A blueprint for community benefit. A CHA-AAHA (Catholic Health Association-American Association of Homes for the Aging) document helps long-term care providers plan for and implement needed services

A collaborative effort of the Catholic Health Association (CHA) and the American Association of Homes for the Aging, The Social Accountability Program: Continuing the Community Benefit Tradition of Not-for-Profit Homes and Services for the Aging helps long-term care organizations plan and report community benefit activities. The program takes long-term care providers through five sequential tasks: reaffirming commitment to the elderly and others in the community; developing a community service plan; developing and providing community services; reporting community services; and evaluating the community service role. To help organizations reaffirm commitment, the Social Accountability Program presents a process facilities can use to review their historical roots and purposes and evaluate whether current policies and procedures are consistent with the organizational philosophy. Once this step is completed, providers can develop a community service plan by identifying target populations and the services they need. For facilities developing and implementing such services, the program suggests ways of measuring and monitoring them for budgetary purposes. Once they have implemented services, not-for-profit healthcare organizations must account for their impact on the community. The Social Accountability Program lists elements to be included in community service reports. It also provides guidelines for evaluating these services' effectiveness and the organization's overall community benefit role.     

Revitalized commitment to community. A community benefit plan helps a hospital be a good neighbor

Three years ago St. John Hospital and Medical Center, Detroit, made a commitment to strengthen its community relationships and reaffirm its mission of serving those in need by following the Catholic Health Association's Social Accountability Budget. While implementing the program, administrators were surprised to learn the hospital was already participating in many community programs for which it received little or no reimbursement. They also discovered that the hospital had no formal, written charity care policy even though St. John provided more than $14 million in uncompensated care annually. To learn what the needs of the surrounding community were, the hospital went to the clergy, who overwhelmingly identified the needs of the elderly as the number-one priority. A close second was supporting the basic family unit. Other concerns included basic family needs, safe neighborhoods and schools, and teen pregnancy. Although the hospital realized it could not do all that was needed, it felt obliged to be a leader in seeing that the needs were met and drew up a community benefit plan that documented the problems and the solutions. The hospital did what it could and worked with other organizations to address needs such as housing for the elderly, affordable and accessible healthcare, neighborhood improvement and safety, and family services.     

Values and vision--CHA's plan for healthcare reform is based on two unique perspectives

The Catholic Health Association (CHA) Leadership Task Force on National Health Policy Reform has offered a proposal that, if enacted by Congress, would result in profound changes in the way providers deliver healthcare in the United States. The proposal would result in fewer acute healthcare facilities, challenge some acute care facilities to provide additional services and require each Catholic healthcare provider to collaborate with Catholic providers and others. Two features distinguish CHA's plan from the many other healthcare proposals that have been offered. First, CHA's plan is rooted in six tenets of Catholic healthcare. Second, the plan primarily focuses on client-centered delivery reform rather than on financing issues as other proposals have done. The task force believed it first had to create a vision of what the nation's future healthcare delivery system should look like. The task force decided that providers must do a better job of meeting clients' healthcare needs. To be a credible leader in the healthcare reform debate, the task force believes that CHA must offer a plan that primarily focuses on the needs of people and, second, controls costs effectively.     

Indigency, ethnicity, and hospital viability. The growth of racially diverse communities challenges Catholic providers and sponsors

A Catholic Health Association study analyzes correlations between the ethnic and racial composition of communities served by Catholic hospitals and these hospitals' viability and capacity to serve their communities. It also describes the extent to which Catholic hospitals serve racially homogeneous communities, on the one hand, and racially and ethnically diverse communities, on the other. For comparison, the study focuses on hospitals in two groups. Group A consists of hospitals in the top quartile based on their proportion of care for the poor and top-quartile percentages of black and Hispanic residents in their local communities. Group B consists of hospitals with bottom-quartile levels of care for the poor and bottom-quartile percentages of black and Hispanic residents. The study found that, from 1985 to 1990, group A hospitals continued to provide high levels of care for the poor (between 28 percent and 32 percent on average) while average margins fell from about 4 percent to below 1 percent. During the same period, the amount of care group B hospitals provided to the poor remained between 5 percent and 6 percent; although their margins declined, these hospitals were significantly more profitable than group A hospitals. The financial stress currently being experienced by many hospitals that serve communities with relatively high percentages of ethnic and racial minorities is troubling. Without basic reform of the healthcare system, many of these facilities may have to close, leaving many in their communities without access to adequate healthcare.     

Uncompensated care and hospital conversions in Florida.

