The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is collaborating with the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF), which will merge with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in May, to celebrate Patient Safety Awareness Week (March 12-18) through a series of activities recognizing the importance of keeping patients safe in all health care settings:

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Recently, the Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (HHS OIG) released its mid-year update to its fiscal year (FY) 2016 work plan. New initiatives are indicated in the following list of Medicaid-related work:

Hospitals are invited to participate in a stakeholder call with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to discuss an important update as it relates to the Affordable Care Act. The speaker will be Jocelyn Samuels, director of the Office for Civil Rights. There will also be the opportunity for questions and answers.

CALL DETAILS
Thursday, September 3
2:15 p.m. (ET)

Thirty-three Kentucky hospitals were recently recognized by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for their outstanding voluntary efforts to promote organ donation in the third year of the Workplace Partnership for Life Hospital Organ Donation Campaign. Hospitals were awarded gold, silver or bronze recognition based on the number of promotion activities implemented. The campaign also recognized the Kentucky Hospital Association and Donate Life Kentucky for partnering with hospitals and transplant centers in the national campaign.

The Kentucky hospitals recognized were:

Baptist Health Corbin

Baptist Health Louisville

Baptist Health Madisonville

Baptist Health Richmond

Baptist Hospital Lexington

Clark Regional Medical Center

Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center

Fleming County Hospital

Frankfort Regional Medical Center

Georgetown Community Hospital

Hardin Memorial Health

Harrison Memorial Hospital...

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell has announced the availability of $100 million from the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to support an estimated 150 new health center sites across the country in 2015. New health center sites will increase access to comprehensive, affordable, high quality primary health care services in the communities that need it most.

More information on this funding opportunity is available at http://www.hrsa.gov/grants/apply/assistance/nap/.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is releasing new data and launching new initiatives at the annual Health Datapalooza conference in Washington, D.C.

On June 2, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released its first annual update to the Medicare hospital charge data, or information comparing the average amount a hospital bills for services that may be provided in connection with a similar inpatient stay or outpatient visit. CMS is also releasing a suite of other data products and tools aimed to increase transparency about Medicare payments. The data on CMS’s website now includes inpatient and outpatient hospital charge data for 2012, and new interactive dashboards for the CMS Chronic Conditions Data Warehouse and geographic variation data. Also, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has launched a new open data initiative. Before the end of the conference, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) will announce the winners of two data...

On May 7, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced an overall nine percent decrease in hospital acquired conditions (HACs) nationally during 2011-2012. HACs are undesirable situations or conditions for patients that arose during a hospital stay.

HHS reported that national reductions in adverse drug events, falls, infections and other forms of hospital-induced harm are estimated to have prevented nearly 15,000 deaths in hospitals, avoided 560,000 patient injuries and saved approximately $4 billion in health spending over the same period.

Kentucky hospitals are cheering today’s announcement because they played an integral role in improving many of the quality indicators on which HHS focused. Since 2012, the Kentucky Hospital Association has led a statewide initiative to reduce preventable readmissions and HACs in Kentucky hospitals. This effort, known as the Kentucky Hospital Engagement Network (K-HEN), was conducted in partnership with the American Hospital Association and...