Orlando Health Care News

This has the potential to be the best volunteer gig ever

Over the years I’ve volunteered for a wide variety of organizations:  The Special Olympics, a school for the blind, Habitat for Humanity, the Alliance Francaise, GLBCC in Orlando, a hospital Trauma Department, the Coalition for the Homeless, and the Orange County Health Department are a few of them. I’ve always had a passion for helping other people and I love to see the tangible benefits of my efforts. 

Due to my recent job I’ve had to pare down (at least for now) my volunteer gigs to just one, but it’s a good one:  I’m currently serving on a Quality Management Committee for the Orange County Health Department’s Infectious Disease Group.  

This group focuses on process and quality improvement - what better opportunity to improve the quality of health care? This month’s meeting focused on an overview of measurement and data in quality improvement, and on sampling patient records, designing a data collection plan, and on collecting data. 

Useful info on quality improvement as it specifically relates to HIV care can be found at http://nationalqualitycenter.org/ . 

I really think this group will be a great opportunity to improve patient outcomes through estimating available resources, making accurate predictions, aiding in strategic planning, evaluating the effectiveness of existing systems, learning from historical patterns, and creating a dialogue among providers (both clinical and non-clinical). 

Outcomes from this committee have the potential to streamline processes and improve patient wait times, reduce costs, and increase client satisfaction. 

I look forward to being an active member of this committee, learning a lot, and being able to have a real part in improving health care in the Orlando area. 

Jon 

Quick facts from “Rise of a Massive Health Sector”

I blogged recently about Christopher Conover’s new book American Health Economy Illustrated, which is proving to be a great read.  It’s full of useful, interesting stats on the American health care system. Here are a few takeaways on the MASSIVE size of our health sector I thought interesting:

-Spending on health care in the U.S. has increased more than 60-fold since 1929. In contrast, the U.S. economy grew only 12-fold over the same period.

-The percentage of GDP devoted to health care has more than quadrupled during the past 80 years to more than one-sixth of the entire economy. Health spending has grown faster than almost all other major components of the economy. 

-Health spending now makes up 25 percent of all federal spending compared with only one-sixth of total spending by state and local governments. 

-Health care now absorbs almost one in three tax dollars- a share that is more than eight times as large as it was in 1929.

-Our apparent willingness to increase expenditures on health care even during periods that the real economy is shrinking is suggestive of the relative priority of health care over everything else. 

-Each 1% increase in GDP has been associated with approximately a 1.3% increase in health spending. 

-Even from a world perspective, the American health system is massive, accounting for approximately 40% of an estimated $5.2 trillion in health expenditures across the globe. 

-The U.S. share of world health expenditures is substantially larger than its share of either world population or GDP.

-More than 70% of the world’s population live in nations with health spending per capita below 10% of U.S. levels.

(Source: aei.org)

Orange County Health Department improvement initiatives

One of the main reasons for this blog is to highlight improvements in the local healthcare system and to suggest options for increasing accessibility to health care in Central Florida. 

The Orange County Health Department has received 7 different awards for its work to improve services and save money. Four of these were Florida Davis Awards, which are awarded to state departments for process and efficiency improvements.

Three of the Davis Awards recognized the following:

1) The Health Department’s Woman Infants and Children (WIC) and I.T. programs won a Davis Productivity Award for a client flow system that helped speed up clinic flow with a new software system called Q-Flow. The system helped WIC see clients in 30 minutes less each day while servicing the same number of clients with 5 less staff members. In addition to financial benefits, the new process resulted in 10% less wait time for clients. 

2) The Immunizations team won a Davis Productivity Award for improvements that sped up processes, reduced waste, and improved services. The data processing project reduced the number of duplicate client records in state databases, improved vaccine accountability, and increased revenue. 

3) The Health Department’s I.T. and Community Health programs won a Davis Productivity Award as the first county health department to start a mobile website in Florida, www.orchd.mobi. An estimated 5 HIV infections were avoided by education and early treatment through the mobile site, saving more than $90,000 annually in treatment costs. 

It is great to see public health initiatives at work to reduce patient wait times, improve access to health information, and improve the accuracy of patient records. 

(Source: newsroom.doh.state.fl.us)

Florida Governor Rick Scott praised by AIDS Institute

There is help on the way for low-income Floridians living with HIV/AIDS. The AIDS Institute recognized Governor Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature for increasing state funding to the Florida AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) as part of the 2012 state budget approved by the Legislature and signed by the Governor. 

This marks a needed improvement in public health care. In Orange County alone, approximately 1,800 low-income citizens are able to receive life-saving treatment due to this program. The program in Florida currently serves about 12,000 people.

In part because of increased federal dollars the wait list for this life saving program decreased from over 4,000 to 427. The $2.5 million in recurring state general revenue funds for Florida ADAP should help reduce the current wait list even more and at the same time help meet the continued increase in new patients entering the program every month.

It should be noted that from a pure cost/benefit standpoint, ADAP provides significant savings to the state.  This is achieved by saving Florida millions more than it contributes because it keeps patients on their medications and off Medicaid. ADAP patients can remain in Florida’s workforce and stay healthier. They are also hospitalized less often. 

Michael Ruppal, Executive Director the The AIDS Institute, commented “This is an extraordinary step forward for the healthcare of Floridians living with HIV who do not have the means to pay for medications to keep them healthy and alive.” 

ADAP is funded by state and federal funds, and by rebates provided by pharmaceutical companies. HIV drug regimens can cost upwards of $16,000 a year.  Kudos to Rick Scott and the Legislature for recognizing the value of this program. 

(Source: orchd.com)

HUD awards $33 million to 28 HIV/AIDS housing programs

As a result of $33 million in grants the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is awarding, over 1,200 low-income people living with HIV and AIDS will continue to receive permanent housing. This funding is administered via HUD’s Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS Program (HOWPA) and renews HUD’s support of 28 local programs in 17 states. 

Ninety per cent of HOWPA funds are distributed by formula to cities and states based on the number of AIDS cases reported to the CDC. HUD’s formula grants are managed by 135 local and state jurisdictions. Earlier this year, HUD awarded these jurisdictions approximately $300 million in formula grants. This year HUD made available a total of $332 million in HOWPA funds to help communities provide housing for this special needs population. Overall, these resources help out over 60,000 households annually to provide stable housing and reduced risks of homelessness for people living with HIV. 

(Source: orchd.com)

Employee excellence and improving Florida’s public health care

The Davis Productivity Awards program is a public-private partnership co-sponsored by the Prudential Financial company, Florida TaxWatch, the Florida Council of 100, and the State of Florida. The awards recognize public employees who have saved taxpayer dollars, measurably improved service, or increased process efficiency. 

The Florida Department of Health submitted 48 nominations and all 48 were winners. In all state agencies, there were 553 nominations representing a total of $443 million in cost savings and increased efficiencies.  

The Davis Awards are a good example of public sector efforts to recognize and reward process and cost improvements that will improve our healthcare system on a local level. 

(Source: orchd.com)