February 2, 2004

MHA NewsWeekly Electronic Edition
February 2, 2004
Vol. 22, No. 4

Quote of the Week
They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.
~ Andy Warhol

In this week's edition...
1. Avian Flu Concern Prompts CDC To Warn Doctors of Symptoms
2. MHA To Host Forum for Grants/Foundation Officers
3. Mississippi Hospitals Receive New Trauma Center Designations
4. Board of Health Recommends Placement of J-1 Visa Physicians
5. Training time for EMTs cut 500 hours
6. Taste of UMC honors Dr. & Mrs. Hughes
7. Two-year associate of nursing degree program offered at CCC
8. IQH and CMS hospital public reporting
9. Consumer advocacy society announces new award
10. No Pain Relief for One Out of Five Patients-Study
11. Ask The Experts: Health Programs in President Bush's Budget - LIVE Webcast Tomorrow
12. Positions Available
13. People in the News
14. News Around the State
15. MHA Education Calendar

1. Avian Flu Concern Prompts CDC To Warn Doctors of Symptoms
 In the first warning to U.S. citizens about bird flu, the government urged doctors on Jan. 27 to ask patients with flu-like symptoms if they have traveled to places in Asia where bird flu has broken out.
 The goal is to prevent the possible human spread of the virus, although there have been no documented cases of this occurring during the Asian outbreak.
 “We are taking this very seriously right now,” said Dr. Julie Gerberding, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. No cases of bird flu in either people or birds have been seen so far in the United States.
 Gerberding said if doctors find that patients with flu symptoms have been in Vietnam, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Myanmar, South Korea or Thailand, they should test for the virus. If it turns out they have influenza A, then state and local health departments working with CDC can check further to see if it is the H5N1 bird flu strain.
 Gerberding said people who might have the flu should voluntarily tell doctors about their Asian travels if no one asks them about it. She also urged people who travel to areas with outbreaks to stay away from poultry farms, live animal markets or any surfaces contaminated with bird droppings. 
 So far, H5N1 bird flu has been found in eight Asian countries. There have been 10 confirmed cases and eight people are known to have died from the infection. While all appear to have caught the virus from chickens, experts suspect the disease can be passed person to person, since that occurred during a similar outbreak in Hong Kong in 1997.
 The ultimate fear, though, is that someone will catch the bird flu while already infected with the ordinary human flu virus. The two viruses might swap genes, creating a mutant that could spread easily with disastrous results.
 Last year’s SARS outbreak was the last time U.S. doctors were told to be on special alert for the introduction of a contagious respiratory virus from abroad. Typically flu is much more contagious than SARS, so containing a human outbreak might be much more difficult than stopping SARS, which health officials did by isolating infected people.
 The CDC and World Health Organization are working to engineer a vaccine against the virus, but the vaccine could take months to develop. “We really have had to start from scratch and work as quickly as possibly to get a vaccine candidate developed,” Gerberding said.
 For more information about the avian flu strain, visit www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/.
   To receive daily updates on disaster preparedness, join the Disaster Preparedness & Bioterrorism Community under MyMHA.

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2. MHA To Host Forum for Grants/Foundation Officers  
 The Mississippi Hospital Association will host a forum for grant and foundation officers on March 4 from 9 a.m. till 3 p.m. at the Atrium Conference Center in Jackson. This workshop will provide information on grant writing techniques to improve the competitiveness of your proposal, help locate Web sites and other resources that list health-related grant opportunities and identify the emerging best practices in designing program evaluation.
 The speaker for this forum will be Barbara Jones, EdD. Jones is currently the principal of EDGE Educational Development Group in Nesbit, Miss. She has authored and served as project director for numerous grants and has presented writing workshops to teachers, community college faculty and nonprofit groups throughout the Southeast. She has designed project evaluation systems and has served as an external evaluator for numerous grant programs.
 The cost of the forum is $75 for MHA member hospitals and $100 for non-member hospitals. For more information, contact Diane Clift at (800) 289-8884, (601) 368-3217 or dclift@mhanet.org. To register online, click here.
   To received daily updates of interest to grant and foundation employees, join the Grants & Foundations Community under MyMHA.

