Areas of Special Interest

Safer Healthcare Experience:

Patients can ensure a safer experience with the health care system by being involved and informed about their treatment. By asking questions and following through on their clinician’s treatment and instructions, patients can take part in the process and gain confidence in the system.

Improving patient safety requires continuous learning and the constant communication of information between caregivers, organizations, and patients. Everyone has a role in patient safety, and everyone will benefit from its successes. Source: National Patient Safety Foundation.

Follow this link to the National Patient Safety Foundation to find helpful tips to prevent infections. www.npsf.org/download/PreventingInfections.pdf

Serving Nebraska’s Uninsured and Underinsured:

One of the most significant community benefits contributed by hospitals is ‘uncompensated health care,’ which are health care services provided to the uninsured and underinsured.

Hospitals throughout the United States are currently faced with unprecedented challenges regarding uncompensated health care. The number of uninsured Americans, the majority of whom work full time jobs, continues to grow. In Nebraska alone, one in 10 Nebraska citizens lacks health insurance and only 43 percent of Nebraska private employers offer health insurance to their employees. As the number of uninsured and underinsured grows, so too does the need for charity care and free or discounted health services for those who cannot afford to pay. Because of the high costs associated with health insurance, hospitals are bearing a significant portion of the financial burden imposed by this population. Recognizing this need, almost all Nebraska hospitals have established charity care policies to assist patients who cannot afford hospital care.

Nebraska hospitals that participated in the Community Benefits Survey sponsored by the Nebraska Hospital Association reported providing more than $99 million in traditional charity care; charity care results from a hospital’s policy to offer health care services free of charge or on a discounted fee schedule to individuals who meet predetermined financial criteria.

In addition nearly $393 million in health care services were provided to low-income and special needs populations through Medicare and Medicaid shortfalls – the deficit created when a facility receives payments that are less than the cost of care for the public program beneficiaries. In many instances, Medicare and Medicaid payments are based on outdated information that does not accurately reflect the changing nature of health services, such as new equipment, new technologies, and rising costs of supplies. Because more than 50% of all hospital stays in Nebraska are paid for by Medicare and Medicaid, hospitals are highly vulnerable to changes in public policy and payment inadequacy. Other public programs, valued at over $6 million, also provided significant benefit to the residents of Nebraska.

All of these categories – traditional charity care, Medicare and Medicaid shortfalls, and other public programs – resulted in nearly $499 million in community benefits. – Source: Nebraska Hospitals 2006 Community Benefits Report. (link to report)