AzHHA Insider

AzHHA Insider June 21, 2012

  • AzHHA Seeks Nominations for HOPE Awards

    AzHHA Seeks Nominations for HOPE Awards

    Do you know an individual, caregiving team, hospital executive or trustee who deserves special recognition? Please take this opportunity to nominate him or her for the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association (AzHHA) 2012 Honoring Our Professionals for Excellence (HOPE) Awards. The 2012 HOPE Awards recognize exemplary individuals from our member organizations whose service has significantly contributed toward improving healthcare in Arizona.

    • The 2012 Caregiver Award recognizes an individual or caregiving team that demonstrates extraordinary commitment to the delivery of quality care to patients and their families.
    • The 2012 Healthcare Leader Award recognizes an outstanding hospital executive or trustee who demonstrates significant leadership beyond his/her hospital or health system and whose activity has led to the improvement of healthcare delivery at the state and/or national level.

    Click here to learn more about the 2012 HOPE Awards and to complete an application. All entries must be received by Friday, Aug. 10, 2012 Awards will be presented during the AzHHA Annual Membership Conference Sept. 27-28, 2012.

    For more information please contact LeAnn Swanson, Vice President, Education & Quality Services, at 602-445-4300 or lswanson@azhha.org.

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  • Donate Life Recognizes AzHHA CEO Laurie Liles

    AzHHA CEO Laurie Liles was recognized with the Donor Network of Arizona Leadership Award. The award was presented at the Hospital Donor Registry Challenge Recognition Breakfast on June 13. During the month of April—National Donate Life Month—54 hospitals and healthcare facilities competed against each other in the second annual Hospital Donor Registry Challenge. In all, they registered 3,729 people as organ and tissue donors who were recognized at the breakfast with an Olympic-style awards program of gold, silver and bronze awards. 

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  • Arizona Hospitals Receive Accolades/Recognition
    • Carondelet St. Mary’s Lauded for Heart/Stroke Care—The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association has presented Carondelet St. Mary’s Hospital, Tucson, with its Get with the Guidelines Stroke Gold-Plus Quality Achievement Award and Heart Failure Gold Quality Achievement Award. These national awards recognize St. Mary’s success in ensuring patients receive treatment according to nationally accepted standards and recommendations. St. Mary’s has also been placed on the associations’ Target: Stroke Honor Roll, which is awarded to hospitals in which emergency teams are able to provide acute ischemic stroke patients with IV t-PA treatment in 60 minutes or less of arrival time at least 50 percent of the time.
    • KRMC Cancer Center Receives National Honor—Professional Research Consultants (PRC) recently presented the Kingman Regional Medical Center (KRMC) Cancer Center with four National Excellence in Healthcare Awards for quality patient care. KRMC was presented with the Top Performer Award, PRC’s highest honor, given to organizations and providers that score highest in patient satisfaction among peers. PRC also presented the KRMC Cancer Center with a Platinum Achievement Award recognizing special initiatives that improve quality of care and two Five-Star Awards—one for overall quality of care in medical oncology and the other for overall quality of care in radiation oncology.
    • US News and World Reports Names Phoenix Children’s as One of Its Top Children’s Hospitals—Phoenix Children’s Hospital has been ranked in four specialties in U.S. News & World Report’s 2012-13 Best Children’s Hospitals rankings. The specialties recognized were nephrology, neurology/neurosurgery, neonatology and pulmonology. The survey ranks hospitals based on responses to questions regarding survival rates, nurse staffing and subspecialist availability, among others. The full rankings and methodology are available at www.usnews.com/childrenshospitals. The rankings will also be published in the U.S. News Best Hospitals 2013 Guidebook, which will be available in August.

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  • Hacienda Healthcare Celebrates 45 Years

    Hacienda HealthCare will celebrate its 45th year of service to special needs children with a dedication honoring the late Ilene Butler. The celebration will be held at 9 a.m., Friday, June 29 in the Felipe Gonzales Garden Courtyard at Hacienda's main location, 1402 E. South Mountain Ave., Phoenix.

