UC Press publishes John McDonough’s guide to the Affordable Care Act.

This indispensable guide to the Affordable Care Act, our new national health care law, lends an insider’s deep understanding of policy to a lively and absorbing account of the extraordinary — and extraordinarily ambitious — legislative effort to reform the nation’s health care system. Dr. John E. McDonough, D.P.H., a health policy expert who served as an adviser to the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, provides a vivid picture of the intense effort required to bring this legislation into law. McDonough clearly explains the ACA’s inner workings, revealing the rich landscape of the issues, policies, and controversies embedded in the law yet unknown to most Americans. In his account of these historic events, McDonough takes us through the process from the 2008 presidential campaign to the moment in 2010 when President Obama signed the bill into law. At a time when the nation is taking a second look at the ACA, Inside National Health Reform provides the essential information for Americans to make informed judgments about this landmark law.

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The gap in access to primary care could expand, according to UC Davis researchers.

UC Davis Dr. Richard Kravitz (left) on hospital rounds with medical students.

The amount of time physicians spend on the job can vary widely based on specialty, according to UC Davis research published July 11 in the Archives of Internal Medicine. More than 25 work hours per week separated the most time-consuming specialty of vascular surgery and the least time consuming of pediatric emergency medicine.

Coupled with their previous research on physician pay, the authors note that primary care physicians (pediatricians, family practitioners, geriatricians and internal medicine specialists) have working hours toward the middle of the range but earn toward the lower end of the wage scale. Together, the outcomes indicate that the gap in access to primary care physicians is likely to expand.

“It is doubtful that medical students will want to enter primary care if there continues to be such a mismatch between hours worked and wages compared with other specialties,” said J. Paul Leigh, professor of public health sciences and lead author of the study. “Policymakers who make medical payment decisions should strive for better balance.”

Leigh said the current study has important implications for health care reform, which will greatly increase demand for primary care doctors who are already in short supply.

“We can expect 30 million more Americans to have insurance soon, and they’ll all need primary-care physicians to help manage their care,” said Leigh. “The results could be an even bigger shortfall in primary care providers than currently expected.”

In conducting the work-hours study, Leigh and his colleagues used data from a nationally representative sample of physicians in the 2004 to 2005 Community Tracking Survey. More than 6,000 physicians working in 41 different specialties were included. Work hours involved time spent on all medically related activities. Data was analyzed for physicians who worked 20 to 100 hours per week and at least 26 weeks in a year.

In addition to vascular surgery, specialties with work hours that far exceeded the average were critical care, neonatal and perinatal medicine, and thoracic surgery. In addition to pediatric emergency medicine, specialties involving the fewest work hours were occupational medicine, dermatology, and physical medicine and rehabilitation.

“The specialists at the top of the work-hours ladder tend to provide more intensive care, often in hospital settings,” said Richard Kravitz, professor of internal medicine and a study co-author. “Vascular surgeons, for instance, perform highly complex surgeries, often on an urgent basis. The specialists toward the bottom of the ladder, on the other hand, tend to have more controllable hours.”

In general, physicians with the fewest hours care for more stable patients, usually in outpatient settings, or have fixed shifts, said Kravitz, whose research focuses on improving quality of care and patient satisfaction. He added that the study results help explain current difficulties in recruiting physicians into certain specialties.

“Two specialty areas with particular difficulties in meeting population needs are primary care and general surgery,” said Kravitz. “Looking at our data, it is easy to understand why. Primary care physicians have middling hours and low pay. General surgeons work long hours and have middling pay.”

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The grants to improve patient safety include proposals with investigators from UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC San Diego, UCSF and UC Berkeley.

UCSF's Rebecca Smith-Bindman is the principal investigator on one of the grants awarded by the UC Center for Health Quality and Innovation

The University of California’s new Center for Health Quality and Innovation has awarded nine grants totaling $3.4 million to UC faculty and staff to improve patient care throughout California.

The grants include proposals to stop blood clots, reduce hospital readmissions, decrease falls in hospitals and limit patient exposure to radiation — collaborative efforts that will make patients safer.

Building on UC’s strengths in groundbreaking research and medical care, the Center for Health Quality and Innovation (CHQI) aims to improve patient care while decreasing costs, one of the key goals of health care reform. These objectives will be especially important in 2014 when millions more Californians become eligible for insurance coverage under health care reform.

“We’re harnessing UC’s intellectual power to transform health care delivery for all Californians,” said CHQI Executive Director Terry Leach. “Our faculty and staff, many of whom sit on national boards and organizations, want to improve the quality of care to all Californians, and this initiative will help make that happen.”

