The Governor signed a Declaration of Emergency on Monday this week, releasing some state funds to help with the response efforts and opening the State Emergency Operations Center, which is coordinating and directing the state emergency response activities.  You can visit their website (www.azein.gov) for real-time incident updates, preparedness and hazard information and multimedia resources.

All licensed inpatient (Assisted Living and Skilled Nursing) and residential (Group Homes for folks with Developmental Disabilities) facilities in Springerville and Eager were evacuated early this week.  AHCCCS & ADES also identified their vulnerable members several days ago and ensured they had transition plans.  The hospital in Springerville was closed last weekend, but the emergency department has remained open.  Our WIC program made adjusted so that participants from the evacuated areas can still access their benefits.

The Northern Arizona Regional Behavioral Health Authority has activated set up a hotline for information and services. They’ve also been contacting all their clients in the area to determine their evacuation plans and help with special assistance if necessary and coordinating with Community Counseling Centers for clients who have relocated.  Earlier in the week they ensured that the records from the behavioral health outpatient treatment clinic in  Springerville were transferred to St. Johns where there’s another out-patient clinic.

Airborne particulate matter levels in Springerville & Eager this week were quite high at night but more tolerable during the day.  ADEQ air quality monitors take the readings.  We’ve been helping to interpret the data for both Springerville and St. Johns for decision-making purposes.

In my opinion, the response to this fire has been much smoother and more effective than the response to the Rodeo-Chediski fire, mostly because all of us in the health sector (ADHS, AHCCCS, ADES, Counties) activated responses much earlier in the event than during R-C.  I’m not saying that the response to the Rodeo-Chediski fire were bad, it’s just clear that the multi-jurisdictional planning efforts over the last several years have really paid off.

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Posted in General, Preparedness

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AZ “Putting Prevention to Work”

May 16th, 2011

Last year we received funding from CDC to implement the Communities Putting Prevention to Work, which aims to achieve broad reaching, highly impactful, and sustainable change to reduce chronic disease burden associated with obesity and tobacco.

This week CDC notified us that Arizona is a “high performing” state. What does this mean? CDC will soon be visiting Arizona providing additional evaluation support to determine whether or not our program will be used as a “best practice” example for other states. Why did Arizona receive this award? In just 15 months, our team has leveraged our grant resources to improve physical activity and nutrition and cut tobacco use in Arizona schools, hospitals, worksites, and childcare facilities. Here are few examples of what the team has accomplished so far:

  • Trained over 20 hospitals and 2000 nurses on maternity care practices that encourage mothers to breastfeed and keep breastfeeding.
  • Helped create healthy schools where students can be physically active and have access to healthy foods, like fruits and vegetables.
  • Trained more than 200 school staff and partners to assess their nutrition and physical activity programs and policies using the CDC’s School Health Index.
  • Inspired over 500 parents, teachers, and administrators to create healthy change at their school with our new School Health Advisory Council Video.
  • Helped schools examine barriers that keep students from walking and biking to school safely by completing our online assessment, the Active School Neighborhood Checklist.

Imagine how many more Arizonans our team will impact with 9 more months to go! Congrats to our Nutrition and Physical Activity and their CPPW team!

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Posted in Prevention

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Healthcare Associated Infections Report

March 7th, 2011

Good news this time.  The number of bloodstream infections in intensive care unit patients with central lines decreased by 58% over the last 10 years according to a new CDC Vital Signs report. This decrease saved 27,000 lives and $1.8B in excess health care costs. Bloodstream infections in patients with central lines can be deadly, killing as many as 1 in 4 patients who gets one.

Most hospital Infectious Disease Committees follow central line infections very closely these days. Back in the day (about 10-15 years ago), it was common practice to put in central lines at the bedside with only a pair of sterile gloves. Now most hospitals require full gowning, face mask, and cap, along with full sterile draping of the patient. This is even required now in many ORs for central lines put in patients right before surgery.