Hospital conversions to for-profit ownership have prompted concern about continuing access to care for the poor or uninsured. This DataWatch presents an analysis of the rate of uncompensated care provided by Florida hospitals before and after converting to for-profit ownership. Uncompensated care declined greatly in the converting public hospitals, which had a significant commitment to uncompensated care before conversion. Among converting nonprofit hospitals, uncompensated care levels were low before conversion and did not change following conversion. The study suggests that policymakers should assess the risk entailed in a conversion by considering the hospital's historic mission and its current role in the community.     

A growth opportunity. Catholic hospitals can improve their mission and margin by developing rehabilitation services

Developing rehabilitation services should be an attractive diversification strategy for Catholic hospitals during the 1990s. Although the number of inpatient rehabilitation providers more than doubled during the 1980s, many markets remain underserved. Rehabilitation units can enable facilities to generate revenues and, at the same time, better serve the community. A number of other factors make creating rehabilitation programs a sound venture: Hospitals can choose from among a variety of product lines when deciding which services to include; reimbursement mechanisms are at present favorable to rehabilitation; businesses are making increasing use of these services; the segment of the population that most often requires rehabilitation services is growing; and many acute care hospitals have a ready-made source of rehabilitation referrals in their occupied beds. For Catholic healthcare facilities now offer teritary or subspecialty programs and have developed sophisticated ancillary services, they are well placed to add rehabilitation programs.     

Caregivers' unmet needs for support in caring for functionally impaired elderly persons: a community sample

Few estimates have been made of the extent to which the needs of caregivers are met. In addition to the inadequate capacity of services, many caregivers lack adequate financial resources, social resources, or other means to access them. Caregivers who provide services to minority or poor elderly may be particularly needy since their care receivers tend to be less healthy and are less likely to use institutional facilities. To address this issue, the authors studied a community sample of 124 caregivers who identified correlates of their perceived unmet caregiver needs and their use of supportive services available for their caregiving. Results indicated that 51.8 percent of women and 67.4 percent of men reported needs for one or more community services that were not met. It was concluded that caregivers who are poor or who required financial assistance are at the highest risk for needing assistance while providing caregiving services. Community services may more effectively target potential needs of caregivers through routine screenings.     

A journal of community. Catholic healthcare providers' presence is necessary to sustain a values-based system

Catholic healthcare leaders must use all their will and creative imagination to find a way to maintain a significant Catholic presence in healthcare. Catholic healthcare leaders across the nation are acquiring, consolidating, and merging hospitals; forming alliances and networks of integrated services; and bringing together Catholic healthcare systems on a regional and local basis. The next few years are critical for Catholic sponsors of healthcare services. The unique challenge is to pursue the development of a Catholic network that would include a wide range of health, mental health, home care, long-term care, social, and housing services. The key ingredient to making networks happen will be leadership, and I think CHA and sponsors rightly emphasize the need for continuing leadership formation and development of trustees and executives in Catholic healthcare. A united effort by Catholic healthcare providers could have a penetrating influence on the overall development of healthcare in this nation. Now is the time to exercise imaginative leadership; to reach out to the existing Catholic and community-based providers of health and human services; and to create networks that can provide a continuum of accessible, high-quality, values-based, and cost-efficient services.     

Catholic hospitals and community benefit activities. A comparative inventory of policies and programs reveals a wide range of services

Results from a 1990 survey of 595 acute care, short-term, U.S. Catholic hospitals help identify and describe the most and least common community benefit activities and propose ways Catholic healthcare providers can become more involved in their local communities. The response rate for this mailed, self-administered questionnaire was 72 percent (n = 429). The survey data indicated that Catholic hospitals engaged in a variety of healthcare efforts in their local communities. These efforts ranged from occasional activities (e.g., delivering food baskets to the needy at Christmastime) to sponsoring long-term programs (e.g., continuing case management). To expand involvement throughout the community, hospitals can do the following relatively low-cost tasks: Have volunteers visit area residents in their homes and report their findings. Sponsor focus groups (facilitated by graduate students from area colleges and universities) that include the various community members. Assess the human needs of the communities that surround the hospital. Graduate students may conduct preliminary studies to identify the scope and variety of community healthcare needs.     

