Late in March, AB 659, a bill that expanded the consent process for organ and tissue donation, was signed into law as Wisconsin Act 229. Rep. Al Ott (R-Forest Junction) authored the bill so that donor families would have more information available to them during the consent process to enable them to make more informed decisions. The law, scheduled to go into effect November 1, requires hospitals and others involved in the consent process to provide additional information on their consent forms about potential for-profit use, cosmetic use, or international use of the donation along with the ability to limit the use. The law also requires that a copy of the consent form be provided to the person authorizing the donation.

After consulting with nurse leaders and other hospital personnel involved in the donation process and hearing the repeated need for the development of a uniform form to meet the new law’s requirements by November 1, WHA worked with representatives from the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services (DHFS), the two organ procurement organizations (OPOs) in the state, the tissue banks, the Lions Eye Bank, coroners, and medical examiners to develop a model anatomical gift form that could be used by any of the entities involved in the consent process. Hospital personnel involved in the organ and tissue procurement process will also likely be receiving direct contacts from their contracted OPOs and tissue banks to follow up on the use of the model form.

Going forward, a regular work group of the interested parties will meet as needed to provide recommendations for updates to the form when necessary due to changes in the law or to meet new requirements of national accreditation organizations.

According to WHA’s Vice President of Government Affairs Jodi Bloch, "The new law requiring this information on the consent form strikes the right balance by providing the additional information that donor families need without becoming overly burdensome on the requestors and making it too complicated for donor families to understand, especially during a difficult time."

Per violation forfeitures of between $500-$1000 will be assessed for failure to include the new statements on the donation form. WHA also worked to reduce these forfeitures, which are much less than those in the original bill, which called for penalties of up to $10,000 and court costs along with a possible citing on the provider for unprofessional conduct, which was also removed.

The form should be available on November 1 to download from DHFS’ Web site at www.dhfs.wisconsin.gov; click on "Reference Center" and choose "Forms Library."

Lighting up in or near a hospital may be a thing of the past by this time next year. The Wisconsin Hospital Association Board of Directors is asking its 132 member hospitals to implement tobacco-free campus policies by November 2007. Roughly half of Wisconsin’s 132 hospitals now have a campus-wide tobacco-free policy; another 50 are tobacco free in the hospital building.

The goal is for 100 percent of the hospitals in Wisconsin to be tobacco free within one year. Hospitals are already routinely offering tobacco cessation counseling to their patients and employees. Many also offer tobacco-cessation classes in the community.

It’s all part of their mission, according to Mary Starmann-Harrison, president of SSM-Wisconsin in Madison and WHA Board Chair. "Hospitals treat illness, but we are just as dedicated to prevention and improving the overall health of the communities we serve," she said.

"We treat patients every day who are suffering from an illness that was either caused by or made worse by the use of tobacco," said Starmann-Harrison. "The dangers of both tobacco use and second hand smoke are well-documented. Hospitals must lead by example. By not permitting the use of tobacco on our campuses, we demonstrate our firm commitment to the health and safety of our employees and patients."

According to the Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, 7,000 Wisconsin residents die every year from disease directly caused by cigarette smoking, more than the death toll from AIDS, illegal drugs, alcohol, suicide and homicide combined. Smoking costs the Wisconsin economy $3 billion, including $1.6 billion in direct health care costs and $1.4 billion in lost worker productivity. Health insurance premiums are higher for all Wisconsinites because of these expenses. There are 800,000 smokers in Wisconsin, representing 22 percent of all state residents. More than 70 percent of Wisconsin smokers want to quit and 50 percent try each year.

The Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association (VHHA) is the latest organization to unveil a PricePoint Web site. The Virginia version of Wisconsin’s groundbreaking hospital pricing transparency initiative went live on October 13.

VHHA Senior Vice President Chris Bailey said the site, www.vapricepoint.org, allows Virginia’s hospitals to respond to growing demands for pricing transparency in health care. "PricePoint is an excellent way for Virginia hospitals to provide timely and accurate information about hospital services, charges, quality indicators and financial assistance policies," he said. "We look forward to working with other health care stakeholders to improve this and other tools that help patients and families judge value among their treatment options."

Virginia is the fourth state hospital association outside of Wisconsin to officially launch a PricePoint Web site under contract with WHA Information Center, joining Oregon, New Hampshire, and New Mexico. By early 2007, PricePoint systems will be operational in ten other states.

More than 200 health care leaders interested in improving quality and safety met in Stevens Point October 16-17 for the 2006 Wisconsin Quality and Safety Forum. Speakers at the Forum included Robert Wachter, MD, professor of medicine and associate chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California – San Francisco, and Frank E. Carlton, MD, vice president for continuous quality improvement at Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah. Wachter believes that process-related improvements will improve patient care, but Carlton, while acknowledging the importance of those steps, said he believes that behavioral change is the key to improving patient care.

"The Forum this year included several national speakers that shared insights from other parts of the country and helped us see how we can use this knowledge to improve health care in Wisconsin hospitals and clinics. We are fortunate to be able to bring this level of expertise to Wisconsin," said Dana Richardson, WHA vice president of quality.