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3. Five Mississippi Hospitals Receive New Trauma Center Designations
    Five Mississippi hospitals were recently awarded designation as trauma centers by Mississippi State Health Officer Brian Amy, MD, MHA, MPH. Mississippi’s newest designated complete trauma centers include: University Medical Center, Jackson, complete designation as a Level I trauma center; Ocean Springs Hospital, Ocean Springs, complete designation as a Level II trauma center; South Central Regional Medical Center in Laurel, complete designation as a Level III trauma center; Crosby Memorial Hospital, Picayune, complete designation as a Level IV trauma center; and Wayne General Hospital, Waynesboro, complete designation as a Level IV trauma center. Previously, the facilities were provisionally designated as trauma centers.

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4. Board of Health Recommends Placement of J-1 Visa Physicians
    Eight new physicians will soon support the availability of cardiac, neurological and internal medicine services for Medicare, Medicaid and low-income patients on an inpatient/outpatient basis after a recent decision made by the Mississippi State Board of Health during its January meeting.
   On January 14, the Mississippi State Board of Health at its quarterly meeting approved a recommendation for the placement of eight physicians throughout Mississippi. The physicians will support the current systems of care in and around Adams, DeSoto, Harrison, Jones, Sunflower and Tunica counties. 
    The Primary Care division has been designated to serve as a state contact and clearinghouse for the J-1 Visa Waiver Programs. The J-1 Visa Waiver Program allows international medical graduates to apply for a J-1 visa to pursue graduate medical education in the United States. The medical student is sponsored by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates and has a contract from a United States accredited medical school, affiliated hospital or other institution. The international medical graduate is then permitted to enter the United States and remain until the completion of his or her graduate medical education.
   The Mississippi State Department of Health is currently developing software to help automate the process of matching available physicians with openings at Mississippi health care facilities. To date this process has been handled entirely by the Primary Care Division staff. The new web-based system will provide an around-the-clock direct link between physicians and facilities in need and will become available on the Mississippi State Department of Health Web site – www.msdh.state.ms.us– in the near future.
   To receive daily updates about workforce issues and physician relations issues, join the Workforce Community and the Physician Relations Community under MyMHA.

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5. Training time for EMTs cut 500 hours
   The State Board of Health recently shaved 500 hours from the classroom and field training time required to become an emergency medical technician. Each year, the state loses about 15 percent of its registered EMTs, a number that now stands at 1,300 because of retirements and career changes. The state would need about 200 new EMTs each year to address the reduction in number of health professionals responsible for providing critical care during the first moments of a medical crisis. As of November, there were 86 vacancies for EMTs across the state.
   Last year, there were no graduating EMTs because of changes to the curriculum and state standards, which were brought in line with the national ones. The state exam became more stringent and more comprehensive, and EMTs had to know how to administer adrenaline to treat anaphylactic or allergic reactions.
   To receive daily updates about workforce issues, join the Workforce Community under MyMHA.

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6. Taste of UMC honors Dr. & Mrs. Hughes
   The University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMC) Alliance, a nonprofit organization that supports medical center programs, will sponsor the annual culinary gala event, The Taste of UMC, Feb. 21 at the Agricultural Museum's Sparkman Auditorium on Lakeland Drive.
   Tickets for the event, which features menus of international dishes prepared by chefs from among UMC's faculty and staff, are $20 per adult, $5 for children 12 and under and $15 for UMC students, interns and residents. Proceeds will benefit the chapel fund.
   Dr. and Mrs. James L. Hughes will serve as honorary chairpersons of the event. Hughes is the M. Beckett Howorth Professor of Orthopedic Surgery and Rehabilitation at the Medical Center. For more information, call Donna Windson at (601) 984-5212 or Teresa Bridges at (601) 815-4029.