You can check out our website dedicated to preventing Healthcare Associated Infections.   We also help facilitate communication through the hospital association for facilities that are participating in the national collaborative “On the Cusp” to prevent blood stream infections.  Part of our strategic initiatives for 2011 is to help address blood stream infections in hemodialysis units so our prevention efforts will be extending beyond acute care hospitals.

By the way- a “central line” and a simple “IV” are different things.  Central lines are inserted into large veins  and are pretty big because they need to handle a large volume.  Simple IV’s usually go into veins.  IV’s have a much lower risk of infection.

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Posted in Preparedness, Prevention

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Masters in Public Health Program Comes to the Valley

December 30th, 2010

The new Phoenix-Collaborative MPH in Public Health Practice program as well as a distance learning Graduate Certificate in Public Health are two great options for individuals looking to advance their knowledge about public health. The Master of Public Health in Public Health Practice is a new interdisciplinary program that prepares students to develop the public health skills needed to work in a variety of governmental and non-governmental settings including the local, county and state departments of health, the Indian Health Service, Medicaid and Medicare programs, hospitals, and community health centers.  Students learn to work effectively as part of multidisciplinary teams to develop, manage and evaluate public health programs that are appropriate for decreasing health disparities between and within diverse populations.

If you’re interested in expanding your professional horizons or if you simply have some intellectual curiosity about our growing field, check it out!

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Posted in General

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Winnable Battle- Healthcare Acquired Infections

August 18th, 2010

Each year in the US there are 1.7 million health care associated infections that cause approximately 99,000 deaths in US hospitals.  There are lots of germs that can cause health care associated infections, but 16% are in the really bad category because they’re resistant to  antibiotics.  These multidrug-resistant organisms pose huge problems once they get started, which is why preventing their transmission in health care facilities so important. The germ that gets the most attention is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)- and preventing health care MRSA infections is one of our top public health goals in AZ.

A new study this week suggests that we may be making some headway.  A new study published in JAMA found that the rates of invasive health care associated MRSA infections decreased in recent years among patients with infections that began outside and inside hospitals.

We’ve developed a Healthcare-Associated Infection (HAI) and Antibiotic Resistance resource page to help healthcare providers to develop and implement better plans to reduce healthcare associated infections.  We’re also working in various ways through our medical and long term care licensing programs and our public health programs to keep making headway on this important CDC Winnable Battle.

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Giving Babies a Boost

June 28th, 2010

We kicked off an initiative this month to increase the percentage of mom’s that choose to breastfeed their newborn.  The real key to success turns out to be the first couple of days after the baby is born (actually the first few hours are the most important). Our new program is called Baby Steps to Breastfeeding.  It’s a voluntary 5-point plan that we’d like hospitals to implement (for newborns and moms) before they leave the hospital.  When they implement the program they become an ADHS “Baby Friendly Hospital”.

The program is sponsored by WIC, and it’s based on the WHO’s Steps to Successful Breastfeeding.   We’ll be providing guidance, training, ongoing technical support, materials and model policies for hospitals that want to participate.  The initiative provides benefits to the participating hospitals, including marketing opportunities through our website, increased patient satisfaction and compliance with governing organizations requirements and standards. But, the biggest beneficiary will be Arizona mothers and infants, as private and public sectors work together to promote, protect and support this valuable foundation of good health.

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State-of-the-Art Online Complaint System

March 23rd, 2010


Our Licensing & Operations Divisions went live with our new Online Complaint Form system.  It took some old fashioned elbow grease and creativity to put together this new time saving application- that will allow our licensing folks to more efficiently take and track complaints- and to more efficiently get back with folks that file them.  It will save considerable staff “phone time”- as folks that want to make complaints can directly enter their information into our database- and we can electronically get back with them with our findings.  Links to forms for each area in licensing are located at: http://www.azdhs.gov/als/index.htm.

Our next automation task for Licensure is to complete our work with electronic applications including renewal applications, which will save time with data entry, but also administrative time spent tracking down information that’s needed on the application but that’s forgotten when people use paper applications.

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Posted in Licensing

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