Members of the budget conference committee used their first meeting on July 25 as an opportunity to present widely differing views on how state budget decisions should be prioritized.

In opening comments, committee co-chair Senate Majority Leader Judy Robson (D-Beloit) said that the biggest difference between the Senate and Assembly budget proposals was the way the costs of health care are addressed. She also called the cost of health insurance the state’s biggest economic problem.

Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch (R-West Salem) said in his opening remarks that Wisconsin residents are already taxed too much and that the state budget must live within the means of the taxpayers. He also said that there is a $10 billion spending gap between the two sides.

The two sides also differed in their views on the hospital tax. Senator Russ Decker (D-Weston), co-chair of the Joint Finance Committee, said, "We’re going to go after the people who have the most, mainly big oil, big tobacco, and the record profits of the hospitals." Representative Kitty Rhoades, also co-chair of the Joint Finance Committee, countered that the proposal bases funding for Medical Assistance (MA) on a hospital tax that proponents are hoping will work, instead of real general purpose revenue (GPR) dollars.

After the opening discussion, the vast majority of the debate focused on health care, with many of the comments centering on the Senate Democrats Healthy Wisconsin reform plan.

Senator Decker left no doubt about the commitment of Senate Democrats to Healthy Wisconsin saying, "We’re dead dog serious about this proposal."

Senate Minority Leader, Senator Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau), retorted that, "We should be focusing on the safety net, not blowing up the system." He added that Governor Doyle’s proposal to extend BadgerCare also "deserves some consideration."

In the end, the participants left their initial meeting without setting a date for their next session, although it is likely they will meet again August 1. Budget discussions are expected to last throughout the summer as conference committee members work to bridge the vast differences in budget priorities.

Conference committee members from the Assembly include Speaker Mike Huebsch, Representative Kitty Rhoades, Majority Leader Jeff Fitzgerald (R-Horicon) and Minority Leader Jim Kreuser (D-Kenosha). Senate committee members include Majority Leader Judy Robson, Senator Russ Decker, Senator Bob Jauch (D-Poplar), and Minority Leader Scott Fitzgerald.

Both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House released proposals this past week to fund the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, SCHIP, due to expire unless reauthorized by the end of September.

The House Democratic package unveiled this week has a steep price tag, one reportedly approaching $100 billion. In order to pay for their package, House Democrats are proposing a 45 cent increase in the federal tobacco tax and certain cuts to Medicare Advantage plans. Unfortunately, the House plan also cuts both the hospital inpatient and outpatient market basket update for 2008 by 0.25 percent.

A few other provisions of interest in the House package include:

• Provides physicians with a 0.5 percent update in 2008 and 2009
• Provides inpatient rehabilitation facilities with a 1 percent increase for 2008
• Permanently freezes the inpatient rehab "75 percent" rule at 60 percent
• Includes various payment and coverage provisions for long-term care hospitals
• Freezes payments to skilled nursing facilities for 2008
• Includes various improvements for rural providers
• Requires HHS to develop a plan to identify steps to implement a system to prohibit Medicare payment for "never events"
• Requires that a single national entity be designated to coordinate development of health care measures

"While we’re excited that Congress is committed to funding SCHIP," WHA President Steve Brenton said, "we’re extremely disappointed that the House, in particular, is considering cutting hospital payments to do so. We urge our Members of Congress to rethink this approach."

With a smaller price tag of $35 billion, the Senate proposal is the product of a bipartisan Senate agreement to fund SCHIP. The Senate package "offsets," or pays for, that increase through a 61 cent increase in the federal cigarette tax and other taxes on tobacco products. States will receive an enhanced federal match for up to 300 percent of the federal poverty limit and unused SCHIP dollars will be put into two funds which will then be redistributed to the states. States providing coverage to childless adults will have to transition those individuals from SCHIP to Medicaid by 2009. The Senate plan is estimated to provide coverage for roughly 3 million more uninsured children and to continue coverage for 6.6 million children.