UC Health launched the center in October to promote and advance innovations in clinical care that will improve patient outcomes and quality of care within the UC system and beyond. The center is governed by a board composed of the six UC medical school deans, five UC medical center CEOs and is chaired by the UC senior vice president for health sciences and services. The center received initial funding of $5 million — $1 million each from medical centers at UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC San Diego and UC San Francisco.

Center officials hope to begin a second round of grants in the fall focusing on proposals that improve operational efficiency and quality by demonstrating a return on investment, and seek additional funding from interested stakeholders to support this effort.

UC faculty and staff submitted nearly 100 proposals for the first round of grants, with 61 advanced to CHQI for further review. The nine grants awarded aim not only to improve clinical care but to create a systems’ approach to change while embracing the perspective of patients and enhancing their experience along the continuum of care.

The grant winners include:

• Integrating Patient Care and Health Professions Education to Improve Care Transitions: The UC Health Quality Improvement Network, $750,000 over three years
  Principal investigator: Ulfat Shaikh, M.D., M.P.H., UC Davis
  Co-investigators: Alpesh Amin, M.D., M.B.A., UC Irvine; Nasim Afsarmanesh, M.D., UCLA; Brian Clay, M.D., UC San Diego; Sumant Ranji, M.D., UCSF
  Fragmented care following hospital discharge is a common problem that leads to poorer patient outcomes, including unplanned and costly readmissions. This proposal will develop infrastructure for a quality improvement network involving trainees at UC’s five medical centers, with care transitions as the first focus area. This collaboration will help improve patient care transitions during hospital discharge.
• UC Collaborative to Reduce Hospital Acquired Venous Thromboembolism: Stop the Clot, $750,000 over three years
  Principal investigator: Gregory Maynard, M.D., UC San Diego
  Co-investigators: Patrick Romano, M.D., M.P.H., UC Davis; Richard White, M.D., UC Davis; Alpesh Amin, M.D., M.B.A., UC Irvine; Nasim Afsarmanesh, M.D., UCLA; Ian Jenkins, M.D., UC San Diego; Andrew Auerbach, M.D., M.P.H., UCSF
  Venous thromboembolism (VTE), the blocking of a blood vessel by a blood clot, is among the most common preventable causes of hospital death. This proposal will create a systemwide effort to reduce UC’s already low VTE rate by at least 20 percent through focusing on preventive measures in adult medical-surgical hospital patients.
• Standardization and Optimization of Computed Tomography Patient Radiation Dose Across the University of California Medical Centers, $750,000 over three years
  Principal investigator: Rebecca Smith-Bindman, M.D., UCSF
  Co-investigators: John Boone, Ph.D., UC Davis; Ramit Lamba, M.D., UC Davis; James Anthony Seibert, Ph.D.,  UC Davis; Mayil Krishnam, M.D., UC Irvine; Christopher Cagnon, Ph.D., UCLA; Michael McNitt-Gray, Ph.D., UCLA; Thomas Nelson, Ph.D., UC San Diego; Robert Gould, Sc.D., UCSF; Diana Miglioretti, Ph.D., Group Health Cooperative
  Computed tomography (CT) exams quadrupled between 1994 and 2007. While an important medical advance, CT exams also deliver substantially higher radiation than conventional X-rays. Moreover, CT radiation doses vary highly. This proposal aims to standardize and optimize CT doses across UC medical centers so that patients receive the lowest dose possible to produce the necessary medical benefit.
• A Consortium of Trauma Centers for the Development of a Decision Instrument for Selective Chest Computed Tomography in Blunt Trauma, $375,000 over three years
  Principal investigator: Robert Rodriguez, M.D., UCSF
  Co-investigators: Daniel Nishijima, M.D., UC Davis; Mark Langdorf, M.D., M.H.P.E., UC Irvine; William Mower, M.D., Ph.D., UCLA; Anthony Medak, M.D., UC San Diego; Gregory Hendey, M.D., UCSF
  CT use for trauma evaluation has increased dramatically in the past 15 years, leading to exposure of potentially harmful radiation to a disproportionately young patient population, increased costs and greater time in the emergency department. This proposal aims to reduce unnecessary chest CT in blunt trauma patients, thereby conserving resources and decreasing unnecessary radiation to patients. Four non-UC academic medical centers also may join in this study.
• Individualizing Assessments of Risk to Reduce Falls in UC Hospitals, $375,000 over three years
  Co-principal investigators: Catherine Walsh, G.N.P., UCLA; Teryl Nuckols, M.D., M.S.H.S., UCLA
  Co-investigator: Carla Graf, R.N., C.N.S., UCSF
  In 2010, UCLA’s Ronald Reagan Medical Center implemented the 5P Fall Prevention Method (assess a patient’s pain, personal needs, positioning, placement and focus on preventing falls), reducing falls by 30 percent. This proposal will develop programs to train nurses, physicians and physical therapists about the 5P method, implement it at Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center and UCSF Medical Center, assess its effectiveness, examine costs, and disseminate the program and results to UC hospitals and nationally.
• The UCSD Patient-Centered Recovery Program, $286,440 over two years
  Principal investigator: William Perry, Ph.D., UC San Diego
  Nationally, the number of people using emergency services who have mental health diagnoses has increased 40 percent over the past two decades, and among these, substance abuse diagnoses are the most common. This proposal is designed to reduce emergency room visits and hospital readmissions among mental health/substance abuse patients by providing screening, brief intervention, referral to treatment services, and a patient-centered recovery and case management program.
• Implementation and Assessment of a Formal Curriculum for Bedside Ultrasound Training, $50,000 for one year
  Principal investigator: Elizabeth Turner, M.D., UC Irvine
  Co-investigators: John Christian Fox, M.D., UC Irvine; Mark Allen Rosen, M.D., UC Irvine
  Bedside ultrasound involves portable ultrasound exams performed and interpreted by the physician at the point of care. Studies show this can provide better patient outcomes, but standardized training in point-of-care ultrasonography is lacking. This proposal will implement a formal bedside ultrasound educational program and validate that learners gain competence to allow its integration into practice.
• Exercise and Activity Monitoring, Feedback and Outcome Measures to Improve Continuing Care, $50,000 for one year
  Principal investigator: Bruce Dobkin, M.D., UCLA
  Co-investigators: William Kaiser, Ph.D., UCLA; Maxim Batalin, Ph.D., UCLA
  Stroke is the most common cause of neurological disability in adults. UCLA’s Ronald Reagan Medical Center admits 400 patients a year with acute stroke; its inpatient rehabilitation unit manages 240 patients. These patients have marked muscle weakness in addition to neurological deficits. This proposal will use wireless health innovations developed by UCLA engineers, computer scientists and clinicians to monitor home exercise, provide feedback and obtain measures of activity to improve patient care.
• The Patient Support Corps: A Service Learning Program for Improved Care and Education, $50,000 for one year
  Principal investigator: Jeff Belkora, Ph.D., UCSF
  Co-investigator: Joan Bloom, Ph.D., UC Berkeley
  This proposal expands on an innovative form of patient support pioneered at the UCSF Breast Care Center, which deploys 10 part-time premedical interns as paid support staff for patients. This program will deploy UC Berkeley undergraduates in patient support roles.

