New Jersey hospitals are working hard to reinvent healthcare to ensure continued quality and access through more efficient, effective healthcare services. That is essential as hospitals face significant federal Medicare cuts at the same time they are preparing to care for our aging population and the added demands of a greater number of insured individuals. “Value” is the bottom line – care that is high in quality but delivered efficiently and in the right setting.

New Jersey hospitals have been working to improve health, provide better care and reduce costs long before the enactment of the Affordable Care Act, but the ACA has pushed us to do more. To that end, N.J. hospitals are:

• Improving coordination of services across the continuum of care. Whether they are forming their own “accountable care organizations” or reaching out in greater collaboration with local post-acute partners, hospitals are forging new relationships, embracing technology like electronic health records and regional sharing of information and using new tools like the state’s Universal Transfer Form to ensure better communication and continuity of care.
• Testing new payment models that promote collaboration. 31 New Jersey hospitals have joined NJHA in a federal pilot project called “gainsharing,” which allows hospitals and physicians to work in collaboration to find ways to streamline patient care and reduce in-hospital costs.
• Investing resources, staff and energy to improving healthcare quality. NJHA’s Institute for Quality and Patient Safety is leading New Jersey hospitals in the federal quality improvement initiative called Partnership for Patients. In the first year of this effort, they have produced tremendous results that not only make care safer for patients, but also reduce healthcare costs in the long run. Those achievements include a 65 percent decline in pressure ulcers, a 45.8 percent decline in ventilator-associated pneumonia and additional improvements in reducing healthcare-associated infections and hospital readmissions.

Congress wrapped up its votes yesterday with a deal on the fiscal cliff and a non-vote on Superstorm Sandy relief. I don’t even know where to begin…

I guess the fiscal cliff: Like any compromise, the deal includes some good news and some bad news for New Jersey healthcare providers and the people they serve. My number one concern: $15 billion in added cuts to hospitals over the next 10 years. The money was used to avert a scheduled Medicare payment cut to doctors. NJHA has long supported a fix to the physician pay cut, however we are extremely disappointed that it was accomplished with even deeper cuts to hospitals. We in the healthcare community share a common goal of caring for our seniors – so cuts that pit one healthcare provider against another fail to accomplish the overall mission of providing quality and accessible care to our communities. Hospitals in New Jersey and across the nation have already been targeted for billions in Medicare cuts under the Affordable Care Act. Now, these additional cuts place yet another burden on hospitals as they fight to provide high-quality care to our patients. NJHA will continue to work with our congressional delegation to find a more permanent solution to the physician payment formula, but will oppose any additional cuts to hospitals and other providers.

As for Sandy relief: It is hard for me to imagine how Congress has not yet acted to provide much-needed relief to New York and New Jersey for the devastation caused by Superstorm Sandy. And yet, the sad fact is we are still waiting for action. The Senate did act upon President Obama’s recommendation for a relief package, but the House of Representatives has not. I applaud our New Jersey delegation for pushing Speaker Boehner to post the measure for a vote last night.  Unfortunately, he failed to do so.

N.J. Governor Christie and N.Y. Governor Cuomo issued a joint statement saying, “It has now been 66 days since Hurricane Sandy hit and 27 days since President Obama put forth a responsible aid proposal that passed with a bipartisan vote in the Senate while the House has failed to even bring it to the floor. This failure to come to the aid of Americans following a severe and devastating natural disaster is unprecedented. The fact that days continue to go by while people suffer, families are out of their homes, and men and women remain jobless and struggling during these harsh winter months is a dereliction of duty. When American citizens are in need we come to their aid.”

The Senate measure will die on the Senate floor unless the House acts by Thursday, when a new Congress is sworn in. There are real people in real need in our region.  Please don’t make them wait any longer.

There are a handful of moments in history in which we all remember where we were and what we were doing. For me, they stretch all the way back to a 3-year-old’s foggy memory of her mom disrupting her daily routine of walking to the local deli when she learned that John F. Kennedy had been shot. We turned around abruptly and went home to turn on the black-and-white TV as tears streamed down my mother’s face. Next came the joyous and triumphant memories of Neil and Buzz walking on the moon. After that: the dreadful news of the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger… then the fall of the Berlin Wall. But the most recent memory seared into my brain is Sept. 11, 2001, and the events that changed America forever and cost 2,996 individuals their lives. I recall N.J. hospitals standing ready to assist the New York hospitals in caring for the survivors; they never came in the numbers we had prayed for. I recall my own fear, not knowing where my own husband was for several hours that day. Only later did I find out he was outside the building assisting, but I couldn’t get through to him. He finally made it home the next morning, covered in Ground Zero dust.

It was a horrible time in our nation’s history. We were attacked in New York City, in Washington D.C., and because of the heroism of those passengers on Flight 93, a plane crashed far from our nation’s capital in Shanksville, Pa. It was hard to fathom the loss of life, or the “why’s” of the attack. Politicians took action and a nation mourned as one.

There are so many lingering impacts of that fateful day. Among them: After Sept. 11, 2001, hospitals and other healthcare providers began a new era in the nation’s emergency preparedness efforts. Hospitals, by their very nature, are prepared for the unexpected. Confronting emergencies is part of their core mission of protecting the community’s well-being. But that mission has grown in the wake of Sept. 11 to prepare our healthcare system for any looming hazard – from a terroristic attack to a flu pandemic.

Hospitals across New Jersey and the nation use the Incident Command System, a mobilization strategy that allows healthcare facilities to respond very quickly to a large-scale threat. And they’ve formed key linkages with state and federal homeland security officials, state and local police, the New Jersey and U.S. Departments of Health, public health agencies, public utilities and others. Never before has such a broad array of health and safety entities been so strategically positioned to mobilize and protect the public’s well-being.

This somber anniversary of 9/11/01 is a time to remember and reflect on what we lost. But it’s also a time to realize that we are better prepared today then we were yesterday – and that work continues each and every day. My thoughts and prayers are with the families, friends and loved ones of all of those who lost their lives that day.

NJHA was honored to host the two major gubernatorial candidates Sept. 18 at a special meeting of our Board of Trustees. We also invited hospital CEOs to attend the meeting. The room was packed when our first candidate, former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie (R ) arrived. After being introduced by NJHA Board Chairman John Gribbin, Mr. Christie made a brief 10- minute statement. He cited some of the many problems confronting New Jersey’s healthcare community – poor reimbursement, the charity care burden – and promised to do “more listening than talking” on healthcare issues. He then proceeded with about 35 minutes of questions and answers with NJHA and its members. Questions ranged from dealing with public corruption in New Jersey, to providing healthcare to undocumented immigrants. It was a good dialogue.

Shortly after Mr. Christie departed, Gov. Jon Corzine (D) joined us. Gov. Corzine also made a brief 10-minute statement, discussing his commitment to healthcare access even as he was forced to confront unprecedented state fiscal woes. The Governor also responded to questions from the group, ranging from the need to fund Graduate Medical Education in the state to ensure adequate numbers of physicians, to the charity care formula, to dealing with public corruption in New Jersey. A very good dialogue occurred.

I think the audience was impressed with the depth of knowledge of both candidates, and we at NJHA were honored to have them both meet with our Board and hear their healthcare concerns.

Don’t forget to vote Nov. 3! New Jersey is one of just two states with a gubernatorial election (the other being Virginia), and the entire Assembly is up for election as well. The issues confronting our healthcare system and our state are far too important for any of us to stand on the sidelines.