Wisconsin currently uses SCHIP funds for its BadgerCare program and the Governor is also proposing tapping into SCHIP as a means to fund his BadgerCare Plus expansions, which are pending in the state budget. Therefore, what happens at the federal level will impact Wisconsin.

The Senate and House have yet to vote on their proposals.

Read a summary of the Senate package online at: www.senate.gov/~finance/sitepages/legislation.htm

Read a summary of the House package online at:

http://waysandmeans.house.gov/legis.asp?formmode=item&number=580

Contact Jenny Boese at 608-268-1816 or jboese@wha.org with questions.

When Assembly Republicans sat down to craft our budget and set our priorities, we made it very clear that when in comes to health care, patients come first. Having worked in administration at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Chippewa Falls for more than 17 years, I know that if we give patients and providers the tools they need to make health care more affordable, health care will become more accessible. Our "Patients First" health care reform agenda provides immediate relief from health care costs and works to spur innovation through long-term reforms.

In Wisconsin we have the best health care quality in the nation; we don’t need to abandon that through radical change or handing that system over to a government bureaucracy—we need to embrace it and work to make it more affordable. Putting government in charge of health care and raising taxes by $15 billion is not the answer.

The budget passed by the Assembly on July 10 makes strides to reduce the "hidden health care tax." We deliver on our commitment to protect the most vulnerable citizens by increasing Medical Assistance reimbursement rates to hospitals by $26.2 million, providing an additional $7.1 million for MA dental care and a 5 percent rate increase for nursing homes. We accomplished all of this while eliminating the proposed hospital tax, the proposed increase in the nursing home bed tax, and stopping raids of the Injured Patients and Families Compensation Fund and bed tax revenue.

Our budget provides immediate relief for Wisconsin families by making health insurance premiums and contributions to health savings accounts tax deductible. We invest in a healthier Wisconsin by creating a tax credit for businesses that implement or expand workplace wellness programs. It may sound simple, but the best way to reduce health care costs is to have a healthier population. If we reduce use and keep people healthy, we will reduce costs.

Since I was first elected I have been calling for a greater investment in health care information technology. In our budget, we include my proposals that provide incentives to utilize WHEFA bonding to upgrade health care IT programs and create a tax credit for providers to implement electronic medical record keeping systems. There is no doubt that tremendous savings can be realized via diffusion of IT, some estimate as much as $100 billion annually nationwide, while increasing patient safety—now that is real reform!

The sharing of information is vital for innovation to take root and grow. Members of the WHA have been pioneers in this regard by making cost and quality information available through CheckPoint and PricePoint. The Assembly’s budget includes a provision to encourage health care providers to collaborate in order to find deficiencies and determine best practices through peer review. Our budget also grants emergency room physicians access to the medical records they need to provide the best possible care.

The "Patients First" agenda is built on the principle that you expand access to health care by making health care more affordable, not by putting government in charge and raising taxes by $15 billion. By maintaining our commitment to Wisconsin’s most vulnerable citizens, expanding the health care marketplace through HSAs, and providing the information that families need to make their health care decisions, we can keep the best health care quality in the nation and make it as efficient as possible.

Terry Moulton is a Republican representing the 68th Assembly District. He currently serves as the vice-chair of the Assembly Health and Health Care Reform Committee.

An editorial writer for The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) took aim this week at the health plan unveiled recently by the Senate Democrats, declaring that "Wow, is free health care expensive. The plan would cost an esimated $15.2 billion, or $3 billion more than the state currently collects in all income, sales and corporate income taxes. It represents an average of $510 a month in higher taxes for every Wisconsin worker."

The WSJ editorial also points out that while Wisconsin companies offer cost conscious co-payments, health savings accounts and incentives for wellness, the Wisconsin Senate program moves in the other direction and reduces copays while increasing the number of mandated medical services.