For more information:
UC Davis, Charles Casey, (916) 734-9048, charles.casey@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu
UC Irvine, John Murray, (714) 456-7759, jdmurray@uci.edu
UCLA, Roxanne Moster, (310) 794-2264, rmoster@mednet.ucla.edu
UC San Diego, Debra Kain, (619) 543-6202, ddkain@ucsd.edu
UCSF, Karin Rush-Monroe, (415) 502-NEWS, karin.rush-monroe@ucsf.edu

Immigrant status will keep many children from obtaining affordable health care coverage.

Ninez Ponce, UCLA

Restrictions on eligibility for health care reform programs will result in the potential exclusion of up to 220,000 children from affordable health care coverage in California, according to a new policy brief from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

The number represents approximately 20 percent of all uninsured children in California.

Of those children, up to 40,000 may be eligible for coverage but may not apply, due to confusion about new rules governing access to both the California Health Benefit Exchange and the state’s expanded Medi-Cal program.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) restricts its health insurance expansions in ways that exclude many uninsured children in California who are immigrants or have immigrant parents. And the policy brief’s authors note that immigrant parents, potentially misinterpreting eligibility requirements for these new programs, may not enroll their eligible citizen children.

“Health care reform restrictions raise some very unpleasant questions about our willingness as a society to let children go without care,” said the study’s lead author, Ninez Ponce, a faculty associate with the center and an associate professor at the UCLA School of Public Health. “And confusion over the rules may result in even eligible children being cut off from coverage.”

