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August 9, 2007/revised Sept. 25, 2007

Quality Development Updates

Some quick updates on quality issues to ensure your hospital is aware of ongoing developments on the following items:

Hospital Report Card Act
IHA’s web site has been recently updated to include all information on ongoing developments with state and national reporting requirements (click here). Of important interest are the recent releases of frequently asked questions (FAQs).

The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) affirmed that all providers, including critical access hospitals, must report their Surgical Care Improvement Program (SCIP) data to IDPH through IHA. Even though volume may be small and may not result in publicly reported information, IDPH states that the rules and law require CAH to report. Hospitals that are exempt from reporting due to measurement age requirements or services not provided will remain exempt. Hospitals will be required to file a letter each year with IDPH stating their reason for exempt status. IHA will develop a model letter for hospitals to send that are considered exempt and post on the IHA web site.

For additional questions not answered in the material or educational sessions, please send your SCIP infection questions to perfmeas@ihastaff.org and nurse staff questions to nursestaffreporting@ihastaff.org.

Consumer Guide
As hospitals must transition to the expanded format or the HIPAA 837 4010 A1 version with January 1, 2008 patient discharges and outpatient cases, IHA urges hospitals to plan ahead to avoid a crunch at end of year. IHA will be sending an electronic survey by e-mail to hospital data coordinators to obtain a sense of readiness and plans for testing. According to the state rules, hospitals are to have one successful test for inpatient and outpatient cases by end of year.

Please note that training and educational sessions are scheduled throughout the year at no charge. Most hospitals have attended one or more session and are utilizing the manuals to help guide them in their programming. All of the training materials and meetings are available on the COMPdata web site at www.compdatainfo.com. For additional information not covered in training or on IHA or COMPdata’s web site, please send your questions to ubhelp@ihastaff.org.

COMPdata Annual Meeting Celebrating 20 Years
COMPdata will be hosting their Annual Meeting on October 29 and 30 at the Hilton in Lisle. The annual meeting will feature national and local healthcare leaders on health information topics including consumer information; state consumer guides; Medicare transition to Value Based Purchasing; and COMPdata changes and updates. Registration material for the meeting will be sent to all hospitals during the 1^st week of September.

IHA Conference Calls on Medicare Final Rules on Quality Developments
IHA held ‘brown bag’ luncheon conference calls on Monday, August 20 and Tuesday, August 28. The calls focused on Medicare rules on quality improvement changes and highlight some other related national developments.