    Ilene Butler’s legacy started in 1967 when she was told she could not legally adopt children because of her unmarried status.  Undeterred, Butler became a foster parent for three special needs children who had been abandoned by their families.  Seeing how great the need was, she took in more children and hired staff to help take care of them. Thus started what is Hacienda HealthCare today.  Hacienda specializes in the care of intellectually disabled, medically fragile and chronically ill infants, children, teens and young adults throughout Arizona.As a member of the Drowning Prevention Coalition of Arizona, Hacienda also provides medical care to near drowning victims and continues to campaign for awareness. 

    For more information or to attend the dedication, please call Sierra Kamela, 602-243-4231 ext 176,  skamela@haciendahealthcare.org.

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  • Mayo Clinic-Led Study Leads to New Advanced Basal Cell Carcinoma Drug

    An international phase 2 study headed by Mayo Clinic has led to the recent Food and Drug Administration approval of the first drug of its kind to help advanced basal cell carcinoma patients who have few treatment options. The results appear in the June 7 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine. The study found the drug Erivedge (vismodegib) shrank advanced basal cell carcinoma tumors in 43 percent of patients with locally advanced disease and in 30 percent of patients whose disease spread to other organs.

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  • Rural Physicians Volunteer to Mentor Med School Students

    A group of rural Arizona physicians are volunteering for four to six weeks this summer to mentor medical students from the University of Arizona College of Medicine to give them a “push” in the direction of practicing medicine in small Arizona communities. The physicians are rural faculty members in the UA College of Medicine’s Rural Health Professions Program, established in 1997 by the Arizona Legislature to encourage medical school graduates to practice medicine in rural communities. Today, the program’s graduates are practicing in rural communities throughout Arizona and some are now mentoring the next generation of rural physicians. The medical students work with the physicians at their practice sites and reside in their communities for four to six weeks between the end of May and early August. Students are matched with preceptors based on medical specialty interest and community preference. Communities hosting students this summer include: Bisbee, Douglas, Flagstaff, Fort Defiance, Lakeside, Payson, Polacca, Prescott, Prescott Valley, Safford, Sedona, Show Low, Snowflake, Tuba City, Winslow and Yuma. 

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  • TriWest Online Benefit Lookup Tool Now Available

    Benefit Information is Just a Click Away

    The Benefit Lookup Tool on the secure provider website at TriWest.com is a valuable tool for registered users. With a click of the mouse, you can access information quickly and save time by not submitting unnecessary referrals and/or authorizations and eliminating the need to call TriWest.

    With the Benefit Lookup Tool, you can determine whether:

    • A service is a covered benefit
    • It requires a referral or an authorization
    • It needs medical review

    When users enter codes (CPT, HCPCS) and additional information (including plan, date of service, age, and gender), the tool displays benefit exceptions, if applicable, based on search criteria. While using the ICD-9 code is optional, the information displayed in your results will be more complete when you enter the ICD-9 code.

    It is important to select the correct Plan type to ensure you are receiving the correct benefit information. Please note that in the Plan type field, active duty Service members are displayed as SHCP or TRICARE Prime Remote (TPR).

    To learn more about this valuable tool, view the Benefit Lookup Tool Website Demonstration or see examples of screen prints of the Benefit Lookup Tool.

    If you’re not registered yet, go to TriWest.com/Provider, click on Register Now and complete the online form. Once you’re registered, you can immediately begin using the Benefit Lookup Tool.

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  • JCL Hosts Security Roundtable

    The John C. Lincoln Health Network Security Department is hosting an Arizona Hospital Security Roundtable for hospital security professionals and administrators. The first meeting’s agenda will include computer training, a K9 demonstration and a discussion regarding interest in future roundtables. This exploratory meeting will be held from 8 to 10 a.m., June 28 at the North Valley Business Center, 2500 W. Utopia Rd., Phoenix. To RSVP, contact kimberly.hamilton@jcl.com, 623-434-6200, ext. 308886.

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AzHHA Insider