Using data from the 2007 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), the study’s authors estimate that under the ACA, approximately 30,000 undocumented immigrant children will be barred from participating in the Health Benefit Exchange, a newly established marketplace for health care plans with subsidies for lower-income Californians. Although their parents will be able to purchase private insurance outside of the exchange, they would not benefit from its protections or competitive prices.

In addition, approximately 150,000 uninsured children will be excluded from the ACA-funded Medi-Cal expansion due to their status as either undocumented immigrants or legal immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for fewer than five years.

An estimated additional 40,000 children who are legal citizens of the U.S. also may be excluded from the ACA coverage expansions as a result of confusion over their parents’ citizenship status. Specifically, parents who are non-citizens without a green card — who themselves are excluded from public programs and the exchange — may perceive that the documentation restrictions also apply to their qualified citizen children, the study’s authors predict.

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It can help reduce unnecessary and costly testing and referrals to specialists.

Klea Bertakis, UC Davis

Physicians who have more personalized discussions with patients and encourage them to take a more active role in their own health care can help lower medical costs and reduce the need for some health care services, according to new research from UC Davis Health System.

Researchers said the lower medical costs stem from physicians and patients having more confidence that together they have reached a correct diagnosis and decided upon a good strategy to improve the patient’s health. What’s been termed “patient-centered care” can help eliminate or reduce unnecessary and costly testing and referrals to specialists, said family practice physician Klea Bertakis and study co-author Rahman Azari, a professor of statistics at UC Davis.

“Patient-centered care has been identified by the Institute of Medicine as one of the key actions for improving our nation’s health,” said Bertakis, principal investigator of the study and professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Family and Community Medicine. “Our study shows that including patients in more of the treatment and care-planning discussion is not only the right thing to do, it is also cost-effective.”

In conducting the study, which appears in the current issue of the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, Bertakis and Azari randomly selected more than 500 new adult patients to receive care by family physicians or general internists. Each examination over the course of one year was videotaped and carefully analyzed and coded to measure the extent of discussions between patients and physicians. Factors indicating patient-centered care included discussing family and social history, nutrition and exercise, the patient’s beliefs about his or her health, and counseling on the patient’s emotions or interpersonal relations. The factors were then compared to the number of a patient’s health care visits as well as charges over the course of a year.

The study found that the number of specialty care visits, hospitalizations and diagnostic services were significantly reduced, as were total health care charges and specialty care charges, among patients who received more patient-centered care. The trends were still significant when patient gender, health status and socioeconomic factors were taken into account.

According to Bertakis, the observed reduction in the use of services and costs for patients who received patient-centered care likely represents the elimination of non-essential medical care.

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UC Davis researchers continue forging new ground to transform health care delivery.

Joy Melinkow, UC Davis

Health care reform is now on the top of the national agenda, but at UC Davis Health System, researchers have been contributing provocative and impactful work to improve health care in America for nearly two decades.

As the nation struggles to keep health care costs down and as policymakers, insurance companies and health care providers grapple with the new Affordable Care Act, UC Davis researchers continue forging new ground to transform health care delivery. An examination of wage disparities among physician specialties, the role of nurses in health care reform efforts, cost-effectiveness of cancer screenings and creation of better health care quality measures are among the ongoing projects.

UC Davis faculty, for example, are charting the future of health care for women and the field of nursing, through their work with the influential Institute of Medicine.

Likewise, members of the UC Davis Center for Healthcare Policy and Research (CHPR) are bringing their groundbreaking work and expertise to bear on efforts to improve health care access, delivery, cost-effectiveness and outcomes.

“The mission of our center is to enhance research and education around quality and outcomes of health care,” says Joy Melnikow, director of CHPR and a UC Davis professor of family and community medicine. “There is no question that the center is contributing to and informing national health care reform.”

The center’s charge has been to help lead work in comparative effectiveness research, which involves the direct comparison of existing health-care interventions to determine which treatments work best, for whom, and under what circumstances.

President Obama has said that evidence-based medicine is key to making sure Americans get the best care while keeping the cost of care affordable. That includes standardizing care, based on the results of comparative effectiveness research.

Comparative effectiveness research is now a focus in the national debate, but CHPR members have been doing this type of work since 1994.

“The findings of this kind of research are the building blocks for decision-making to develop reforms that will lead us to health care that has increased benefits, reduced harms and controlled costs,” Melnikow says. “The core of our mission advances the information needs for health-care reform.”

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UCSF’s David Vlahov is framing his outlook around four central platforms.

