SEARHC - President's Message

Update for December 12, 2009

FY2010 Compact Payments. We received the majority of our FY2010 Compact payment from the Indian Health Service on Tuesday morning. There is still some funding yet to be distributed to us. These additional funds will be increases due to inflation, contract health and contract support costs. Until Tuesday, we have been under continuing resolution and partial monthly payments since October 1. Thankfully, Congress approved and the President signed an appropriations bill on October 31st covering our annual funding agreement. As a note of comparison, we were under continuing resolutions through February in the last fiscal year.

National Forum – Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). This week some SEARHC staff attended the National Forum on Health Care Improvement at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). The annual event draws health professionals from across the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia. This dedicated group of health providers "work to accelerate improvement by building the will for change, cultivating promising concepts for improving patient care, and helping health care systems put those ideas into action." Over the last year, using IHI techniques, our Alder Pod at the Ethel Lund Medical Center (ELMC) made significant improvements in the amount of time a patient had to wait in the clinic. The group uses national best practices to effect improvement at our local level given our patient's needs. The goal is to improve the quality of care for our patients.

SCI Schedule Maximizer. This week, Kristina Randolph at our Ethel Lund Medical Center provided me a brief update on a significant part of our SEARHC Systems Transformation. The Schedule Maximizer (SCI) "went live" on Wednesday at the Ethel Lund Medical Center, including our Behavioral Health and Front Street Clinic. The purpose of the scheduler is to have all patient appointments available to staff and patients in a single system rather than multiple departments across the organization. Appointments will be readily available and patients requiring multiple appointments can have those made at the same time as each clinic adopts the software. The exception to this will be Dental Services. To save our patient's time when coming to their appointment, much of the registration is done over the phone by scheduling staff including verification, updates of addresses, and any insurance information. This will eventually expedite the check in process for patients when they come to the clinic for their appointments. Additionally, it will enhance the revenue cycle by allowing insurance eligibility to be verified and corrected before the patient's appointment.

Haines Capital Grant through ARRA Not Funded. This last summer, we submitted a grant to the Heath Resource Service Administration (HRSA) to expand and renovate the Haines Health Center with the addition of Frontier Extended Stay Clinic (FESC) activities. We understand that we are not a successful applicant. Two programs in Alaska received funding including the Seldovia Village Tribe and the Alaska Island Community Services (AICS) in Wrangell.

Marine Transportation Advisory Board (MTAB). We remain concerned about surface transportation in our region. The Marine Transportation Advisory Board provides input to the Alaska Marine Highway on its service across Alaska. The MTAB met in Sitka on Thursday. Libby Watanabe represented SEARHC before the MTAB and requested regular connection to our villages through frequent and regular surface transportation. Our position focuses on access to needed health services. We also recognize there are traditional, economic, and educational needs for a strong surface transportation system.

Senator Begich Submits Rural Hospital Amendment to Health Reform. This last week Senator Begich submitted an amendment to the health reform legislation in the Senate that would continue the Rural Community Hospital Demonstration Project. SEARHC was admitted into the demonstration project last year. The demonstration project that allows for cost-based inpatient services from Medicare. Other hospitals in the demonstration project include Bartlett Regional Hospital in Juneau and Central Peninsula Hospital in Soldotna. The Rural Hospital Demonstration Project focus is for small hospitals with less than 50 beds that have an emergency room. The demonstration project would conclude by June under its current authorization.

Flu Prevention Reminder. Southeast Alaska residents can help prevent the spread of flu by washing their hands frequently with soap and water or using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer (especially after coughing or sneezing). Other ways to prevent the spread of flu include coughing into sleeves or a tissue instead of coughing into hands, staying home from work or school when sick with flu-like symptoms (don't go back to work or school until at least one full day has passed without a fever, with no fever-reducing medication), and using sanitary wipes to wipe down high-traffic surfaces such as computer keyboards, stair railings, doorknobs, telephones and light switches.

Updated information on the flu can be found online at www.pandemicflu.alaska.gov (state site), or at www.flu.gov/ or www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/ (national sites). SEARHC also has information posted about H1N1 flu at www.searhc.org/h1n1/.

Just a reminder. . . SEARHC frequently brings in traveling medical specialists to hold specialty clinics at its various facilities, saving you the expense and inconvenience of flying to Anchorage or Seattle for services not available in Southeast. Some SEARHC medical providers who work at larger facilities make regular trips to our village clinics to provide specialty services that aren't normally available in those communities. All specialty clinics, except for medical field trips and specified dental clinics, must be referred through a SEARHC provider. Links to our upcoming specialty clinic schedules are at www.searhc.org/common/pages/specialtyclinics/index.php.

Regards,
Roald.

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