Prejudice and discrimination are detrimental to the success of any organization. Research demonstrates that we all harbor prejudices; at a minimum, everyone is subject to their own unconscious bias. Unconscious bias is the result of messages (from a wide array of sources) introduced into our subconscious from an early age. Many of these prejudices that are deeply held in our unconscious can influence how we act toward one another in our organizations.

This complimentary webinar offered in partnership with the Association pf American Medical Schools, is intended to enhanced awareness and training in order to create an inclusive culture that identifies and helps eliminate these hidden biases.

Surgical Site Infections are a major contributor to patient injury, mortality and healthcare costs. There are about 30 million surgeries performed in the U.S. each year, and despite advances in surgical and anesthesia techniques and improvements in perioperative care, variations in outcomes continue to occur. SSIs number about 500,000 a year and account for approximately twenty-five percent of the estimated two million HAIs in the United States. Patients with SSIs are five times more likely to be admitted to the ICU, have mortality rates twice that of the average hospitalized patient, and have lengths of stay days longer on average – all of which have significant impact on healthcare costs. Some of these infections are now considered to be hospital-acquired, and the increased costs of hospitalization may not be paid by various payers.

Enhanced Recovery After Surgery protocols have resulted in shorter lengths of hospital stay by 30 percent to 50 percent reductions in surgical complications, readmissions and related costs. Key elements include engaging patients and families, using state-of-the-art analgesia, early mobility and restoration of functional status, avoidance of prolonged periods of fasting and evidence-based best practices for SSI, VTE, and CAUTI prevention.

This full-day conference will explore new, innovative strategies to improve surgical care from best practice innovators in New Jersey and around the country.

Healthcare professionals in all settings – clinical practice, academia and management – have exciting ideas and innovations that would be beneficial to share with others. However, many are not familiar with the writing and publishing process and thus sharing through professional literature, a traditional communication channel, can be a daunting task. In this workshop, Dr. Leslie Nicoll will use “Manuscript Success” as a method to demystify the publishing process and provide practical evidence-based strategies for achieving publication goals. Using presentation, audience participation, questions and discussion, participants will gain knowledge and confidence in how to write manuscripts that will be favorably received by editors and reviewers. Identifying and overcoming pitfalls, ethical issues and effective use of resources will also be discussed.

Objectives: At the conclusion of this workshop, the participant will be able to:

1. Identify the five steps in the Manuscript Success process

2. Define “journal due diligence” and describe its importance.

3. Compare and contrast subscription-based, open access, and predatory journals

4. Describe at least three different types of plagiarism that may occur in scholarly writing

5. Identify one ethical issue related to authorship, and 6. Create a realistic timeline for developing a scholarly portfolio.

Now in it's 12th year, this popular program, developed by NJHA Healthcare Business Solutions, is updated and offered quarterly throughout the year.  Each unique program will provide a comprehensive overview of new and revised Medicare rules and regulations.  Our expert staff will research, analyze and decipher the coding and billing rules and present them in a straightforward and organized manner cutting to the chase and presenting in simple terms what you really need to know.

Each quarterly program will address new, timely and evolving issues with its own list of agenda topics that are hot-off-the-press.

On October 4, 2016, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services finalized updated requirements of participation for long term care facilities. In addition, CMS announced plans to implement a revised survey process effective November 2017, to coincide with the implementation of the second phase of the RoPs. The New Jersey Department of Health will teach participants how the revised survey process will be conducted and focus on key aspects of the new Interpretive Guidelines and the F-Tag structure.

A Healthy Work Environment is one that is safe, empowering and satisfying. Parallel to the World Health Organization definition of health, it is not merely the absence of real and perceived threats to health, but a place of “physical, mental, and social well-being,” supporting optimal health and safety.