Closer to home, Serigraph CEO John Torinus opined in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the "Senate plan for universal health care in Wisconsin does not compute." Torinus, who is also a director for KI in Green Bay, said that company, like his own, has been successful in holding down health care costs. He said KI is arguable the best "place to benchmark in the private sector for best practices on simultaneously delivering health care and controlling health costs. KI’s self-insured plan offers a full set of benefits, stresses wellness, prevention and fitness and brings it in for less than $6,000 per employee." Compare that to the Employee Trust Fund, which covers state employees, and costs nearly twice as much per employee.

"But if the governemnt takes over health care as a single payer in the name of universal coverage, KI will be forced into Healthy Wisconsin and $2 million more in expenditures," according to Torinus. That fact caused KI CFO Mark Olsen to say they’d have to look at operating in other states if Healthy Wisconsin passes.

Both editorials are in WHA’s NewsSeen, which is in this week’s Packet.

Make plans now to attend WHA’s 2007 Annual Convention on September 19-21 at the Marriott Hotel in Madison.

This year’s convention theme, the notion of the "tipping point," that small, easily adoptable changes can suddenly lead to big things, is woven throughout the agenda. The convention kicks off with Dr. Brian Wong discussing ways to apply insights from the bestseller The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell to improve leadership in health care. A variety of important and timely breakout sessions will be offered, and a session offered by Bill Felkey, professor of pharmacy care systems at Auburn University, using the tipping point notion of the unique becoming commonplace, specific to technology in health care, will be timely.

On Friday morning Bill Schoenhard, immediate past-chairman of the American College of Healthcare Executives, will speak. And finally, to continue with the convention theme, a closing presentation by Dr. Eric Lister, focusing on the idea of small changes having big effects, specifically related to balancing the relationship between hospital administration and its physicians.

This year’s WHA Annual Convention is the perfect opportunity to encourage Board of Trustee members to accompany your hospital senior staff to this annual event, gain knowledge of important and timely topics to both your role as organization leaders and their role as hospital trustees, and network with your team and other leaders and trustees from around the state.

The head of Tomah Memorial Hospital (TMH) says he’s encouraged that comprehensive health care reform is taking a high priority with Wisconsin 31st District Senator Kathleen Vinehout, but he still has questions that must be answered about the Senate Democratic plan, Healthy Wisconsin. Sen. Vinehout (D-Alma) met with Tomah CEO Phil Stuart and others during a recent visit to Tomah where the reform plan was discussed.

Stuart indicated it will be interesting to see how health care reform plays out in the Legislature, especially with widely differing proposals being offered by the Senate, Governor and Assembly.

"The important thing I took from the meeting is that Sen. Vinehout wants to bring the debate to the public," said Stuart. "She wants to have a very frank discussion on how to provide health care and what kind of financing mechanism works best."

The recent meeting with Sen. Vinehout at Tomah provided Stuart the opportunity to pose some important questions about Healthy Wisconsin. Those included: where the purported $3 billion of savings was actually going to come from; how the plan will impact border hospitals; and how the plan will impact rural hospitals, like Tomah, that receive a significant amount of revenue from the federal government. Additional questions also remain about the broad powers of the newly created Health Care Authority and why Medicaid enrollees are excluded from the plan, which translates into a continuation of the "hidden health care tax."

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the outpatient prospective payment system (PPS) proposed rule for calendar year 2008 and an ambulatory surgical center (ASC) payment system final rule. Here are the rules’ highlights.