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7. Two-year associate of nursing degree program offered at CCC
   A new two-year associate of nursing degree program at Coahoma Community College with graduates eligible for the registered nursing exam has been approved by the Mississippi's Institution of Higher Learning (IHL). Academic Dean Dr. Rosetta Howard projected the program would be up and running by fall 2005.
   "We are required to have a director of nursing on staff one year before the program opens, and four faculty members here six months ahead," she explained. "Our present LPN program will be a natural feeder for this."
   Howard said establishing the program was a joint effort with Northwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center in Clarksdale and other entities. For additional information about the associate of nursing degree program, contact Howard at (662) 621-4110.

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8. IQH and CMS hospital public reporting
      The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced the guidelines hospitals should use in submitting their quality performance data to comply with Section 501 the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act (MMA).
    Hospitals that do not submit performance data for 10 quality measures will receive 0.4 percent smaller Medicare payments in fiscal year 2005 than hospitals that do report quality data. CMS notes that hospitals are to submit data for all patients, not just Medicare patients. CMS will check the data to ensure it is in the proper format.
   In order for hospitals to qualify for the full monetary update, they must sign up with the Quality Improvement Organizations’ data warehouse by June 1, 2004 , and transmit the required data there by July 1, 2004 , which will reflect patient discharges during the most recent quarter available. Hospitals whose data submission is started but not completed by July 1 will be allowed a 30-day grace period to complete data submission.
   Information and Quality Healthcare (IQH), working under contract with CMS, is providing technical assistance to hospitals in their data abstraction and submission and with quality improvement activities. Hospitals are urged to contact Debbie Miller, IQH analysis manager, for data abstraction and submission technical assistance at (800) 844-0500 or (601) 957-1575, ext. 226, and Marsha Watson, IQH quality improvement manager, for quality improvement activities assistance at ext. 232.
   To receive daily updates about quality issues, join the Patient Safety & Quality Community under MyMHA.

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9. Consumer advocacy society announces new award
   The Society for Healthcare Consumer Advocacy, an AHA personal membership group, seeks applicants for a new award for SHCA members that will recognize a community or national leader or group that has made a significant impact on the quality of care for U.S. health care consumers. Potential nominees include hospital and health care system leaders, governmental leaders, quality experts, consultants, and community or national non-profit organizations. Nominations are due by Feb. 15. For more information, see the announcement  here .

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10. No Pain Relief for One Out of Five Patients-Study
  One out of five patients at an urban U.S. hospital experienced pain they felt should have been relieved, according to a three-year study released last Monday.Overall, 59 percent of the more than 5,500 hospital patients in the three-year study said they experienced pain, with 28 percent reporting it was severe.
  "It may be important to think of all (hospital) patients ... as being at high risk for pain, just as we do for patients with cancer and for critically ill and postoperative patients," study author Chad Whelan of the University of Chicago wrote in the report published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

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11. Ask The Experts: Health Programs in President Bush's Budget - LIVE Webcast Tomorrow
   Don't miss your chance to "Ask the Experts" about the health programs in President Bush's budget, which has just reached Capitol Hill. Send in your questions today to ask@kaisernetwork.org. The experts include: Bill Hoagland, director of budget and appropriations, Office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.); Jeanne Lambrew, associate professor of health policy, George Washington University's Department of Health Policy; and Victoria Wachino, associate director, Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured The program will be moderated by Kaiser Family Foundation Vice President and kaisernetwork.org Editor-In-Chief Larry Levitt.
   The program will be webcast LIVE  here on Tues, Feb. 3, at 2 p.m. EST. This program is accessible only via the Internet and not via teleconference. The archived webcast of this program will be available on Wednesday, Feb. 4. The panel of experts will take your phone calls and emails. Send questions ahead of time to ask@kaisernetwork.org or call 1-888-KAISER8 (524-7378) during the live broadcast.
   The toll-free phone number will function only during the live program and is for submitting questions only. If you have never viewed a webcast before, you can test your media player in advance of the live webcast  here. If you experience any technical difficulties, call the kaisernetwork help desk at (202) 347-5270.

