Weekly Report: Growing to serve you

September 17, 2015

For the last 30 years, Washington Hospital Services has provided services to members that complement WSHA’s core mission of advocacy and patient safety.

Central to WHS is our strong worker’s compensation and unemployment claims management program. More recently, WHS picked up the pace to meet members’ cadence. In the last year, we’ve added absence management to complement our worker’s compensation program, taken over the Rural Healthcare Quality Network’s well-respected peer review program, and explored creating a liability insurance pool.

We’ve also grown the Industry Partner program from seven vendors to more than 20. Our partners are rigorously vetted and are best in class. Four will be featured at the upcoming Annual Meeting, including:

  • Carena, which provides support for hospitals to create virtual clinics
  • ZeOmega, a population health management platform
  • WellTrackONE, which leverages the annual wellness visit to predict chronic disease
  • CredSimple, a cutting-edge credentialing tool that lowers costs and speeds up provider on-boarding

We hope you’ll take the time to learn more about all of the partners attending the Annual Meeting and explore how their solutions might help your operation.

I want to thank you for your response to the reinvigorated WHS. We know we’re on track when the services we offer and vendors we endorse are gaining clients. We connect you with high-quality services at a great price, and our profits are reinvested in WSHA’s work to support your organization. It’s a win for everyone.

We look forward to seeing you at the Annual Meeting!

Beth Zborowski
Executive Director
Washington Hospital Services

 


Swimmers make a splash for Seattle Cancer Care Alliance

Photo by Molly Walsh

Seattle Cancer Care Alliance teamed up for the seventh year with the nonprofit Swim Across America for a refreshing swim around Mercer Island to raise money for cancer research. On Sept. 12, more than 300 swimmers took to the water, swimming alongside Olympic medalists, including Mary Wayte, Rick Colella and Margaret Hoelzer, raising more than $275,000. Swimmers were given the option to swim either half a mile, one mile or two miles before returning for a beachside celebration.

Photo by Karen Brandvick

Since the partnership began, the annual event has raised more than $1.2 million, which helps to advance breakthrough treatments in the alliance’s Pancreas Cancer Specialty Clinic and Swim Across America Cellular Therapy Lab. Pancreatic cancer research is in great need, and the immunotherapy research holds great promise. These much-needed funds from the dedicated Washington State community will help Seattle Cancer Care Alliance make crucial advances in the fight against cancer.

Congratulation to Seattle Cancer Care Alliance for another greatly successful swim! (Tim Pfarr)

Across the state, hospitals and health system leaders are doing amazing work to care for their patients and communities in innovative ways. Our goal is to feature all of our 100 members at least once through the course of the year. If you are a WSHA member with a story to tell, please contact Mary Kay Clunies-Ross or Tim Pfarr.

 


Trustee and Commissioner Breakfast to address telemedicine

During the last state legislative session, WSHA successfully developed and lobbied to enact legislation requiring health plans to cover medical treatment provided through telemedicine. How can members maximize the possibilities of telemedicine to best serve their communities?

This is the question to be explored in this year’s Trustee and Commissioner Breakfast Oct. 8 as part of WSHA’s Annual Meeting in Seattle. Representatives from three health systems will share insights into their groundbreaking work designing and implementing telemedicine systems that are actually working to serve patients. See more information and register here for the breakfast and/or the WSHA Annual Meeting today!(Deborah Swets)

WHPAC is $85k toward $200k goal

The 2015 WHPAC campaign is in full swing. To date, we have raised more than $85,000 toward our $200,000 goal. Though we are still early in the campaign, we have 10 members that have reached their goals. Congratulations to the leadership teams at:

  • Capital Medical Center
  • Cascade Medical Center
  • Fairfax Hospital
  • Mason General Hospital & Family of Clinics
  • Morton General Hospital
  • Othello Community Hospital
  • Providence Mount Carmel Hospital/Providence St. Joseph’s Hospital
  • Skagit Regional Health
  • Tri-State Memorial Hospital
  • Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital

We will acknowledge all members who have met their PAC goals during the Annual Meeting. Please get your contributions in to Lori Martinez by Sept. 30 to meet the print deadline for the posters we are creating. Your continued support of the PAC is a tremendous part of our advocacy program. It helps us support and elect champions for health care and hospital services, and unifies our political voice. (Lori Martinez)

Join us for the PAC Appreciation Dinner Oct. 7th

Join us for the PAC Appreciation Dinner Wednesday, Oct. 7, as part of the Annual Meeting. This year’s dinner will be in the private room at the Space Needle’s 100-foot skyline level, which offers a spectacular 360-degree panoramic view of Seattle and the surrounding mountains. Prior to dinner, guests will get tickets to walk through the Chihuly Garden & Glass Museum. Guests may also ride the elevator to the Space Needle’s observation deck for even better views of the city.

This is an excellent opportunity to visit and connect with your colleagues from across the state. If you would like more information about the PAC Appreciation Dinner, please contact PAC and Legislative Manager, Lori Martinez.

If you have already made your PAC contribution and would like to RSVP for the dinner, please contact Lori Martinez as soon as possible, but no later than Sept. 25.

We would also like to say THANK YOU to Coverys for their generous sponsorship of our PAC Appreciation Dinner. Their ongoing support of our PAC has been instrumental in enabling us to use your PAC contributions to directly support candidates running for office. (Lori Martinez)

WSHA policy director appointed to sexual assault exam task force

We are pleased to announce that Policy Director Zosia Stanley has been appointed to represent WSHA at the Washington State Untested Sexual Assault Examination Kits Task Force. The task force, established by HB 1068 during the 2015 legislative session, will review best practice models for managing all aspects of sexual assault examinations and reducing the number of untested sexual assault examination kits in Washington State. Washington State hospitals provide crucial services to sexual assault survivors. We will keep our members updated on the task force’s important work. The first meeting will be Sept. 29. (Cassie Sauer)

CHI Franciscan gets funds to report antibiotic use

The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) received funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to assist Washington hospitals in reporting antimicrobial use through the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) Antimicrobial Use and Resistance module.

CHI Franciscan Health was recently selected to receive funding to establish NHSN antibiotic use reporting capability in six of its Washington facilities. DOH hopes to be able to provide additional funding for this in the future; it has also started exploring the possibility of vendor group purchasing rates and will investigate options for facilities that do not use stewardship/pharmacy software. (Meg Kilcup)

Webcast: Preparing members for voting on changes to bylaws

WSHA members will be asked to vote on a number of proposed changes to the WSHA bylaws at the Oct. 7 WSHA Business Meeting (part of the Annual Meeting). Members of WSHA’s Governance of the Future Task Force will present a webcast Sept. 28 from 10-11 a.m. to detail the proposed bylaws changes. We encourage WSHA voting members to participate in the webcast. If you would like to participate, please contact Linda Simmons for connection information.

Proposed changes to the bylaws call for a stronger and larger nominating committee, more at-large board seats, changes to the method for geographic representation, updates to the committee structure and increased use of task forces. The Governance of the Future Task Force believes these bylaws changes will strongly position the hospital association for the future. (Taya Briley)

Whitepaper looks at how population health changes staffing needs

Washington Hospital Services Industry Partner Merritt Hawkins released a new paper titled Population Health Management and Physician Staffing, which focuses on the physician and other healthcare professional staffing requirements necessary to implement and execute this emerging delivery model. Please find a preview copy of the paper here. To get a complimentary full copy of the paper or to find out more about the opportunities Merritt Hawkins provides, please contact Paul Unsworth at 206-577-1806.

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