Reporting charity care. Hospitals must prepare to comply with new AICPA accounting rules

To comply with new accounting rules issued by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), hospitals will have to change the way they report charity care in the financial statements they prepare for fiscal years ending mid-July 1991 and later. In the past, those hospitals which did report charity care information usually lumped it with bad debts under a caption such as "uncompensated services" or disclosed a specific amount of charity care to comply with Hill-Burton or other governmental programs. From now on, however, providers' financial statements must distinguish bad debt from charity care, not report gross patient revenues in the income statement, not imply that charity services generate revenue or receivables, make specific disclosures about the level of charity care provided, and report bad debts as an expense, rather than as a deduction from revenue. Distinguishing bad debts from charity care will be difficult. The AICPA defines bad debts as actual or expected uncollectibles resulting from an extension of credit, and charity care as services for which the provider does not expect payment. The AICPA believes that facilities which establish a definitive management policy on charity care should be able to distinguish between the two. To collect the data necessary to meet the AICPA requirements, hospitals need to establish a method to catalog the charity services they provide. Facilities should also ensure that patients and staff are familiar with their charity care policies.     

Social justice in a time of crisis. Catholic tradition offers creative ideas for solving the problems of healthcare costs and access

In this moment of crisis, Catholic healthcare leaders must seek root causes and thorough solutions to the pressures of rising costs and the grave question of access to healthcare. The first question is whether the system can be fixed or if a more radical approach is needed. To reach a solution, government, business, hospitals, and physicians must sit down at a common table to debate the issue. In 1981 the bishops outlined a series of values or principles that should characterize the U.S. healthcare system, including treating the whole person and providing access for all. These values have characterized Catholic healthcare facilities in the past decades and should not be lost in the present crisis and in the decisions being made for the future. Today, Catholic healthcare leaders have a broadened understanding of Catholic identity and the need to continually probe what that means. They realize Catholic identity is more than a few moral codes; it is a broader concern about the way in which healing takes place. Another gain is the development of lay vocations, but these are often restricted and should be more fully developed. In conjunction with this concept, we need to see hospitals as belonging to the whole Church in terms of its mission and thus the responsibility of the entire body of believers. Finally, a new image is needed concerning how care is provided. We need to bring prevention and care closer together, preventing duplication of major services and making certain basic services available to all.     

The effect of hospital ownership conversions on nonacute care providers

Since 1985, the proportion of for‐profit community hospitals has hovered around 15 percent ( AHA 1988, 2002 ). Although nonprofit hospital conversions to for‐profit status have yet to significantly alter the overall distribution of investor ownership in the hospital sector, the consequences continue to cause considerable concern ( Claxton et al. 1997 ; Cutler 2000 ). This is true primarily because investor ownership imposes new fiduciary responsibilities that may undermine a hospital's implicit social contract to meet the needs of the community it serves, regardless of profitability. Given this, many worry that for‐profit health institutions will harm local communities, particularly the availability of services for uninsured and underinsured populations. Thus, much attention has focused on the impact of ownership change on a hospital's provision of uncompensated care and other unprofitable but socially valuable services.     

Community benefit: what it is and isn't

"Community benefit" is the measurable contribtution made by Catholic and other tax-exempt organizations to support the health needs of disadvantaged persons and to improve the overall health and well-being of local communities. Community benefit activities include outreach to low-income and other vulnerable persons; charity care for people unable to afford services; health education and illness prevention; special health care initiatives for at-risk school children; free or low-cost clinics; and efforts to improve and revitalize communities. These activities are often provided in collaboration with community members and other community organizations to improve local health and quality of life for everyone. Since 1989, the Catholic health ministry has utilized a systematic approach to plan, monitor, report, and evaluate the community benefit activities and services it provides to its communities. This approach, first described in CHA's Social Accountability Budget, was updated in the recent Community Benefit Reporting: Guidelines and Standard Definitions for the Community Benefit Inventory for Social Accountability. By using credible and consistent information, health care organizations can improve their strategic response to demands for information that demonstrates their worth.     

北京市失能老人社区照顾现状及需求分析

目的:通过研究北京市失能老人的社区照料现状与需求,为完善老人社区照顾体系提供建议。方法:利用北京市社区老人社会支持状况调查数据,运用描述性统计分析、单因素卡方检验及多元Logistic回归分析方法,对失能老人的社会照顾情况进行分析。结果:失能老人健康状况不容乐观,其对社区提供公益性医疗卫生服务和为老设施建设均有很高需求,对社区提供钟点工入户、日间照料、志愿者服务也有需求,但社区供给服务与设施建设不足。结论:我国失能老人基数大、增长快,但社区照顾供给不足,难以满足老人的需求,亟需完善社区医疗卫生服务建设与社区居家照顾体系。     

The modern association. Preserving a Catholic presence in the U. S. healthcare system

A leader in U. S. Catholic healthcare since 1915, CHA has helped Catholic hospitals meet the challenges of the standardization movement, the Depression, and two world wars. The fifth Health Progress article on CHA's history (June 1990) described the association's postwar emergence as a service organization under the leadership of Rev. John J. Flanagan, SJ. This article, the last in the series, charts CHA's response to the revolutionary changes within Catholic healthcare brought about by the Second Vatican Council and the passage of Medicare. It recounts the struggles within the U.S. Catholic healthcare community to sustain its Catholic identity, as well as the community's increased presence as an advocate for a just healthcare system. In the spirit of the institutes of women religious who established the Catholic healthcare ministry in the United States, CHA enters the 1990s committed to advocating for universal access to healthcare and enhancing its members' ability to serve the poor and vulnerable.     

