In addition to an engaging agenda of general sessions focused on the rise of consumerism and quality in health care, the 2003 Annual Convention has some interesting choices for Thursday afternoon’s breakout session (September 25).

The first breakout session option is entitled "Corporate Governance of Hospitals after Sarbanes-Oxley: Building a Better Board." The high-profile failures of 2002 triggered the adoption of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and increased regulatory scrutiny of nearly all companies, including health care providers. Presenter Shawn Guse, an attorney with Quarles & Brady, will focus on how health care providers can improve corporate governance practices to reduce director liability and improve business operations.

"Achieving Magnet Status – It’s Not the Size, It’s the Culture," a second breakout option, will be presented by Katherine Riley, BSN, RN, magnet coordinator for Southwest Vermont Medical Center (SVMC). Riley will share how SVMC, a 99-bed community hospital, became the smallest hospital to achieve Magnet status. In this session, attendees will learn about the benefits of achieving Magnet designation for a hospital of any size.

The final breakout choice is entitled "We Can’t Run Our Hospital Like a Hotel – Everyone Will Want to Come Back! Lessons From the Hospitality Industry." Presenter Lee Berthelsen is former president of Marcus Hotels & Resorts. He will talk about applying the golden rules of the hospitality industry to deliver an exceptional guest/patient experience. Co-presenter Doug Nysse, hospitality team leader for Kahler Slater Architects, will discuss unique hospitality ideas that can and are being used by visionary health care organizations across the country. Attendees will learn about ideas such as creating "Kodak Moments," The First Five, Front of House/Heart of House, the 10/4 Rule, Eye Level Greetings, and more.

Hospital administrators, management staff, nurse leaders, volunteer leaders, and trustees are encouraged to attend the 2003 Annual Convention, to be held September 24-26, at the Grand Geneva Resort in Lake Geneva. The full conference brochure with registration information is available on the Web site at www.wha.org. To assist in our planning, please be sure to indicate on your registration form which one of the three breakout sessions you would like to attend.

Don’t forget to ask for the WHA Annual Convention room block at the Grand Geneva when making your reservation. The special room rate has been extended until September 3. For more information on the program content, contact Jennifer Frank at 608-274-1820 or email at jfrank@wha.org . For registration questions, contact Bridget Gifford at 608-274-1820 or email at bgifford@wha.org .

The position is just one element of WHA’s planning and implementation effort regarding hospital data. Also underway:

• Developing the infrastructure for hospital data submission, database administration, and production of hospital and ambulatory surgery data.

• Designing the organizational structure and recruiting staff.

• Working out details of the transition from BHI to WHA.

"We are confident we will able to produce a timelier and more useful set of data for hospitals and other users," said WHA Senior Vice President George Quinn.

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Workforce issues, including physician supply, have been identified as a primary concern of the WHA membership. For that reason, workforce became one of the major topics at WHA’s planning sessions held in July, where members representing hospitals of all sizes discussed their organizations’ needs and created a list of recommended activities and goals for the coming year. These recommendations will be discussed at the October meeting of the Board of Directors. The list includes:

1. The WHA Board should approve a new Council on Workforce Development.

2. WHA should position the 2002 Department of Workforce Development Workforce Task Force report as a template for the state’s health care workforce agenda.

3. One of WHA’s highest priorities should be enhancing workforce supply through building new and expanding existing infrastructure.

4. WHA should catalogue and disseminate best practice retention strategies in an effort to improve the retention of key health care personnel.

5. WHA will create a system to measure progress on initiatives relating to supply and demand.

The first of the recommendations, a new WHA standing Council on Workforce Development, will formalize an ongoing focus on workforce issues for WHA, including discussing and recommending activities that WHA should undertake to address those issues.

A list of interested individuals has been initiated. If the Board should support and endorse a council, it would be convened quickly. If you are interested in serving, or want to recommend a name, contact Judy Warmuth, vice president, workforce development at 608-274-1820.

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Creating more registered nurses to meet the current and future demand has been a goal of WHA’s workforce agenda. Many schools of nursing have been working cooperatively with Wisconsin hospitals to increase the size of their RN programs, to increase interest in the community in nursing and other health care occupations and to increase clinical opportunities for students.

There have been many examples reported to WHA where administrative rules and or statute have impeded the creative approaches needed to solve both the current shortage and a very concerning future shortage.

Hospitals have expressed concerns about the BON’s requirements for clinical faculty and have identified the limited number of RNs with clinical master’s degrees as a barrier to creative clinical option. Very limited use of evening and weekend learning experiences in clinical sites has also been raised. Unclear expectation of preceptors and the requirements that the Board has for preceptored clinical is also an issue.

The Board of Nursing has now invited Wisconsin hospitals to provide input on these important issues. A letter inviting written comment has been received at WHA Comments are invited by Sept 17. Please see the letter posted on the Web site at www.wha.org/workforce. In October, a special meeting of the Board will be held to review the issues and comments received.

WHA’s announcement this week of the hiring of a top notch, experienced senior staff member to head up the Association’s new Information Center indicates ongoing progress in the transition of privatizing hospital claims data. To date, WHA has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of Administration and is engaged in contract negotiations relative to assuming the new responsibilities. Current thinking is that the Association will be fully in charge all aspects of collecting and publishing the data and special reports on March 1, 2004.

We’re almost there! The 2003 Healthy Wisconsin campaign is currently at 91% of its $125,000 goal. We would like to achieve attainment of the goal by the time of the WHA annual convention…September 24-26.

