WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue University is offering Indiana employers a program designed to train their employees in efficient use of the healthcare system.

Healthy Workforce is a component of the Healthcare Technical Assistance Program and incorporates expertise from Purdue’s School of Nursing, School of Health Sciences, and Department of Health and Kinesiology.

The program is open to all Indiana companies regardless of size and is available through package offerings or ala carte services. Fees are based on the number of employees and the specific components a company chooses to offer.

In a year-long pilot program that ended last spring, more than 1,000 employees at 14 Indiana companies received Healthy Workforce training. Initial results indicate a reduction in unnecessary emergency room visits, and increases in generic drug utilization and in knowledge about wellness and self-care topics.

“They learned how to make wise use of the health-care system,” said Allison Bryan, Healthy Workforce project manager. “Our goal is to make employees more proactive in healthcare decisions, including self care.”

Healthy Workforce aims at containing health-related costs, reducing absenteeism, increasing productivity and employee morale, and improving overall employee health and well-being.

Companies benefit when their employees are using health care services efficiently, Bryan said. “There are some tools that have proven to hold steady or even reduce the premiums that companies pay to provide health insurance to their employees. We can share these tools — such as when to use urgent care rather than an emergency room — through Healthy Workforce.”

The program is customized to fit each company, Bryan said. Basic components include a thorough assessment, recommendations and on-site training modules available in English and Spanish.

More information on Healthy Workforce is available at www.purdue.edu/htap/healthyworkforce or by contacting Bryan at 765-496-9791.

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The Sisters of St. Francis Health Services Inc. and Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Indiana inked a new multi-year contract on August 31st, one day ahead of the September 1st expiration date on the previous contract. This new agreement will maintain in-network health care benefits for policyholders and employer groups throughout Indiana.

The agreement covers the following SSFHS medical facilities and physicians:

• St. Elizabeth Regional Health in Lafayette;
• Home Hospital in Lafayette;
• St. Clare Medical Center in Crawfordsville;
• St. Francis Hospital & Health Centers in Indianapolis;
• St. Francis Hospital & Health Centers in Beech Grove;
• St. Francis Hospital & Health Centers in Mooresville;
• St. Anthony Medical Center in Crown Point;
• St. Anthony Memorial Health Center in Michigan City;
• St. Margaret Mercy Healthcare Center in Hammond;
• St. Margaret Mercy Healthcare Center in Dyer;
• Franciscan Physicians Hospital in Munster;
• Indiana Bone and Marrow Transplantation Unit in Beech Grove; and
• More than 300 physicians throughout the SSFHS service areas.

Health insurance plans covered are Anthem Blue Access PPO, Anthem Blue Preferred HMO, Anthem Traditional, Anthem Medicare Advantage PPO, Lumenos, Hoosier Healthwise (Indiana Medicaid) and Anthem Healthy Indiana Plan.

“We recognize how difficult this has been for our patients and appreciate their support and patience during the negotiations,” said Jay Brehm, SSFHS regional chief financial officer and chief negotiator for the hospital system. “The agreement we have forged, in the end, ensures our mission to provide patients with the timely and compassionate care they expect and deserve.”

“We are pleased to have reached this agreement with Sisters of St. Francis Health Services because it ensures that our customers will have uninterrupted, in-network access to medical care at SSFHS facilities across Indiana,” said David Lee, M.D., vice president of health services for Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield. “This contract achieves our number one goal of keeping health care affordable for our members.”

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The head of the Institute of Medicine will lead a lineup of experts in addressing how to identify top priorities for reforming the nation’s health-care system at Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering’s spring conference April 16 at Purdue.

Institute of Medicine president Harvey V. Fineberg will deliver the keynote lecture at 9 a.m., outlining how policy-makers, researchers and industry can come together to make this nation’s health-care system more efficient, effective and affordable.

The conference, titled Research Solutions: National Priorities & Goals, will run from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship, Room 121. A poster session is planned, highlighting research by Purdue students in the health-care arena.

Regenstrief Center director Steve Witz said the Purdue conference agenda builds on a blueprint drafted by the National Priorities Partnership. That collaborative effort of 28 national organizations, led by the National Quality Forum, issued a November report focusing on the major challenges facing the U.S. health-care system and what’s being done to improve patient safety, eradicate coverage disparities, reduce the burden of disease and eliminate inefficiencies.

While Regenstrief’s conference is free and open to the public, registration is required at http://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/rche/events/conferences/
2009/spring/registration.php. For the schedule, go to http://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/rche/events/conferences/
2009/spring/agenda.php.

Other speakers for the daylong event are:

• Virginia A. Caine, Marion County health director.
• Michael S. Barr, vice president of practice advocacy and improvement at the American College of Physicians.
• Steven R. Mayfield, senior vice president and director of the American Hospital Association Quality Center.
• David Meyer, director of the Center for Primary Care, Prevention and Clinical Partners for the Agency for Health Research and Quality.
• Cerry Klein, National Science Foundation program director and professor and chair of the Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering Department at University of Missouri-Columbia.

Following the presentations, a reception for speakers and conference attendees is planned in Burton Morgan Center’s Venture Cafe.

Witz said the Purdue discussion is especially timely, pointing to a recent report by Health Affairs indicating America’s total health-care bill reached $2.2 trillion in 2007, or $7,421 per person, and could hit $4 trillion a year, accounting for $1 of every $5 spent by consumers, by 2015.

