MidLand

News

Of Interest

H1N1 vaccine: What physicians can do with left over doses, please click here for the complete article.

Obesity Rates Keep Rising, Troubling Health Officials, please click here for the complete article.

How the Passage of Federal Health System Reform Legislation Impacts Your Practice, please click here.

General News

In light of the current global occupational and public-health challenges and policies in healthcare, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued some new and important letters of interpretation regarding the requirements promulgated in the Bloodborne Pathogens Standard (BPS) (29 CFR 1910.1030). These challenges include occupational safety and health application to the preparation and preparedness for potential global pandemics, and the fundamentals of the sharps-injury log and employee evaluation. This brief article summarizes these newly issued interpretations and provides some additional compliance guidance.

Customer’s News

July 11, 2011

AUBURN, NE -- Nemaha County Hospital has been recognized as one of the nation's MOST WIRED, according to the results of the 2011 Most Wired Survey released today in the July issue of Hospitals & Health Networks magazine. Nemaha County Hospital is the only hospital in Nebraska to make the 2011 Most Wired list.

The Most Wired Survey was redesigned this year to reflect two years of work with an advisory group to continually improve the Most Wired Survey. The Most Wired Survey represents a new structure and methodology with an increased use of analytics and reporting. The advisory group was comprised of leaders from the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), chief information officers, Most Wired staff and vendors. Additionally, the new methodology was made available to the entire CHIME membership for review and comment

Kermit Moore, COO of Nemaha County Hospital states, "Our focus is on patient safety and quality. All of the technology we use has enabled us to provide better patient care. Our commitment to an electronic medical record provided us the opportunity to benchmark ourselves against every health care organization in the United States, regardless of size. This category includes hospitals of all sizes from a 20 bed facility such as Nemaha County Hospital, to a hospital system with over 4000 beds. This is truly an honor to be recognized among organizations both large and small. "

"The thing I am most proud of is the consistency of our progress in using information technology to improve patient care at Nemaha County Hospital," states Marty Fattig, CEO of Nemaha County Hospital. "We have been on the "Most Wired" list five of the last six years. We first made the list in 2006 in the "Most Improved Category. In 2008 and 2009 we were in the "Most Wired, Small and Rural" category and in 2010 and 2011 we have been in the top category, which is the "Most Wired" list. Even though they raise the mark every year to qualify for the "Most Wired" list we have managed to raise our level of technology use to continue to make the list. This is a tribute to the dedication of our staff to use technology to its full capacity to improve patient care."

Hospitals understand the importance of health information technology (IT) and the benefits of its widespread adoption, yet as an industry they still face significant barriers to implementation according to a newly released survey of America's Most Wired hospitals and health systems.

A new analytic structure is being used to stratify hospitals based on progress in adoption, implementation and use of information technology in four areas. This structure will produce more meaningful benchmarks. Participating organizations will be identified as Foundational, Core, Advanced, Expert or Leader in each of four focus areas for use of IT:
· Infrastructure
· Business and Administrative Management
· Clinical Quality and Safety (Inpatient/Outpatient Hospital)
· Care Continuum (Ambulatory/Physician/Community)

The survey will continue to recognize hospitals and health systems for excellence in IT, but recognition will be based on the organization's achievements within the analytic structure. The number of organizations recognized (H&HN's Most Wired) will neither be pegged at nor limited to "100 Most Wired" per year. Organizations whose responses reflect "Core" development across all four focus areas are Most Wired.

Stacy Taylor, CFO of Nemaha County Hospital credits a team approach, "All of our staff have diligently worked towards achieving this award. We look forward to continually raising the bar on quality using information technology to better serve our patients and community enhancing our mission of 'Quality Care - Every Time'."

Employee’s News

Rick Fila-Caring Bridge WebSite--link Please click here.