A recent WHA General Memo soliciting member interest in participating on WHA councils has sparked a flood of responses. But we’d still like to continue the recruitment process and remind members of the new WHA Council on Workforce Development.

Two weeks from now, approximately 20 WHA members will be attending the WHA Advocacy Day in Washington, DC. The September 10 event will focus on showcasing the Association’s new statewide quality and safety reporting initiative and seek bipartisan Wisconsin Congressional Delegation support for Medicaid provider payment proposals currently "in play" in House and Senate Medicare reform/prescription drug legislation. WHA staff will be developing special issue papers for the trip that will be available to all members and others.

Initial registration for the 2003 WHA annual convention has been significant. In fact, we’re on pace for record attendance. This year’s theme is The Rise of Consumerism in Health Care, and an outstanding array of national speakers will provide attendees with thoughtful overviews of current and ongoing activity. We’ve also assembled a terrific group of statewide health leaders who will present a "health care quality and cost roundtable" during the Thursday program. A registration brochure is available on the WHA Web site…www.wha.org.

Hospital leaders are stepping up to meeting the ambitious goal for the Healthy Wisconsin campaign for 2003. "We set an ambitious goal this year to help us prepare for a very busy election year in 2004," said Eric Borgerding, WHA senior vice president. "The fact is, campaigns need support, and our members clearly understand that participating in Healthy Wisconsin is an important piece of successful advocacy for Wisconsin’s hospitals."

"We have a number of hospitals reporting their campaigns are underway, and with the full participation from the membership of all our councils and the board of directors, I am confident we will reach the goal again for 2003," said Ann Lucas, WHA vice president, external relations.

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WHA’s fall education line-up includes a variety of must-attend seminars, including the October 14 seminar "The Power and Art of Self-Disclosure and What to do When the Feds Come Calling at Your Hospital."

The dual focus of the seminar allows participants to gain an understanding of the benefits of effective self-disclosure compliance strategies, and they will learn how to implement a proactive self-disclosure philosophy within the facility. Additionally, the seminar will reveal the content of federal fraud and abuse investigations, appropriate responses, and how to develop a plan of action if hospitals find themselves as a subject in an investigation.

The seminar will be held on October 14, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Holiday Inn in Stevens Point. A brochure and registration form are available on the Web site at www.wha.org. On-line registration is also available for this program.

Additionally, the WHA fall education line-up includes a variety of other interesting seminars. Mark your calendars for the following:

• September 24-26: WHA Annual Convention, Grand Geneva, Lake Geneva

• October 27-28: WHA Quality & Safety Forum, The Plaza in Wausau (includes a special pre-conference session focusing on the tangible affects of customer service in health care.)

• November 5: Improving Your Reimbursement Contracts, Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells

• November 6: The Revenue Cycle: Successful Strategies for Positive Reimbursement Outcomes, Great Wolf Lodge, Wisconsin Dells

• November 7: Conference for Executive and Administrative Assistants, Great Wolf Lodge, Wisconsin Dells

• November 13: The 2004 JCAHO Environment of Care: A Practical Approach to the Survey Process, Crowne Plaza, Madison

• November 14: The Health and Safety Challenges for the Infection Control Practitioner and Safety Professional, Crowne Plaza, Madison

You can find program and registration information, as well as on-line registration, for most of these programs on WHA’s Web site at www.wha.org. Otherwise, contact Jennifer Frank at 608-274-1820 or email jfrank@wha.org . For registration questions, contact Bridget Gifford at 608-274-1820 or email bgifford@wha.org .

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The WHA Foundation received 30 nominations for projects vying for the 2003 Global Vision Community Partnership Awards. Projects submitted must demonstrate viable partnerships with community entities, creative approaches to meeting documented community health needs, and have been in operation for a minimum of two years.

"Once again, our members have shown there is no shortage of creativity or innovation in addressing community health needs," said Ann Lucas, foundation director. The review panel will complete their work by mid-September. The Award winners will be honored during the WHA Annual meeting, September 24-26 in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

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The Assembly Committee on Public Health heard testimony on legislation designed to encourage organ donation and address the growing list of Wisconsin individuals waiting for an organ transplant during an August 27 public hearing at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Assembly Bill 477, authored by Rep. Steve Wieckert (R-Appleton), would allow living organ donors to deduct up to $10,000 of their travel, lodging, and lost wage expenses from their income taxes. A Wisconsin resident donating bone marrow, or all or part of a liver, pancreas, kidney, intestine, or lung would qualify for the tax deduction.

In a memo distributed during the hearing, WHA Vice President of Government Relations Jodi Jensen told committee members, "Wisconsin must strive to expand on existing state and federal efforts to increase organ donation. WHA encourages your support of AB 477 as one method of doing just that." Others testifying in support of the bill included nationally recognized transplant surgeon Hans Sollinger, MD, of the University of Wisconsin Medical School and Mark Adams of the Medical College of Wisconsin. The committee also heard supportive testimony from former television star Larry Hagman who received a kidney transplant eight years ago.

In Wisconsin, the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital, St. Luke’s Medical Center, and Children’s Hospital have transplant programs. Their combined list of patients waiting for an organ donation has surpassed 1,400.

A committee vote on AB 477 has not been scheduled. Rep. Wieckert said he might propose amending the bill to replace the tax deduction with a tax credit, if there is bipartisan support. A copy of the memo to committee members is available at the Government Relations section of the WHA Web site (wha.org). For more information about this legislation, contact Jodi Jensen at 608-274-1820 or jjensen@wha.org