As of 2013, member hospitals will be required to submit both outpatient and inpatient data on a monthly basis. The new submission schedule will reduce the lag time between the submission and the release of the data. While there are no penalties associated with missing the monthly submission deadlines, this requirement has been included in contract agreements for all member hospitals. The monthly data submission schedule is as follows:

As we close 2012, the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council Foundation (DFWHC Foundation) Information and Quality Services Center would like to take this opportunity to thank our hospital data submitters for their hard work. Our submitters tirelessly endured numerous submission changes and upgrades. Thanks to your patience, these implementations have improved processes and efficiencies. Users were required to be trained to utilize data correction tools with new procedures, as well as learning the new state-required 5010 data format. These major changes were critical in moving towards new ICD-10 coding and Present on Admission reporting standards.

We’d like our data submitters to understand how critical their work is to our data outcomes and business intelligence. While they don’t always get to see results or end products, data submission and quality is an integral part of the DFWHC Foundation’s data collaboration. Regional data is used to measure and analyze ways to offer better services and care for our patients. Hospital executives also access the data to analyze market share, quality indicators and other analysis.

We look forward to working with our data submitters in 2013. Happy New Year!

The Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council Foundation (DFWHC Foundation) announced today that global biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has made a charitable contribution of $2,000 in support of the community health website Healthy North Texas. Created under the direction of the DFWHC Foundation, the website’s ongoing efforts in detailing North Texas diabetes inspired the contribution. The DFWHC Foundation’s work in forming the Community Health Collaborative and the Diabetes Strategic Plan for North Texas were also factors in the donation.

“Healthy North Texas was created to provide residents an Internet resource for understandable data about our community’s health,” said Kristin Jenkins, president of the DFWHC Foundation. “We are thrilled to receive this donation from AstraZeneca in support of this important tool for researchers, political planners and community leaders. We also consider this a vote of confidence for the important work being done on the Diabetes Strategic Plan.”

Providing easy-to-use information detailing the health of local residents, Healthy North Texas went live in 2011. Located at www.healthyntexas.org, the website is a headquarters for informational data involving overall population health. This information assists planners and policy makers when identifying areas for improvement. Similar websites have been created in San Francisco, Miami, and Arizona.

AstraZeneca, formed in 1999 through the merger of Astra AB of Sweden and Zeneca Group PLC of the UK, discovers, develops, manufactures and markets prescription medicines for important areas of healthcare. AstraZeneca is a global biopharmaceutical business with a focus on prescription medicines for gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, neuroscience, respiratory and inflammation, oncology and infectious disease. AstraZeneca operates in over 100 countries and its medicines are used by millions of patients worldwide. For more information, please visit: www.astrazeneca-us.com.

The DFWHC Foundation is a non-profit 501c3 public charity with a mission to continually improve the community’s health by promoting safe, high quality, cost effective, accessible and equitable healthcare. To learn more about their efforts, please visit www.dfwhcfoundation.org.

The fall edition of the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council Foundation’s (DFWHC Foundation) e-newsletter was released to business associates last week. This issue highlights the DFWHC Foundation’s first TQI Meeting held October 5. New board member Regina Montoya, senior vice president, external relations and general counsel at Children’s Medical Center Dallas, is also detailed.

There’s also a story on the DFWHC Foundation’s first White Paper on “Septicemia Prevalence in North Texas Readmissions.” You can also read about Death Master Files and the recent changes in policies that could ensure adverse consequences. For this and more information, please click on the graphic below.

The Information and Quality Services Center launched its new data correction tool in April 2012. Since implementation, there have been several upgrades developed to improve user efficiency as well as improve the overall quality of the data. Changes include:

• Blinding/Masking Functionality - The system d-identifies patient demographic information on records when the diagnosis on the claim is AIDS/HIV or Substance Abuse. No action required by the user;
• Mass Sign-off Functionality - This added functionality will allow a user to sign-off multiple records with one function. Users select specific records based on the system selection criteria.  This functionality omits the requirement to sign off on each record individually;
• Mass Update Functionality – This enhancement allows the user to update data in multiple records with one transaction. Records are revalidated after the transaction is complete. Any new edit errors are assigned as a result of the change in the data field;
• Sweep Removal – This functionality was removed from the Q-Edit system to allow users more control over the flow of records throughout the system. Users can now delete an entire batch of claims without fear of valid records moving to the warehouse. Users have expressed their satisfaction with Q-Edit since the removal of this functionality.