During last week's annual Executive Committee retreat, MHA's senior leadership team provided the committee with an update on association-wide work on key priorities. The update included details of the fiscal year 2017 member survey results, which show that the All-Payer Model and workforce issues are the field's top concerns. The team also provided information on the association's strategic initiatives and interim work plan until a new CEO is named. Click here for slides from the full presentation.

A free half-day program to help hospitals reduce preventable harm will be held October 13 at MHA's offices in Elkridge. Attendees will learn about CANDOR ( Communication and Optimal Resolution), a set of strategies and tools developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. CANDOR includes interventions that change how we respond to and learn from patient safety events. The program will be facilitated by Dr. Timothy McDonald and his colleagues from MedStar Health, the lead CANDOR pilot site. McDonald, Director of the Center for Open and Honest Communication in MedStar's Institute for Quality and Safety, will share the results of MedStar's systemic implementation of CANDOR as a core patient safety and continuous improvement strategy. The program will be of value to MHA members on a High Reliability Organization journey, as well as those already invested in supporting Just Culture or Care for the Caregiver programs. Members of hospital executive teams are invited to attend the October 13 meeting, to be held from 8:30 a.m. to noon at MHA's Elkridge offices. Registration is required.

 

Contact: Nicole Stallings

The American Hospital Association (AHA), Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA), and the Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS) have sent a letter to the Puerto Rico Hospital Association offering to create an "Adopt a Hospital" initiative. The group writes, "We envision ongoing relationships between stateside hospitals and hospital systems and Puerto Rico hospitals. We want to be sure that there is an established relationship between hospitals to facilitate dialogue and foster ongoing support in areas such as facility engineering and operations, employee assistance, equipment, supplies and community needs." The letter adds that the organizations have heard from many hospitals and health systems across the country seeking information on how to help. MHA will provide more information as we receive it from AHA.

The Maryland Health Benefit Exchange has made available new brochures to promote the open enrollment period for Maryland Health Connection, the state's health insurance marketplace. The brochure is available in English, Spanish, and Chinese. Contact Lauren Hawkins at the Exchange with delivery contact information and the quantities of brochures you would like sent to your hospital. The exchange would like hospitals to deliver these to any departments that would benefit, including billing, patient information, marketing, and physicians practices.

More than 10 million Americans are enrolled in health insurance coverage through the Health Insurance Marketplace, and the American Hospital Association is helping hospitals help make sure the 2018 enrollment information gets to those people. The 2018 Health Insurance Marketplace enrollment period runs from November 1 to December 15, 2017, a change from previous years. AHA has created the Get Enrolled webpage that contains what hospitals need to know as they engage with members of their communities, as well as AHA's digital toolkit.