What holiday gift do you want this year?
                
Current and future nurse leaders interested in developing stronger leadership and empowerment skills, broadening their peer networks, and getting away for a spectacular yet affordable long weekend experience will want to join the Nursing Consortium of South Florida aboard the Royal Caribbean Liberty of the Seas Thursday March 5, 2015 through Monday March 9, 2015.  Registration is now open for this unique four night experience offering a choice of two twelve-hour tracks; a Nurse Clinical Leadership Track and a Nurse Educator Leadership Track.  Please click here for details or call 800-422-0711 to register and book your cabin.
  
The Nurse Clinical Leadership Track will focus on the skills needed to facilitate the development and exercise of nurse leadership skills as a critical component of patient care delivery by healthcare organizations seeking to enhance patient satisfaction and outcomes.
 
The Nurse Educator Leadership Track will focus on the principles of teaching and learning the skills needed to facilitate the development of clinical reasoning skills by students, student socialization into the nursing role, and clinical assessment and evaluation strategies. 

A limited number of sponsor/exhibitor opportunities are available and a program Q&A has been developed to answer questions you may have.  Register before the 25th of December to take advantage of prices starting at under $520.00 per person that include program registration, interior cabin (double occupancy), and port fees & taxes!
               
CMS issues proposed rule revising certain patient's rights requirements
                      
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has issued a proposed rule that would revise certain conditions of participation for health care providers, conditions for coverage for suppliers, and requirements for long-term care facilities. Specifically, the rule would revise certain definitions and patients’ rights provisions to ensure they are consistent with the Supreme Court decision in United States v. Windsor, which held that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional. CMS says the proposed changes (to nine sections of current regulations) would ensure that same-sex spouses in legally-valid marriages are recognized and afforded equal rights in Medicare and Medicaid participating facilities. According to CMS, the proposed rule also would ensure that the requirements at issue are consistent with the Department of Health and Human Services’ policy of treating same-sex marriages on the same terms as opposite-sex marriages “to the greatest extent reasonably possible.” CMS will accept comments on the proposed rule for 60 days after publication in the Dec. 12 Federal Register.
         
Study: Hospitals improving both quality and equity of care

U.S. acute care hospitals improved their performance on 17 quality measures for heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia care for white, black and Hispanic adults by 3.4 to 57.6 percentage points between 2005 and 2010, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study examined the quality and equity of hospital care during the first six years after the start of the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting program. “We found that national performance rates improved between 2005 and 2010 among white, black and Hispanic patients on all 17 measures tracked,” the authors write. “Moreover, we observed reductions in the number of process-of-care measures that differed according to race and ethnic group in 2010 as compared to 2005, and we found significant reductions in the magnitude of racial or ethnic differences on all process-of-care measures with adjusted differences that exceeded 5 percentage points in 2005.” Akin Demehin, AHA senior associate director of policy, said hospitals “are keenly focused on reducing disparities in care, and are encouraged by the progress demonstrated by the study.”                    

HHS issues active shooter planning guide for health care facilities

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response has released a guide to help health care facilities incorporate active shooter incident planning into their emergency operations plans. The document was developed with assistance from ASPR’s Divisions of Health System Policy and Tactical Programs, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Healthcare and Public Health Sector Coordinating Council. 
          
Report: Only 3 in 10 Americans with HIV have virus in check
             
Just 30% of the 1.2 million Americans with HIV had the virus under control in 2011, according to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among those who don’t have their virus in check, two-thirds have been diagnosed, but are no longer in care, according to the report. When used consistently, antiretroviral treatment can keep HIV at very low levels in the body (known as viral suppression), allowing people with HIV to live longer, healthier lives and substantially reducing the likelihood that they will transmit the virus to others. The report says doctors, nurses and health care systems should test patients for HIV as a regular part of medical care; counsel patients who do not have HIV on how to prevent it; make sure people living with HIV are prescribed and take HIV medicines, stay in care and get supportive services; and work with health departments to get and keep people in HIV medical care.

MCH's Humpty Dumpty elevated with top Magnet® Award
             
The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) awarded its annual Magnet® Honors Award to Miami Children's Hospital (MCH) in recognition of the hospital's Humpty Dumpty Falls Prevention Program™.  The program was developed by MCH clinicians to identify patients at risk and prevent falls in the care environment.  The Magnet Honors Award is presented to a Magnet hospital that embodies excellence in patient care by creating and managing a transformational program that makes a difference for patients and nurses alike.  MCH CNO Jackie Gonzalez presented on the Humpty Dumpty Falls Prevention Program™ at the last Nursing Consortium of South Florida educational conference, Generating Evidence for Education and Clinical Practice.

Study: Patients from disadvantaged neighborhoods have higher readmission rates 
          
Medicare patients from socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods are at increased risk for readmission to the hospital within 30 days of discharge, according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The study looked at a sample of Medicare patients hospitalized for pneumonia, heart attack or congestive heart failure, the clinical conditions used to calculate Medicare readmissions penalties. Using the Area Deprivation Index, a composite measure of neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage, it found that patients living in the most disadvantaged 15% of neighborhoods were more likely to be readmitted within 30 days. “The use of the ADI to identify patients from the most severely disadvantaged neighborhoods could be explored as an adjuster for the current Medicare readmissions measures; one that may avoid the limitations of personal socioeconomic indicators and better screen for readmission risk,” the authors said.

Index looks at nation’s preparedness for health security threats 
           
The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials has released its second annual National Health Security Preparedness Index, developed in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and more than 35 other organizations, including the AHA. Based on a 10-point scale, the results average 7.4 nationally across six domains, with state results ranging from 6.5 to 8.2. Areas of relative strength include countermeasure management (9.1), incident and information management (8.1), and health security surveillance (7.8), while areas suggesting need for greater development include environmental and occupational health (5.9), health care delivery (6.5) and community planning and engagement (6.7), the organization said. The health care delivery domain, which has been substantially revised from 2013, looks at pre-hospital, inpatient, long-term care, mental health and home care preparedness. The changes are intended to better reflect how disaster response capability builds upon the strength of everyday systems. The index’s methodology and structure are still evolving, but can be used to help drive dialog, build partnerships and strengthen preparedness, the organization said. 
             
Report: Administrative simplification standards could save $8.1 billion a year
            
U.S. health care providers could save an estimated $6.7 billion annually if all commercial health plans adopted six national standards for electronic business transactions, according to a report by the Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare’s Committee on Operating Rules for Information Exchange. In addition, health plans could save an estimated $1.4 billion annually, based on the U.S. Healthcare Efficiency Index, a CAQH CORE database that tracks the adoption of the six standards. Language included in the Affordable Care Act at the urging of AHA requires health plans to certify that their data and information systems comply with the standards and corresponding operating rules starting Dec. 31, 2014. Operating rules already have been adopted for eligibility, claim status, electronic funds transfer and remittance advice; and AHA is working with CORE and the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics as they develop the other operating rules that will add to the potential administrative savings.

Heroin deaths up sharply in many states
          
Heroin-related deaths across 28 states doubled between 2010 and 2012, according to a survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, despite the sharp increase, more than twice as many people in those states died of prescription opioid overdoses in 2012. CDC researchers reviewed death certificate data in 28 states representing 56% of the U.S. population. “Reducing inappropriate opioid prescribing remains a crucial public health strategy to address both prescription opioid and heroin overdoses,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D. “Addressing prescription opioid abuse by changing prescribing is likely to prevent heroin use in the long term.”