Following a successful year of supporting a variety of initiatives that had a positive statewide impact, the WHA Foundation has officially kicked off its 2006 annual fundraising efforts, announced Foundation Chair Joe Neidenbach.

"We are asking our members to be generous this year in supporting the workforce development and quality and safety projects of the Foundation," Neidenbach said.

"The Foundation Board continues to focus its funding priorities on initiatives that have a statewide impact on health care in Wisconsin," said Foundation Director Jennifer Frank. "The funds raised last year were used to continue the scholarship program, which awarded 32 scholarships, worth $35,000, in 2006; to provide recognition and financial support to two community outreach initiatives through the Global Vision Community Partnership Award; and to jumpstart a nurse leadership development program. Funds raised in this year’s campaign will be used to continue these initiatives, as well as give our Board the opportunity to consider funding new initiatives."

WHA is teaming up with three statewide organizations to review and update our Healthier Choices health reform agenda. Just three years ago, WHA, the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC), and the Wisconsin Association of Health Plans (WAHP) staff and leaders developed the Healthier Choices initiative (www.wha.org/newsCenter/pdf/2004healthierchoices1-7.pdf), which became a blueprint identifying a variety of market-oriented proposals aimed at lowering health care costs and providing benefit flexibility to Wisconsin employers and employees.

The Healthier Choices initiative was well received by Wisconsin lawmakers. In fact, over a half dozen specific Healthier Choices proposals were passed by the Wisconsin Legislature during the recently concluded session.

This year, WHA, WMC and WAHP invited the Wisconsin Medical Society to join a new effort to assess and fine-tune the Healthier Choices plan. It’s important to note that one of the ground rules for the group is to arrive at a consensus agenda, realizing that there will likely be specific issues that each of the groups may actively pursue outside of the consensus Healthier Choices agenda.

At a meeting earlier this week, representatives and staff of the four organizations met to discuss commonly held priorities that might be packaged into a new Healthier Choices initiative. WHA was ably represented by WHA Chair Mary Starmann-Harrison, Children’s Hospital Senior Executive Tom Gazzana, Steve Brenton, Eric Borgerding, and Joe Kachelski. The group agreed that a revised Healthier Choices agenda must include: value-based purchasing; effective catastrophic disease management; a continuing and accelerated commitment to transparency (public reporting); and, incentive-based wellness initiatives.

The group also agreed that the new Healthier Choices initiative must succinctly describe exactly what the state needs to do to advance the four broad principles, as well as describe necessary private sector action.

Meeting participants enthusiastically agreed to reconvene later this year to firm up a new Healthier Choices plan, which will then become a common health reform advocacy platform for WHA, WMC, WAHP and the Medical Society in 2007.

Steve Brenton
President

WHA, in collaboration with the Wisconsin Hospital Disaster Preparedness Program, has published a document that describes the practical and legal issues that must be considered before volunteering in response to a disaster. This legal analysis was commissioned by WHA and written and developed by Melissa Markey from the law firm of Hall Render. You can access the document on WHA’s Web site at www.wha.org/disasterPreparedness/pdf/disastervolunteerlegalissues10-27-06.pdf. Among the topics discussed are licensure issues, liability, on-duty injury (worker’s compensation), travel and other deployment costs, and employment/reemployment protections.

District Description:
The 9th Senate District in Eastern Wisconsin includes parts of Calumet and Fond du Lac and the northern portion of Sheboygan and southern portion of Manitowoc counties.

District Hospitals:
Aurora Sheboygan Memorial Medical Center, Aurora Valley View Medical Center in Plymouth, Holy Family Memorial Medical Center in Manitowoc, and St. Nicholas Hospital in Sheboygan.

Candidate Profiles:
Joe Leibham is a member of the Republican Party. He resides in Sheboygan with his wife. He was elected to the State Assembly in 1998 and was elected to the State Senate in 2002. He also served on the Sheboygan City Council from 1993-2000. Prior to state elected office, Joe worked for Sargento Foods and the Sheboygan County Chamber of Commerce. In the Senate, he currently is a member of the budget-writing Joint Finance Committee.

Jamie Aulik is a member of the Democratic Party. He resides in Manitowoc with his wife. Jamie is an Iraq war veteran having served in the U.S. Army Reserves for the last 9 years. He has worked in the State Senate for the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms and has interned in Governor Doyle and U.S. Senator Herb Kohl’s offices.

Candidate Survey Results:
Candidates’ answers to selected abbreviated questions from WHA’s 2006 candidate survey appear below. Jamie Aulik did not respond to the survey. To view the entire survey for this or any other race, contact Eric Borgerding or Jodi Bloch at 608-274-1820.

1. State programs, including Medicaid and BadgerCare, provide health insurance for many people who would otherwise be uninsured. For most others, their employer provides health insurance with varying levels of deductibles and co-pays. But more employers are finding it difficult to continue offering this benefit due to increasing health insurance premiums. To help make insurance more affordable, some are proposing to expand taxpayer-funded programs like BadgerCare to include more people, including those with employer-sponsored coverage. Others believe we must enact policies to make health insurance more affordable and preserve the employer-sponsored system. Excluding programs for the uninsured, do you believe the primary provider of health insurance should be Wisconsin employers or Wisconsin government?