Highlights of the outpatient PPS proposed rule:

• The rule includes a 3.3 percent market basket update for outpatient PPS services, with hospitals projected to receive $34.9 billion for outpatient services in 2008.
• CMS proposes that hospitals begin to report 10 hospital outpatient quality measures in 2008 in order to receive the full payment update in 2009. These measures, which were adopted by the Hospital Quality Alliance, include five emergency department acute myocardial infarction measures, two surgical care improvement measures, and one measure each for the treatment of heart failure, community-acquired pneumonia and diabetes. In 2009, hospitals that fail to report data for these measures would receive a 2 percent reduction in their payment update.
• CMS proposes to encourage efficiencies within the outpatient PPS by:
• Increasing the size of the outpatient PPS payment bundles. CMS would package the costs of seven additional categories of items and services that the agency considers to be ancillary and supportive into the primary procedure, including guidance services, image processing services, intra-operative services, imaging supervision and interpretation services, diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals, contrast agents and observation services.
• Creating "composite" ambulatory payment classifications (APCs) that would provide one bundled payment for several major services provided on the same date of service during a single encounter. CMS proposes composite APCs for two types of care – low-dose rate prostate brachytherapy and cardiac electrophysiologic evaluation and ablation. CMS considers these a prototype for creating additional composite APCs.
• The agency continues to phase out the hold-harmless outpatient payment for certain rural hospitals with 100 or fewer beds by reducing from 90 percent to 85 percent the additional payment made to these hospitals.
• CMS proposes to pay for certain separately payable drugs and biologicals at the rate of average sales price (ASP) plus 5 percent—a one percent reduction from 2007.
• CMS proposes to raise the fixed-dollar threshold for outliers to $2,000 from $1,825.
• CMS proposes changes to several of the current hospital conditions of participation to require hospitals to complete and document patients’ medical histories and physical examinations conducted after admission and prior to surgery or a procedure requiring anesthesia services. CMS further proposes to require post-anesthesia evaluations of patients before discharge or transfer from the post-anesthesia recovery area.

As required by the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, CMS revised the ASC payment system as of January 1, 2008. The final rule expands the number of allowed ASC procedures and links their payment to outpatient PPS.

• ASCs will be paid for any surgical procedure that does not pose a significant safety risk when performed in an ASC and that is not expected to require an overnight stay. As a result, 790 procedures are added to the ASC list for a total of 3,300 ASC-covered surgical procedures.
• The new ASC payment rates are based on the APC payment weights used in the outpatient PPS. CMS proposes in the outpatient proposed rule to pay ASC services at a rate that is 65 percent of the hospital outpatient department rate for corresponding services in order to make ASC payment changes budget neutral.
• Payments for ASC services that are "office-based"—procedures that have been performed predominantly in physicians’ offices—would be capped at the rate they would be paid in physicians’ offices.
• Certain ancillary services, which are integrally linked to the covered ASC surgical procedure, will be paid separately in ASCs, such as radiology, certain drugs and biologicals that are separately payable under the outpatient PPS, brachytherapy sources, corneal tissue and devices eligible for pass-through payments under the outpatient PPS.
• In order to allow physicians to refer these ancillary services to ASCs in which they have a financial interest, CMS proposes to revise the self-referral law definitions of "radiology and certain other imaging services" and "outpatient prescription drugs" to exclude these services that are covered ancillary services for which separate payment is made under the revised ASC payment system.
• New ASC payment rates will be transitioned in over four years with full implementation in 2011.
• ASC payment weights and rates will be updated annually in conjunction with the outpatient PPS. Due to this linkage, final 2008 payment rates for ASCs will be published in the outpatient PPS final rule in November.
• The law requires a zero percent ASC payment update through 2009. However, beginning in 2010, the ASC payments will be updated by the Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers.

The proposed and final rules include numerous important policy changes that WHA is reviewing. Meanwhile, the outpatient proposed rule is available at www.cms.hhs.gov/HospitalOutpatientPPS/downloads/cms1392p.pdf and the ASC final regulation is available at www.cms.hhs.gov/ASCPayment/Downloads/CMS-1517-Fdisplay.pdf.

The rules will be published in the August 2 Federal Register. Comments on the outpatient PPS proposed rule are due to CMS by September 14 with a final rule expected this fall. The final rule takes effect January 1, 2008.