David Vlahov, UC San Francisco

Six weeks into his tenure as dean of the UCSF School of Nursing, David Vlahov, R.N., Ph.D., met with his advisory board to discuss his vision for the school and promising new directions in an era of health care reform.

“With health reform, accountable care organizations and the Institute of Medicine report (on the future roles of nurses), the School of Nursing needs to update its strategic vision for education, research and service,’’ Vlahov said. “How can we meet these challenges, and how can we do it in a way that’s in the best interest of the patient? That’s the challenge.’’

Vlahov said he is framing his outlook around four central platforms: symptoms (how to manage issues like pain); interface (how nurses can serve as the connectors  between technology and patient); transition (how to ease the path for patients from the hospital to home and prevent re-hospitalizations); and prevention (how to impact health at the community level).

He also noted challenges in funding that are not limited to the school, and discussed expanding alumni relations, philanthropy and entrepreneurship that builds on the strengths of the faculty.

At the May 18 meeting, the panel’s name was formally changed from the Board of Overseers to the School of Nursing External Advisory Board. Consisting of UCSF representatives, community health professionals and business leaders, the 24-year-old board promotes public awareness and philanthropic support for the nursing school as well as guides the dean.

A scientist and registered nurse, Vlahov is the first male dean of the century-old School of Nursing, one of the nation’s preeminent graduate schools. Previously, he served as the senior vice president of research at the New York Academy of Medicine and director of the Center for Urban Epidemiological Studies. A prolific author, pioneer in urban health research, and expert in global health epidemiology, he began his appointment April 1.

UC Irvine’s growing program supports a future in which nurses are a full partner in health care reform.

Clinical nurse Tracy Cueto explains to students the use of hydrotherapy in UC Irvine Medical Center’s burn unit

UC Irvine’s Program in Nursing Science was established in 2006 to help fill the growing need for highly qualified nurses in California. It may also be playing a role in the transformation of the U.S. health care system.

A report issued last year by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing and the Institute of Medicine stressed that America’s 3 million nurses – the largest segment of the health care workforce – must serve as full partners in driving this health care overhaul, a position fully supported by Ellen Olshansky, director and professor of nursing science at UCI.

“In today’s complex health care environment, nurses have greater responsibilities to ensure patient health than ever before,” she says. “Nursing has to be a central force behind health care reform efforts. We need to be at the table.”

Titled “The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health,” the report offers a blueprint for how nurses can work with physicians and policymakers toward health care transformation. For nurses to assume leadership roles – especially in the key areas of prevention and primary care – there must be expansion and improvement in nursing education, it says.

The report recommends that by 2020, 80 percent of registered nurses have bachelor’s degrees (in California, currently only 26 percent do) and that nurses be encouraged to further their education and training by pursuing master’s and doctoral degrees.

Olshansky’s growing program is helping meet these recommendations. Orange County’s first new undergraduate program in 40 years, nursing science at UCI combines course work with hands-on clinical training at UC Irvine Medical Center and state-of-the-art on-campus facilities – such as the Medical Education Simulation Center and the renovated Berk Hall, now the program’s home.

In June, nursing science will graduate its third class, 45 with bachelor’s degrees and six with master’s degrees that will allow them to serve as nurse practitioners.

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Most of the 4.6 million potentially eligible residents are male, single, working age.

According to two new policy briefs from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, the majority of state residents likely to be eligible for federally mandated health insurance coverage initiatives in California in 2014 are also those who may be least likely to excessively use costly health services: men, singles and those of working age.

As a result of last year’s passage of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), up to 4.57 million previously uninsured or underinsured Californians may be eligible for coverage, either through an expansion of the Medi-Cal program or through the new California Health Benefit Exchange, according to the policy briefs.

In the case of Medi-Cal, the state’s health care program for low-income Californians, approximately 2.13 million Californians up to age 64 may become eligible for the program as a result of the ACA, according to the policy brief “Californians Newly Eligible for Medi-Cal Under Health Care Reform.”

An additional 1.71 million uninsured residents and 737,000 people with individual policies are likely to be eligible for coverage through the Health Benefit Exchange, a newly established marketplace for health care plans with subsidies for lower-income Californians, according to the policy brief “Who Can Participate in the California Health Benefit Exchange?“.

Expanding coverage to such a large population will increase systemwide health spending. However, findings from the center’s study suggest that these newly eligible Californians are largely single, male and/or of working age and thus are less likely to utilize high-cost health services.

“Costs will go up but may also be mitigated by the relative youth and health of the eligible population,” said Nadereh Pourat, lead author of the two new briefs, which were funded by the nonprofit California HealthCare Foundation. “And by bringing so many young Californians into the system, we may even reduce risk systemwide.”

