ASQ Healthcare Division Newsletter
May / June 2009
ASQ Healthcare Division Newsletter
Message from the Chair
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the ARRA) was signed into law by President Barack Obama, February 17, 2009. This $787 billion package seeks to stimulate economic growth through federal spending and provides funds in many sectors of the economy, including healthcare. Several areas in healthcare are worth noting.
The ARRA supports Electronic Health Record (EHR) Technology by providing incentives for providers to adopt EHR technology in order to promote healthcare quality and the exchange of healthcare information. The amount of support can be as much as $21,250 per provider for the first year of payments and as much as $8,500 for up to five years thereafter. The exchange of electronic health information will be promoted by establishing a National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (NCHIT) within the Department of Health and Human Services who will be responsible for creating a national medical record database and supporting the development of regional health information exchanges. Federal agencies will administer the funds to support: (1) Health Information Technology (HIT) architecture to support the secure electronic exchange of information; (2) electronic health records for providers not eligible for HIT incentive payments under Medicare and Medicaid; (3) training and dissemination of information on best practices to integrate HIT into healthcare delivery; (4) telemedicine; (5) interoperable clinical data repositories; (6) technologies and best practices for protecting health information; and (7) HIT use by public health departments. An HIT extension program will be established to assist providers in adopting and using certified electronic health resource technology. The NCHIT is also required to support HIT Regional Extension Centers affiliated with nonprofit organizations to assist providers in the region. Priority will be given to public, nonprofit, and critical access hospitals. Planning and implementation grants will be awarded to states or qualified state-designated entities to facilitate and expand electronic health information exchange.
In addition, grants will be awarded to states to establish matching loan programs for providers to purchase EHR technology and train personnel in the use of that technology. Competitive grants will be awarded to graduate education programs to integrate HIT into the clinical education curriculum and establish or expand medical informatics programs. Competitive grants will also be awarded to universities and research consortia for establishing multidisciplinary Centers for Health Care Information Enterprise Integration. The Centers will develop innovative approaches for building the national HIT infrastructure. Other areas receiving support under the ARRA include those related to studying comparative effectiveness of disease treatment, infectious disease reduction strategies, “community-based” prevention and wellness strategies to address chronic disease, and immunization programs.
A number of activities that are ongoing within the Healthcare Division relate to the stimulus package and are of potential interest to ASQ. HCD members are working with ASQ leadership and contacts in Washington to identify and define partnerships with other organizations, such as the American Medical Association and the National Business Coalition on Health. Our objective is to increase ASQ’s impact and position ASQ to be among the organizations at the table when healthcare reform is discussed and major design changes are made in the healthcare delivery system. One concern of the ASQ HCD is the adoption of EHR products in practice settings that are inefficient and not prepared to implement effective EHR systems into the practice. We believe that ASQ can provide the type of training needed to prepare for EHR implementation. Ongoing efforts by Dr. Joe Fortuna and Lou Ann Lathrop in Michigan with the Improving Performance in Practice initiative address this issue. The project is now also being deployed in Pennsylvania by Dr. Dave Eitel and Carla Konzel. Under the leadership of John Harrison, a healthcare version of the CMQ/OE certification is being developed, and this represents the first major project that is being undertaken in partnership with the Quality Management Division. Discussions are proceeding to develop further partnership activities between our two divisions. Plans are also underway to develop a public policy initiative by ASQ with a focused public relations, marketing, and communication strategy. Position papers are being written.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Matt Mireles for the outstanding work he has done in serving as editor of the Healthcare Division Newsletter over the last few years. He has done a wonderful job and the work is greatly appreciated.
James M. Levett, MD, FACS
Healthcare Division Chair
jmlevett@hotmail.com
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Get Connected with our Healthcare Division Online!
The Leadership Team of our Division has approved the creation of our Division’s website to encourage members to communicate, collaborate, and share ideas for the improvement of global healthcare delivery systems. The newly redesigned website is now active at http://www.asq.org/health/index.html. Please take a moment to join by setting up an account with LinkedIn®, if you are not linked in, and immediately connect to other members. If you have comments and suggestions for improvement or discussion topics pertinent to promoting our mission, please start a discussion thread or contact Bill Dunwoody at whd@iioe.net.
QMD-HCD Partnership To Improve Healthcare
The Quality Management Division (QMD) of ASQ and the ASQ Healthcare Division have formally announced a new partnership. Our Division has healthcare experts with broad experience and deep knowledge of clinical quality. QMD, although a subset of ASQ, is self-sustaining and has all of the functions and challenges of any global business organization. Among them are product development, production, distribution, marketing, finance, human resources, communications, and operations. QMD brings to the partnership subject matter experts in multiple quality methods (Lean, Six Sigma, Baldrige, ISO, etc.) that can improve hospital operational quality. The partnership intends to pool knowledge and resources in order to help hospitals reduce cost, improve efficiency, save lives, and create a better healthcare system.
In agreement between the two Divisions, the following provisions have been established: 1) our Chair or chair-elect will serve as an advisor on the QMD Leadership Team; 2) QMD’s peer-reviewed newsletter QM Forum will be distributed to all of our members and our members may contribute articles on quality in healthcare; 3) QMD will work closely with us to develop a new quality in healthcare certification; and 4) we will work together to raise the visibility of ASQ in the healthcare community.
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