The American Organization of Nurse Executives will accept applications through September 15 for its inaugural Nurse Manager Fellowship program. The yearlong program is designed to prepare the next generation of executive-level nurse leaders to meet practice needs. The curriculum is based on the Nurse Manager Leadership Collaborative’s Learning Domain Framework and includes an individual project benefiting the sponsoring organization. The faculty, comprised of notable nursing leaders, will work with fellowship participants at quarterly leadership retreats and through a virtual learning community. The fellowship "seeks to challenge a group of stellar nurse managers to reach for their highest potential and become our leaders of tomorrow," said AONE CEO Pamela Thompson. "It is a key component of our professional succession planning." Fellows will be announced November 1 and begin in January 2008.

The Division of Quality Assurance (DQA) has announced a Hospital Conference, "Demystifying Hospital Regulations," scheduled October 25, 2007. This will be a day to get answers to your regulatory questions, meet DQA surveyors and management, learn best practices, and discuss recent regulatory changes.

A new study by Ashish K. Jha, et al, reveals an association between high performance scores on hospital quality process measures and lower condition-specific mortality. To assess this association, the researchers obtained the scores of acute care hospitals for the 10 CMS starter set measures (heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia). They linked this data with hospital characteristics and then linked the data to the Medicare Provider and Analysis Review (MedPAR) Part A data set to obtain patient demographic and ICD-9 diagnoses for severity adjustment and primary outcome of mortality. For each hospital with 25 or more cases, they calculated a summary performance score and a risk adjusted mortality rate for each of the three clinical conditions. Multivariable logistic regression models for each clinical condition were developed to determine if higher scores on the performance measures were associated with lower condition-specific mortality.

In total 3,720 hospitals reported adequate data to allow for analysis in at least one clinical condition. Hospitals ranked in the top quartile based on performance scores had an adjusted mortality of 10.0 percent for heart attack, 4.6 percent for heart failure, and 7.1 percent for pneumonia. These rates were consistently lower than hospitals ranked in the bottom quartile with a difference of 0.8 percent among patients with a heart attack, 0.4 percent among patients with heart failure, and 0.8 percent among patients with pneumonia.

One of the key goals of publicly reporting hospital quality scores on a national (HospitalCompare.org) or state level (WICheckPoint.org) is to drive quality improvement. The measures publicly reported are based on strong scientific evidence that links these processes of care to improved outcomes in clinical trials, but whether that relationship would hold true in the real world was unknown. Also, some of the measures in the CMS 10 measure starter set are not expected to have a direct impact on inpatient mortality. For example, prescribing a heart attack patient a beta-blocker at the time of discharge cannot reduce their risk of mortality during that hospital stay. Therefore, the strength of the association identified in this study indicates that process performance measure scores may be useful to identify hospitals that have broad based programs which impact outcomes like mortality, that go beyond the specific processes measured.

Finally, these results point to clinically meaningful differences between hospitals, as 2,200 fewer elderly patients would die each year from these three conditions if the hospitals in the bottom quartile had mortality rates comparable to those in the top quartile.

For details of this study, see Health Affairs in July/August 2007. For information about Wisconsin’s public reporting program, CheckPoint (www.wicheckpoint.org), contact Dana Richardson at drichardson@wha.org or 608-274-1824.

The American Hospital Association (AHA) continues to seek input on the IRS changes to Form 990 and, in particular, Schedule H. The comment period on the proposed revision continues through September 14, 2007. AHA intends to provide initial comments soon.

AHA is asking specifically for information concerning the burden for hospitals completing the forms. Issues initially identified by the AHA include the following: the absence of a "community building" category; the absence of a category for patient bad debt; the nature of information sought in concerning "Billing information" in Part II, Section A; the proliferation of joint venture and management company information sought from hospitals; and the failure to include emergency department with other community benefit activities. Other identified issues include the exclusion of Medicare underpayments and an accurate burden assessment.