Leibham: Employers.

2. If employers, what role should the state play in helping make employer-provided coverage more affordable?

Leibham: "Also minimize mandated coverages, reduce liability costs and support health savings account tax deductibility."

3. There is clear demographic evidence that some health care occupations will be in short supply in the near future. The University of Wisconsin system educates and trains many of these health care workers (pharmacists, physicians, nurses, physical therapists, etc.). Would you support earmarking existing dollars within the University of Wisconsin budget for high-need health occupations to serve Wisconsin residents?

Leibham: YES.

4. It is anticipated that legislation could be introduced again this session that mandates nurse-to-patient ratios in hospitals (i.e., 1 nurse for X number of patients). Would you support legislation mandating patient staffing ratios?

Leibham: NO.

5. With one or two exceptions, all of Wisconsin’s 130 hospitals are not-for-profit and provided over $687 million in uncompensated care to Wisconsin residents in 2005. These same hospitals also provided additional community benefits, such as health screenings or health outreach programs to underserved populations in their areas. While these hospitals are generally exempt from paying local property taxes, they often make voluntary payments in lieu of taxes to support local services. Do you support continuing the property tax exemption for non-profit hospitals?

Leibham: YES.

6. Wisconsin hospitals operate under multiple sets of rules, regulations and regulators, including the State of Wisconsin, Medicare, Medicaid, and a national accreditation agency, among others. Sometimes those regulations require hospitals to comply with inconsistent standards. For example, a recent state policy change to the legal definition of a hospital has resulted in hospitals changing billing systems in order to comply with one definition of a hospital for state Medicaid purposes and a separate definition for federal Medicare purposes. Would you support eliminating state hospital regulations if they are shown to be duplicative or similar to other regulations?

Leibham: YES.

It was with this thought that the Bellin 10K Run was born in 1977 in Green Bay. Created and sponsored by Bellin Health, the event was meant to draw attention to the importance of cardiovascular health and overall fitness. That first year 750 runners took up the challenge of improving their health, and a tradition was born on the streets of Green Bay.

On June 10, 2006 the Bellin Run – now the 6th largest 10K road race in the nation – celebrated its 30th anniversary with 10,323 people hitting the streets as runners, walkers and wheelchair participants in an attempt to take better control of their lives.

Two areas that have sustained the greatest growth are the Bellin Corporate Challenge and the Kids for Running program.

The 2nd annual Bellin Corporate Challenge pitted Northeast Wisconsin companies against each other in a friendly competition of percent of employees participating. Forty-three companies with a total of nearly 2,300 employees took up the challenge. Not only has this program inspired participation in the Bellin Run, but it as created wellness programs at several of the companies and brought greater awareness to the importance of fitness in helping companies control their health care costs.

The Kids for Running program, which is now in its 7th year, is a training program for children in grades 3-6 that not only prepares them to run the Bellin Run, but helps build their self-esteem, develop a sense of teamwork and increase their fitness level. This year 34 elementary schools participated representing more than 2,000 participants.

For both programs Bellin offers health experts to help organize training programs, offer educational sessions and provide motivational appearances by some of the world’s best distance runners.

The 2006 Bellin Run also carried with it personal stories of inspiration and triumph:

John is a 46-year-old self-proclaimed "computer nerd" from Madison. He is nearly blind with retinitus pigmentosa and macular degeneration. This year he ran his second Bellin Run with the help of a close friend who ran with him, finishing in a remarkable 51:00.

Pam is a 37-year-old afflicted with lupus, a chronic disease that can cause inflammation, pain and tissue damage throughout the body. Despite her condition, she knew the importance of regular exercise and made the Bellin Run her goal. A little more than a year ago she could barely walk half a mile. At this year’s Bellin Run she completed the 10K course in 1:01:34, bettering her goal of 1:02.

Margie was inspired by her father to run the Bellin Run. When he died of cancer in 1992 she was 17 years old and just getting to know him as one adult to another. He had been a regular Bellin Run participant up until 1989 when the pain from his cancer became too great and he could no longer participate. "I wanted to be the role model for my kids that my father was for me," she said of her decision to run the Bellin. "At the time I was just walking, but I knew that wasn’t enough." She began running and made the Bellin Run – one of her father’s favorite runs – her goal. She ran the 2006 Bellin Run in her father’s honor, wearing a 1989 Bellin Run t-shirt, to commemorate his last race and to provide the same inspiration for her two young children that her father did for her.

The Bellin Run spans all age groups and ability levels. The youngest participant this past year was 5 years old and the oldest was 84 years old. Women now outnumber men in the field, and walkers continue to be our fastest growing segment.

Money raised from the event goes to support student scholarships at Bellin College of Nursing. Nearly $100,000 has been raised over the years.

Submit hospital community benefit stories to Mary Kay Grasmick, editor, mgrasmick@wha.org or call 608-274-1820.

Top