Clinically Speaking
May 2013
Issue 8
In This Issue
Happy Nurses Week!
Sequestration, Not a Game Changer for Meaningful Use
Heart Disease - Killing More Women Than Men
May is National Stroke Awareness Month
Upcoming Events



Million Hearts® Webinar 
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
1:30 - 3:00 p.m. (MT) 
In honor of the National High Blood Pressure and Stroke Awareness Months, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology is hosting  the Million Hearts® Webinar where leading experts will discuss how they are 
 using health IT tools to standardize and improve the delivery of care to reduce the number of people with high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

 

Click here for more information on the Million Hearts®initiative.

 

The ABC's of Diabetes

Hampton Inn Tropicana

4975 South Dean Martin Drive

Las Vegas, NV 89118

Reservations required!

Please call 702-364-5604 or 800-379-3839 no later than May 13th.

 

Saturday, June 1, 2013

10:00 a.m. (PT)

Atlantis Casino Resort Spa

3800 South Virginia Street

Reno, NV 89502

 

Reservations required!

Please call 775-856-3839 or 800-379-3839 no later than May 27th.

 

  

Diabetes, heart disease, and stroke: the deadly trio

Daniel R Caruso, MD, Endocrinologist

Healthy eating: it's all about food choice 

Barbara Scott, RD, MPH (Las Vegas)

Maureen Molini-Blandford, MPH, RD, CSSD (Reno)

It's their nerves talking: the truth about painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy  

 

 

The Patient with Hypertension: Treatment Goals & Management Webinar
10:00 a.m. (PT)
Friday, June 7, 2013
9:30 - 10:45 a.m. (MT)
The Health Sciences Institute invites you to join their webinar where they will:

 - Detail the prevalence of hypertension in the U.S.
- Describe the change in goal BP in 2013 with new guidelines
- Summarize lifestyle changes and hypertension self-care
- Review medication guidelines for treatment of hypertension 

Click here for more information.

Learning and Action Network: Discovery Learning Series 
Every 2nd & 4th Wednesdays of the month from 3:00 - 4:00 p.m. (ET)

Please join us for a series of
interactive, dynamic adult learning events that will cover a series of quality improvement topics.

Whether you are planning your next staff meeting or participating in a Learning & Action Network, these sessions will be highly interactive, engaging, disciplined, fast-moving and content rich.

Click here for more information
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Greetings!

Welcome to the Clinically Speaking eNewsletter. We hope you find this monthly newsletter a valuable resource as we keep you updated on healthcare specific issues, such as; diabetes care, health information technology, cardiac care, and upcoming events that are relevant to your work. 

 

Happy Nurses Week!  
MA with Patient 

Many of you on this distribution list are currently practicing nurses or have been at a different point in your career. The linked article is a reflection on nursing written by a nurse about her experience as a patient. Some of the anecdotes she shares are positive and some illustrate the challenges faced regularly in a hospital setting. Overall, however, this article illustrates the critical role nurses play in the patient experience and patient safety. Keep up the good work! Happy Nurses' Week! 

Sequestration, Not a Game Changer for Meaningful Use  
money

  

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has officially announced that Medicare Meaningful Use payments for reporting periods ending after 4/1/2013 will be subject to a 2% reduction in compliance with the Budget Control Act of 2011 (sequester).* This reduction does not apply to the Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program.

 

Meaningful Use should remain a strategic priority for clinics and hospitals despite this reduction as the effective use of Health IT will continue to support quality patient care. Read more . . .  

 

Two Years of Medicare Meaningful Use Incentive Payments  
 

  

This month marks the two-year anniversary of the first Medicare Payments for Meaningful Use Incentives. Throughout the last 2 years, $49 Million have been paid out to Nevada physicians and hospitals for achieving Meaningful Use of their EHR system. There is potential for millions more before the end of the Medicare Incentive program at the end of 2015.

 

Read More...

Heart Disease - Killing More
Women Than Men

By: Kimberly Mueller, Healthcare Analyst, HealthInsight

For almost 30 years, heart disease (also known as cardiovascular disease or CVD) has killed more women than men. In the United States in 2009, more than 400,000 women lost their lives to this 'silent disease'. Together, heart disease and stroke account for about one in three deaths in women worldwide.  The American Heart Association has recently released their 2013 update to the Women & Cardiovascular Diseases Statistical Fact Sheet, and the outlook for women is grim. Read more. . .

 

Download the free  Heart Health Mobile app. This app was developed by Wisconsin's Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation and will help people access their risk of heart attack or stroke and direct them to participating health screening locations in their area.
May is National Stroke Awareness Month

Older couple with physician teaching use of EHR
"National Stroke Awareness Month takes place in May every year. On May 11, 1989, President George Bush signed Presidential Proclamation 5975 designating May as
National Stroke Awareness Month at the urging of National Stroke Association. Since then, National Stroke Association has been honoring this special time of the year to increase public awareness of stroke in an effort to conquer it.
 
Over the years, public education campaigns have been conducted during May to increase awareness of different aspects of stroke that directly affect specific populations, such as women or those at high risk for stroke. Today, National Stroke Association continues educating the public through campaigns such as the Faces of Stroke and by designing easy-to-use tools and resources that initiate individuals and groups to raise awareness on a local level." Read more. . .

Click here for free resources and tools to help you spread stroke awareness! 

About Our Work
 
This information is provided by HealthInsight, a private, non-profit, community-based organization dedicated to improving health and health care. HealthInsight serves as the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization, Health Information Technology Regional Extension Center for Nevada, and manages HealtHIE Nevada, the state's first community-based health information exchange. HealthInsight leads an initiative to improve diabetes care, cardiac care, population-based care, and improve the use of health information technology. To learn more about us, visit our website at:www.healthinsight.org

 

QIO_HI_Logo

 

ONC Awardee Logo HealtHIE Nevada Logo     

This material was prepared by HealthInsight, the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization for Nevada and Utah, under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The contents presented do not necessarily reflect CMS policy. 10SOW-NV-2013-PO-17

This material was prepared by HealthInsight as part of our work as the Regional Extension Center for Nevada and Utah, under Cooperative Agreement #90RC0033/01 from the Office of the National Coordinator, Department of Health and Human Services.