At the same time, more than 47 million Americans, and recent reports show that 1.6 million Hoosiers have been without health insurance at some point in the last two years.

President Barack Obama has pledged to create a 10-year, $634 billion reserve fund intended to help pay for health coverage expansion in his budget proposal for 2009-10.

To get hospitals and outside doctors to better coordinate their care of each patient, Obama’s budget calls for hospitals to bundle all inpatient and outpatient payments. With doctors from those areas working more closely together, the effort could save Medicare $17 billion over 10 years.

Fineberg, who was provost at Harvard University from 1997-2001, has chaired and served on a number of panels dealing with health policy issues, ranging from AIDS to new medical technology and as a consultant to the World Health Organization. His research focuses on policy development and implementation, assessment of medical technology, evaluation and use of vaccines and dissemination of medical innovations.

The Regenstrief Center, which is Purdue’s only integrated universitywide research effort in health-care engineering, was launched five years ago with a $3 million grant from the Indianapolis-based Regenstrief Foundation. The foundation expanded the partnership in 2007 with grants of more than $14 million for additional research projects over the next 5½ years.

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Ivy Tech Community College will hold the 3rd Annual Health Careers Job Fair on Thursday, February 19 from noon to 3:00 pm in Ivy Hall located at 3101 South Creasy Lane.

The Health Careers Job Fair, designed specifically for health professions, is an opportunity for recent graduates, soon-to-graduate students, and alumni to discover potential employment in the area.

More than 30 organizations will be in attendance looking for candidates from all health majors, and approximately 200 students and graduates are expected to attend.

Health care employers that would like to participate in this year’s Health Careers Job Fair can visit http://ivytech.edu/lafayette/career_services/careerFairForm.html to register. Booth space is free, and includes a table and chairs, electrical access, wireless web access, and a light lunch and refreshments. Space is limited and will be reserved on a first-come, first-serve basis.

For more information contact Carrie Borders at (765) 269-5120, or cborders2@ivytech.edu.

Ivy Tech Community College is the state’s largest public post-secondary institution and the nation’s largest singly-accredited statewide community college system with more than 120,000 students enrolled annually. Ivy Tech has campuses throughout Indiana. It serves as the state’s engine of workforce development, offering affordable degree programs and training that are aligned with the needs of its community along with courses and programs that transfer to other colleges and universities in Indiana. It is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and a member of the North Central Association.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A Sept. 5 conference at Purdue University will focus on challenges and solutions in the health care industry.

The sixth annual History, Ethics, Human Rights and Innovations in Healthcare Symposium, titled Challenges and Solutions: Building a Better Future, will take place from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in Stewart Center’s Loeb Playhouse.

Purdue’s School of Nursing and the College of Science are sponsoring the conference, which will feature a variety of world-renowned speakers and a poster session.

Registration for the conference is free for Purdue faculty, staff and students and $50 for the general public. Registration includes a boxed lunch. Those interested in attending need to register by Monday (Sept. 1). Registration for the event will begin at 7:30 a.m., and a welcome and introductions will follow at 8 a.m.

Cynthia Connolly, an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, will be the first speaker, with a talk titled “TB Or Not TB? Fighting the ‘White Plague’ in America’s Children.” Her book, “Saving Sickly Children: The Tuberculosis Preventorium in American Life, 1909-1970,” was published this spring. Connolly’s current research focuses on the history of nurses and AIDS.

At 10 a.m., Dr. T. Berry Brazelton and Ann Stadtler, both of Harvard Medical School, will speak about “The Touchpoints Approach: Strengthening Families, Building Communities.”

Brazelton, considered to be one of the foremost authorities on pediatrics and child development, founded the Brazelton Touchpoints Center at Children’s Hospital Boston in 1993 to mobilize communities around children and families in order to bring relationships back into health care and to transform child care into family care. He is the author of more than 200 scientific papers and chapters and 40 books.

Stadtler is one of the original faculty members and curriculum developers at Brazelton Touchpoints Center and is the director of site development and training. She was a primary care nurse practitioner in private pediatric practice before joining Brazelton at Children’s Hospital Boston.

Three School of Nursing faculty, Julie Novak and professors Clara Richardson and Jenny Coddington, completed the Touchpoints training at Harvard with Brazelton and Stadtler and have created a training site at Purdue University. Participants who are interested in future local Touchpoints training will have the opportunity to sign up at the conference.

Following lunch, Scott Serota, president and chief executive officer of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, will speak on “Health Policy and the Future of Healthcare.” He earned a bachelor’s degree from Purdue and was named a distinguished alumnus of the College of Science in 2006. He holds a master’s degree in health administration and planning from Washington University School of Medicine. He is a founding member of the National Business Group on Health’s Institute on Healthcare Costs and Solutions, and a board member of the Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare and the National Center for Healthcare Leadership.

The Purdue School of Nursing and College of Science also are accepting posters that focus on innovative programs in health care. They will be on display throughout the conference. For information about submitting a poster, contact Clara Richardson in the School of Nursing at richarcj@purdue.edu by Monday (Sept. 1).

Nurses who attend the conference will receive 4.5 contact hours from Purdue University Continuing Nursing Education, which has been approved as a provider in continuing education by the Indiana State Nurses Association.

For information or to register for the conference, contact Roxanne Martin in the School of Nursing at (765) 494-4003 or martinrj@purdue.edu