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12. Positions Available
 Tyler Holmes Memorial Hospital is seeking a full-time medical records coder. Inpatient and outpatient coding experience preferred. Apply at the hospital or fax resume to (662) 283-4640. For more information, contact Janice McClain at (662) 283-4114.
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 Tyler Holmes Memorial Hospital is seeking a full-time registered diagnostic medical sonographer. Vascular experience preferred. Apply at the hospital or fax resume to (662) 283-4640. For more information, contact Celia Graham at (662) 283-4114.
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 Select Medical Corporation is seeking a Chief Executive Officer for their freestanding Select Specialty Hospital in Biloxi and their “hospital within a hospital” located in Memorial Hospital at Gulfport. Qualified candidates will have results-oriented senior hospital management experience and a successful record in quality operations, program development and budgets. Mail resumes to Connie Newell, HR/Recruitment, Select Medical Corporation, 4716 Old Gettysburg Rd., Mechanicsburg, PA 17055; fax to (717) 763-8694; or e-mail to cnewell@selectmedicalcorp.com.
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 Hancock Medical Center is seeking a Health Information Director. BS degree in Medical Records Administration and five years experience, with two of those years in medical records administration, are required. Interested parties should apply at Hancock Medical Center, 149 Drinkwater Blvd., or mail resume to Human Resources, P.O. Box 2790, Bay St. Louis, MS 39521.
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 St. Dominic Hospital is seeking a Director of Patient Financial Services. BS degree in Accounting or Business Administration preferred. Must have supervisory experience and significant work in the area of health care collections. Apply online at www.stdom.com or fax your resume to (601) 200-6722. For information on all jobs available at St. Dominic’s, call the Jobline at (601) 200-6700.
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 Natchez Regional Medical Center has a full-time position open for a Managed Information Systems Director with a bachelor’s in Management Information Systems. Send, fax or e-mail resume to Natchez Regional, Attn: Human Resources, P.O. Box 1488, Natchez, MS, 39121; fax (601) 443-2891; or e-mail lpugh@natchezregional.com.
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 South Central Regional Medical Center is currently seeking a board certified (or eligible) WOCN. For more information or to apply, contact SCRMC by mail at P.O. Box 607, Laurel, MS 39441; by phone at (601) 399-0515; by fax at (601) 425-7535; or by e-mail at lsmith@scrmc.com.

For a listing of hospital jobs available in Mississippi and to post your confidential resume online for health care recruiters, visit www.mshealthjobs.com.

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14. News Around the State
 The Ocean Springs Hospital Auxiliary is now taking applications for their annual scholarship awards. To be eligible to receive one of the $1,000 scholarships, applicants must be at least 19 years old, have completed at least one year of college and be studying in the field of medicine. Six scholarships will be awarded. For more information or to apply, contact Maryon Capers at (228) 875-2038.
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 UMC has been named a Center of Excellence (CoE) in Women’s Health by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It’s one of only 19 centers in the nation to earn the distinction. More information on the CoE distinction can be found at www.4woman.gov.
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 North Mississippi Medical Center-West Point and West Point schools are teaming up to offer Way to Go Kids!, a nutrition and fitness program for children. The program aims to help motivate overweight and inactive children to get moving and take a healthier path for a happier life. The program's goal is to include fun activities and games along with healthy snacks and nutrition information to teach lifestyle changes. Each session is taught by a registered dietitian and the school's physical educator. For more information, call (662) 495-2411.
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   Leake Memorial Hospital in Carthage received designation as a critical access hospital on Jan. 1. Four Jackson full-service hospitals have signed agreements to network with Leake Memorial--University of Mississippi Medical Center, Baptist Medical Center, St. Dominic Hospital and Central Mississippi Medical Center.
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   Alliance HealthCare System in Holly Springs has filed a Certificate of Need to build a new hospital. The project, if approved, will involve the construction of a new facility to replace the out-dated, inefficient health care building currently housing the hospital. The new building will be constructed as a state-of-the-art facility for health care with the ability to grow and will include completed space for its various existing departments, 40 private rooms for its acute care beds and shelled-in space for future growth, for a total of 166,090 square feet.

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15. MHA Education Calendar

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