Information regarding the proposed revisions to the IRS Form 990 can be found at the IRS Web site at www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=171216,00.html.

In the second year of their joint program to promote better pain control, the American Cancer Society, the Lance Armstrong Foundation, and Susan G. Komen for the Cure released the 2007 Pain and Policy Report Card and Evaluation Guide of state-level pain management policies across the country.

The organizations, which represent the nation’s leading information and advocacy groups for people with cancer, are funding a three-year grant to the Pain & Policy Studies Group (PPSG) at the University of Wisconsin Paul P. Carbone Comprehensive Cancer Center to examine policies that govern pain
management practices for cancer patients in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The 2007 report card shows that California and Wisconsin had the greatest grade improvement. Other states whose grades improved from last year were Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Kansas, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.

In addition, Kansas and Wisconsin now join Michigan and Virginia as having the most balanced pain policies in the nation

"These states have laws that are consistent with current medical practice standards and do not impede pain treatment," said Aaron M. Gilson, PhD, director for U.S. Policy Research at the PPSG. "Also, the licensing agencies in these states encourage health care professionals to practice good pain management by making pain relief an expectation of quality patient care and reassure practitioners that treating patients’ pain will not result in disciplinary sanctions."

Chronic pain is a part of daily life for more than 50 percent of all cancer patients and survivors and for more than 75 percent of those with advanced stages of the disease—figures that have remained unchanged for decades, despite advances in therapeutic options to address pain.

With support from the American Cancer Society, the Lance Armstrong Foundation and Susan G. Komen for the Cure, PPSG issued a report card last September and will issue another report card in 2008. For more information on the University of Wisconsin’s PPSG, visit www.painpolicy.wisc.edu.

Partners of WHA, Inc. (Partners), the non-profit, volunteer service organization affiliated with WHA, raised and donated a total of $2.9 million, through nearly 450 fundraising activities, and volunteered 1.47 million hours of service to Wisconsin hospitals in 2006, as reported by Diane Westbrook, current president of Partners.

Partners is made up of volunteer and auxilian groups at 79 Wisconsin hospitals. As of December 31, 2006, Partners had 12,577 adult members and 1,173 teen volunteers. Teen volunteers contributed an additional 48,000 hours of service to their hospitals in 2006.

Partners awarded 511 scholarships to students seeking health care-related degrees in 2006, amounting to more than $586,000. This is a 10 percent increase, or $55,394, over the scholarships awarded in 2005.

The financial value of a hospital volunteer’s time has been estimated nationally at $18.04 per hour. At that rate, the Partners of WHA adult and teen volunteers donated a total of $27.4 million of their time and services to Wisconsin hospitals and health systems during 2006.

Due to continued member requests for tools to assist with identifying, educating and nurturing physician leadership, WHA has set a date for the 2008 Physician Leadership Development Conference. This third annual conference, targeted at both new and potential physician leaders, is scheduled Friday, March 7, and Saturday, March 8, 2008, at The American Club in Kohler, Wisconsin.

The full conference brochure, with the final agenda, registration and resort information, will be available in late 2007. Hospital executives and medical staff leaders are encouraged to think about new or potential physician leaders in their organization who would benefit from attending this conference, as well as discussing the 2008 conference with their physician leaders who attended this event during the past two years.

The intent of this conference is to offer reputable, CME-qualifying education necessary to develop physicians’ leadership skills and make the transition from clinician to physician leader at both a reasonable price and with more limited travel time and expense than the national conferences. Feedback from 2006 and 2007 attendees was extremely positive and showed overwhelming support to continue the conference as an annual event, for both new and repeating attendees.

Chuck Shabino, MD, notes "that the most interesting observation, both formally via the attendee evaluations and anecdotes from those in attendance, was the value of attending the conference as a team—physician leader and management leader—allowing for invaluable informal, one-on-one conversation during the one-and-a-half day event." This opportunity will be available at the 2007 conference as well.

