I thought this was worth posting: http://www.acorn-online.com/joomla15...on-reform.html

The auditorium of the School of Nursing at Fairfield University was filled with a cross-section of staff members from Greenwich Woods Health Care Center and similar skilled nursing facilities in the area. Nurses, nurse managers, nursing assistants, dietitians, recreation staff, administrators, nearly 100 people, ready to hear one of the most respected experts in the field, Dr. Courtney Lyder, dean and professor of nursing and health services and director of the Patient Safety Institute at UCLA, the first African American male to lead a U.S. nursing school.

“I’ve read all 2,700 pages of the Health Reform Act,” he said. “It took me a month, and it made me realize that the way the act is implemented will make all the difference.”

Dr. Lyder’s two main concerns are quality care and patient safety, the same concerns that a skilled nursing facility like Greenwich Woods faces every day. Many long-term and short-term residents of skilled nursing homes come directly from hospitals, where patient safety often leaves much to be desired. The problems are called HAC’s (hospital acquired conditions.) Dr. Lyder listed preventable falls, infections acquired from catheters or surgery, incorrect dosage of medications, pneumonia, pressure sores, as well as less frequent but more disastrous errors in the operating room.

“What will happen with health reform is that patient safety will be a top priority, monitored by electronic medical recording (EMR) systems. Diagnosis, treatment and outcomes will be known and obstacles to patient safety will simply not be paid for,” Dr. Lyder said. “There is $85 billion in federal money for improvement in patient safety through EMR’s.”

Dr. Lyder said that health care reform will develop into a “pay for performance” system. With consistent proof of quality care, funding will be available, though increased demand for a shrinking dollar is inevitable.

“The goal is the right care for the right patient at the right time,” Dr. Lyder said.

For the second segment of his talk, Dr. Lyder presented some reassuring observations about how quality care and preventive care can reverse some myths about the increasingly elderly population.

“Loss of teeth, constipation, dementia, incontinence, loss of interest in sexuality are not normal,” he said. “Health reform emphasizes knowledge and prevention.” He also said that nursing is one of the most noble and optimistic of professions calling it “complex and exciting.”

“The future is challenging; it will be a change of culture,” said Dr. Lyder. “But I live with what I learned from my grandmother: ‘Don’t ask God for a lighter burden, pray for a stronger back.’”