Physician Know Thyself will address physician burnout including the research on burnout in the medical profession, and will discuss approaches to intervene when burnout becomes evident. The program will also address physician well-being and how to thrive in healthcare today. The program additionally covers the “second victim phenomenon” including definitions, recovery trajectory/stages of healing and the consequences of lack of support when a traumatic event occurs

Program Objectives:

• To afford participants an overview of the most current issue of Coding Clinic


• To offer a platform to ensure that coders are aware of the most up to date advice


• an opportunity for discussion and questions related to the quarterly update

This two day course will provide the steps required for a grant application to proceed from planning and submission through to award and closeout. Participants will drill sown and learn more about each step in the process and get guidance that can maximize understanding of the grants process, all to help develop a successful grant application.

This program will discuss the nuts and bolts of grant proposals and review eight basic components:

• A proposal summary

• An introduction to the organization

• A problem statement or a needs assessment

• Project objectives

• Project methods or design for implementation

• Project evaluation

• Plans for sustaining the project

• A project budget

“Critical care is an all-encompassing specialty with almost limitless boundaries. Critical care involves the use of life-sustaining, high-technology medicine catering to a patient population that extends to both extremes of age. In adult ICUs, the average age is increasing and is now commonly well over 60 years. Although ICUs admitting patients for preplanned brief stays after planned major surgery have very low mortality rates, the rates in adults ICUs among patients admitted “for cause” are generally around 15 percent in developed countries. In recent study of Medicare beneficiaries in the United States, 29.2 percent of patients had been treated in an ICU during the last month of their lives. Currently, most deaths in ICUs are expected, and ICU clinicians regularly face the decision of when to change the focus of treatment from attempting to cure to providing palliative care.” (New England Journal of Medicine, 2013)

This full-day conference will provide education on “hot button” critical care issues and creative strategies to tackle new and emerging critical care challenges.

Session I: You Can Have it All! ICD-10 Coder Productivity & Quality
Discover solutions to improve coder performance. Learn how to identify issues decreasing coding productivity and quality in your department and how to increase the productivity while improving the quality of your coders using ICD-10

Session II: Modifiers Made Simple
Gain an understanding of the NCCI edits, procedure-to-procedure edits, and medically unlikely edits and learn how to append modifiers appropriately to ensure proper reimbursement. Modifiers Made Simple includes E&M modifiers, Modifier 59 and the X-Modifier subcategory, Modifier 50, 33, and more

Session III: Query Do’s & Don’ts
Gain an understanding of the importance of the query process while learning the do’s and don’ts of query writing. You will be walked through the process with real query examples for debridement, MI’s, urosepsis, CHF, BMI, and more.

Improving patient safety and quality of care requires a redesign of relationships in healthcare and a greater emphasis on patient and family engagement (PFE) – often overlooked in quality improvement efforts. Studies suggest that patients and families who feel part of the care team tend to be happier with their care and ultimately have better medical results; are more likely to comply with their treatment and prevention plans; are less likely to engage in unhealthy behaviors; and they have fewer ED visits and hospitalizations (Green and Hibbard, 2011). Additionally, when patients and families are involved, hospitals and healthcare systems have an opportunity to improve quality and reduce medical errors, healthcare-associated infections and readmissions (AHRQ, 2009)

There are countless ways that patients and families can become engaged. They can serve as advisors to enhance quality and safety, redesign systems of care and educate healthcare professionals and other staff about safety. Some are formal and ongoing, others are time-limited and informal. All are necessary to ensure that care is safe and truly responsive to patient and family needs, priorities, goals and values. (IPFCC, 2004; AHA, 2013).

This full day conference will continue to build on the work of the NJHA Patient and Family Engagement Collaborative webinars and other educational events in encouraging all hospitals in New Jersey engage in patient and family-centered care.

The updates to the CPT Manual for 2018 will be effective January 1, 2018. Changes will include revised and deleted codes, and new codes and modifiers.
This program will prepare health information coders to apply the new and revised codes accurately.
Webinar participants will gain an understanding of how to:
• Implement changes in your facility to accurately report the 2018 CPT codes
• Reduce denials by reporting the 2018 codes accurately and timely by the Jan. 1st effective date