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UC Health joins UC medical centers, others in support of federal government’s Partnership for Patients initiative.

University of California Health and its five medical centers have joined the federal government’s Partnership for Patients, a $1 billion patient-safety initiative aimed at improving care and lowering costs.

Announced last month by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Partnership for Patients is a public-private collaboration that includes hospitals, employers, health plans, physicians, nurses and patient advocates.

The national initiative will focus on hospital safety with the goal of reducing preventable hospital-acquired conditions by 40 percent, saving 60,000 lives, and reducing hospital readmissions by 20 percent over the next three years. The partnership has the potential to save up to $35 billion in health care costs, including up to $10 billion for Medicare alone.

UC Health has signed the pledge along with medical centers at UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC San Diego and UC San Francisco, joining more than 1,000 hospitals, as well as physicians and nurses groups, consumer groups and employers.

The initiative aligns with UC Health efforts to advance patient safety. UC Health has been working to reduce hospital-acquired conditions such as pressure ulcers and central line-associated bloodstream infections. From fiscal 2008 to 2010, UC medical centers reduced bloodstream infections among adult, non-burn patients from 3.1 to 1.39/1,000 line days, a drop of 55 percent. In October, UC Health launched the Center for Health Quality and Innovation to further support UC projects that improve quality, access and value in the delivery of health care.

“UC Health is proud to be part of the Partnership for Patients,” said Dr. John Stobo, UC senior vice president for health sciences and services. “We can’t rest on our laurels. We provide our patients with excellent care, and it’s important to continue to develop innovations that improve safety and reduce costs.”

UCSF among others to join patient-safety initiative aimed at saving lives, reducing hospital admissions.

UC Davis Medical Center has joined federal government’s Partnership for Patients, a $1 billion patient-safety initiative aimed at saving lives and reducing hospital admissions.

Announced April 12 by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Partnership for Patients is a public-private collaboration that includes hospitals, employers, health plans, physicians, nurses and patient advocates.

“I am proud that UC Davis Medical Center is among the more than 500 hospitals, as well as physicians and nurses groups, consumer groups, and employers that have agreed to the new initiative,” said Ann Madden Rice, CEO of UC Davis Medical Center. “Providing safe, high-quality care to our patients is our top priority at UC Davis Medical Center. We are committed to being one of the safest hospitals in the nation.”

The initiative will focus on hospital safety with the goal of reducing patient-care injuries by 40 percent, saving 60,000 lives and reducing hospital readmissions by 20 percent over the next three years. In addition to saving lives, Sebelius praises the partnership’s potential to save up to $35 billion in health care costs, including up to $10 billion for Medicare alone.

UC Davis Medical Center ranks among The Leapfrog Group’s top 65 U.S. hospitals for 2010, a distinction that recognizes hospital performance in crucial areas of patient safety and quality.

The Leapfrog Group is a nonprofit coalition of some of the nation’s largest employers and health-care purchasers  who are working for improvements in health-care safety, quality and affordability for their employees and dependents. The top-hospitals ranking is based on Leapfrog’s national survey of 1,200 hospitals that volunteer publicly to report their performance. UC Davis Medical Center met a variety of performance measures to receive designation as a Top Hospital. In addition, Leapfrog measured hospitals on their progress in preventing infections and other hospital-acquired conditions, and adopting policies on the handling of serious medical errors, among other factors.

UC Davis Medical Center and other UC medical centers are participating in The Joint Commission’s patient-safety program, which focuses on hand hygiene. UC Davis also is a part of a UC-led patient-safety initiative to reduce central-line-associated bloodstream infections in adult, non-burn intensive care units.

From the politics to the practical on UCTV.

The recently passed health reform legislation may have been a victory for President Obama, but its implementation is going to be far from easy. In these new programs from UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies and UCSF’s Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, experts offer clear-headed analysis of this legislation and its impact on patients, providers, the government and the bottom line.

Programs include:

Inside Health Reform
First air date: Jan. 3

Health Reform Legislation — An Overview
First air date: April 11

Making Health Care Reform Work: Can We Afford Health Reform?
First air date: April 18

Making Health Care Reform Work: The Impact of Health Reform on California
First air date: April 25

Financing California: Strategies for Fiscal Housekeeping — Health Care
First air date: April 25

Making Health Care Reform Work: The Politics of Evidence-Based Medicine — Patients, Profits and Partisanship
First air date: May 5

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