By Ginger - Site Admin on
Wednesday, November 27, 2019 11:12 AM
KHA will host a special membership meeting via webinar on Tuesday, December 3, at 11:00 AM (ET) to discuss strategies to preserve 340B reimbursement under Medicaid. Hospital chief executive officers and chief financial officers should have received an Alert from KHA this morning via email with call details and additional information. If you did not receive the email, please contact Debbie Bonn at KHA (dbonn@kyha.com). Please make plans to participate in this webinar!
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By Ginger - Site Admin on
Tuesday, September 03, 2019 2:12 PM
The Kentucky Department for Public Health (KDPH) is alerting clinicians
about the possibility of seeing patients with progressive, severe pulmonary
disease related to the use of e-cigarettes or “vaping.” As of August 27, at
least 215 possible cases in 25 states have been reported to the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). One death has been
reported in Illinois. These pulmonary injuries are particularly seen among
adolescents and young adults. Patients are experiencing respiratory
symptoms including cough, shortness of breath and fatigue, and symptoms
typically worsen over a period of days or weeks before admission to the
hospital. Other symptoms reported by some patients included fever,
anorexia, pleuritic chest pain, nausea and diarrhea. Chest radiographs
show bilaterial opacities, typically in the lower lobes, and CT imaging of
the chest show diffuse ground-glass opacities, often with subpleural
sparing. Evaluation for infectious etiologies was negative in all patients.
Some...
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By Ginger - Site Admin on
Wednesday, July 03, 2019 1:20 PM
KHA recently received a letter from a company called Widelity
which is acting on behalf of the Kentucky Educational Television (KET)
system. KET, along with other television stations around the state, is
beginning the process of changing the frequencies they broadcast on across
the commonwealth, and there is a chance that depending on what your
facility is using for wireless devices associated with patient care
monitoring and remote operation of equipment, the change in frequencies
could potentially create interference if they are within 70 miles of a
transmitter.
While the information KHA has received from Widelity seems to
indicate that something may have been sent directly to hospitals, it is not
clear who in your organization may have received it. It also looks like a
commercial solicitation; therefore, it may have been ignored, misdirected
or discarded.
Due to the amount of wireless technology that has become part of the
patient care system, the risk management exposure...
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By Ginger - Site Admin on
Monday, July 16, 2018 9:54 AM
On May 16, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a
request for information
on ways to lower drug prices and reduce out-of-pocket costs for consumers.
While the AHA appreciates the Administration's focus on the issue of
unsustainable drug prices, which threaten patient access to care, the focus
on the 340B program as part of a plan to lower drug prices is misplaced. A
number of the questions raised by HHS suggest that the 340B program might
contribute to higher drug prices. However, it is drug manufacturers,...
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By Ginger - Site Admin on
Wednesday, November 08, 2017 9:58 AM
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, H.R. 1, was released and is
being debated this week in the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee. There
is a significant problem for the Kentucky not-for-profit hospitals included in the bill. The proposal would eliminate the tax-exemption for
private-activity bonds (PABs), including qualified 501(c)(3) hospital bonds
and advance refunding bonds. The ability to obtain tax-exempt financing is
a key benefit of hospital tax-exemption that works to make access to vital
hospital services available in communities large and small across the
commonwealth.
These bonds play a critical role in helping not-for-profit hospitals and
health systems access low-cost capital, enabling them to keep
infrastructure expenditures low so they can efficiently fulfill their
mission and focus on the work they do for the public good. Tax-exempt bonds
reduce hospitals’ borrowing costs because they normally can be sold at a
lower rate of interest than taxable debt of comparable risk and maturity....
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By Ginger - Site Admin on
Wednesday, June 28, 2017 8:10 AM
From AHA: A new and evolving cyberattack using a variant of Ransomware has hit
businesses in Ukraine, India, France, Russia and Spain. The Department of
Health and Human Services (HHS) informed AHA that some U.S. hospitals
and a pharmaceutical company also have been attacked. At this time, there
is no definitive assessment about the source of the cyberattack. HHS is
advising vigilance and following general cyber hygiene practices, such as
ensuring that all your systems’ patches and anti-virus definitions are up
to date. AHA is closely monitoring the situation and will update members as more information becomes available.
For more on the developing attack, make sure to check
US-CERT,
...
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By Ginger - Site Admin on
Thursday, May 22, 2014 7:45 AM
The Connecticut Hospital Association shared the following incident with the Kentucky Institute for Patient Safety and Quality (KIPSQ), KHA’s Patient Safety Organization, for distribution to its members in the hopes that it will prevent a harm event in hospitals.
On May 16, Griffin Hospital in Derby, Connecticut, announced that during a daily safety huddle (begun as part of the hospital’s participation in their statewide high reliability collaborative), it had identified an issue regarding the use of insulin pens — devices intended to make insulin injections more efficient and accurate. They consist of a cartridge and needles. While needles were never reused, a few staff used the cartridges for more than one patient. Despite changing the needles, there is still slight risk of blood contamination of the pen reservoir or cartridge, which could result in transmission of blood-borne pathogens from the previous patient.
Griffin has used the insulin pens for several years and has identified approximately...
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