For the past nine summers, the Trauma Center at Luther Midelfort, part of Mayo Health System, has presented Safety Camp, a two-day camp for children entering the 4th grade. While providing campers with two fun-filled days, the camp teaches the children safe behaviors in hopes of preventing future traumatic injuries.

The free camp features age-appropriate information and activities presented by local safety experts. Topics covered include animal safety, ATV and boating safety, first aid, bicycle safety, electrical safety, fire safety and water safety. Presenters include Luther Midelfort staff in addition to local police and fire personnel, veterinarians, meteorologists and Department of Natural Resources staff. In addition, more than 25 volunteers—many of them Luther Midelfort employees—serve as counselors at the event.

Attendance has grown from 60 campers in the first year to more than 90 campers in 2006, and the enthusiasm continues to grow as camp organizers recently formed partnerships with the public school system.

The success of the Luther Midelfort Safety Camp in Eau Claire prompted a second camp to be offered in Chippewa Falls. Forty campers had fun and learned safety lessons at the first camp in 2005, and 50 campers attended in 2006. Midelfort Clinic - Chippewa Falls organizes the annual event in coordination with fire, police and sheriff departments and other agencies.

Two of Vickie Mousel’s children have participated in Safety Camp in Eau Claire. Her daughter, Greta, attended in 2006. "It is very beneficial for children to hear about the wide variety of safety issues. When Greta got home from camp after the first day, she asked me about our smoke detectors and fire extinguishers. She pointed out things around our house that aren’t safe," Vickie says. "At camp, the kids learn to take responsibility for their own safety. They are sponges at that age, and often they listen better to people who aren’t their parents. By attending, they also meet local police and fire personnel and form connections with them. They have a lot of fun, and you can’t beat the price!"

Submit hospital community benefit stories to Mary Kay Grasmick, editor, at mgrasmick@wha.org or call 608-274-1820 if you have any questions.

William J. Calhoun, senior vice president and chief operating officer of The Aroostook Medical Center (TAMC) in Presque Isle, Maine, has been named president of Mercy Medical Center. Calhoun will begin his duties August 13.

Since joining TAMC in 2005, Calhoun has been responsible for direct patient care services, as well as outpatient primary and specialty care services of a 60-provider medical group covering eight sites across Aroostook County.

Prior to that, Calhoun worked at Howard Young Health Care in Woodruff, Wisconsin, from 1992 to 2005. Howard Young is an affiliate of Ministry Health Care, Milwaukee, and one of two Affinity Health System sponsors. While at Howard Young, Calhoun served as director of rehabilitation services, director of emergency services, and vice president, ancillary & support services.

Calhoun, a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and his master’s from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.

Out of 5,462 hospitals, only 173 made it in to the rankings in at least one of the 16 specialties. Below are the Wisconsin hospitals that made the list, and in which specialties they ranked.

Hospital                                                                                  Categories

Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center, Milwaukee                              Geriatrics

Froedtert Hospital, Milwaukee                                                     Endrocrinology, Kidney Disease, Urology

Saint Joseph’s Hospital, Marshfield                                             Ear, Nose & Throat, Geriatrics

The nation’s 100 Most Wired hospitals show better outcomes in four key areas: mortality rates, patient safety measures from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), core measures from Hospital Compare and average length of stay. Based on analysis of the ninth annual Most Wired Survey and Benchmarking Study results, hospitals are embracing technology as a key tool for health care quality improvements.

Five hospitals from Wisconsin were named to the 2007 Most Wired list:

The Most Wired Survey is conducted annually by Hospitals & Health Networks magazine, which uses the results to name the 100 Most Wired hospitals and health systems. It focuses on how the nation’s hospitals use information technologies for quality, customer service, public health and safety, business processes and workforce issues.

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