Millions of medical care dollars for indigents

The medically indigent, a group traditionally underserved with health care, can obtain some needed free services from Hill-Burton facilities. These facilities (hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, and agencies) received Hill-Burton funds for their building programs and have, as a result, an obligation to provide a certain amount of uncompensated medical care to a defined medically indigent population.Health systems agencies (HSAS) or other interested agencies and groups can play an integral role in highlighting the Hill-Burton Program and helping the medically indigent obtain free care, This paper describes the Hill-Burton Program and explains how one HSA identified the Hill-Burton facilities in its area, determined the extent of their obligations, obtained allocation plans, and publicized and promoted the available health care services. From the interest shown by the community it was apparent that the HSA had provided a much needed and appreciated service that could be duplicated across the country by HSAS or other community groups.Lillian Emmons, Ph.D., R.D., Nutrition Consultant. James E. Burnett is Chief of Industrial Programs, National Aeronautical and Space Administration. Ruth Finkelstein, M.A., Planning Associate, Metropolitan Health Planning Corporation. Bernice Frieder, M.A., is Senior Associate Planner, Metropolitan Health Panning Corporation. Gail Long, M.S.S.A., is Assistant Director, Merrick Settlement House. Dennis Lettenauer Attorney-at-Law, is with the Legal Aid Society. Cynthia Miller is President, C.B. Miller Funeral Home. Paper presented on November 2, 1981, at the Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association, Los Angles, Ca.     

Uncompensated care provided by emergency physicians in Florida emergency departments

Uncompensated emergency department (ED) visits can negatively affect patients, clinicians, and hospitals, particularly as overcrowding occurs. Florida provides a unique market to analyze uncompensated ED care due to the high percent of for-profit hospitals, which typically provide significantly less uncompensated care, coupled with the older population that is more likely to be insured through Medicare. A survey of 188 Florida hospital emergency physician groups was conducted to estimate the level of uncompensated care provided by each ED physician group in 1998. The response rate was 44 percent (eighty-three ED physician groups). All ED physician groups provided substantial uncompensated care regardless of hospital ownership type. Uncompensated care averaged 46.8 percent and ranged from 25.8 to 79.4 percent. A model was developed to predict the amount of uncompensated care using ED volume and payer mix. A rise in the percent of self-pay patients causes a disproportionate increase in uncompensated care, such that EDs with high levels of self-pay visits have markedly higher uncompensated care rates. The results suggest the need for a uniform reporting method of ED physician uncompensated care cost.     

Long-term care survey reveals challenges. Facilities grapple with five broad issues, including changes in leadership and AIDS

The Catholic Health Association's 1992 survey of Catholic long-term care (LTC) facilities identified five broad issues LTC facilities face in the 1990s: leadership, system affiliation, community programs, resident issues, and care of persons with AIDS. The transition to lay leadership presents new challenges to the relationship between LTC facilities and their sponsors. Despite the dominance of religious sponsors, an increasing number of laypersons are serving as healthcare administrators both in long-term and acute care. Thirty percent of respondents reported being affiliated with a multi-institutional system. This percentage has changed little in the past few years, although the number of facilities that are system members continues to increase at the fastest rate of any type of LTC facility. Only 27 percent of survey respondents said they provide educational or informational programs for persons in their communities. Thirty-nine percent of system-affiliated LTC facilities reported offering such programs. One encouraging finding shows that 80 percent of facilities have written policies for living wills, 64 percent for designated proxy, and 86 percent for durable power of attorney for healthcare. LTC providers are struggling to determine their role in caring for persons with HIV and AIDS. Only 3.6 percent of respondents care for residents with AIDS. A major problem LTC administrators face is a fear of potential infection of staff or residents.     

The benefits of HMO community benefits programs

Managed care is becoming the dominant mode of health care coverage, and health maintenance organizations (HMOs) are playing a key role in the delivery of health care within the evolving, cost-competitive system. However, in this cost-cutting arena, do HMOs have responsibility for health services to communities which extends beyond their enrolled populations? Do HMO community benefits programs have significant impact on the uninsured or the related problem of paying for uncompensated care? The Massachusetts Attorney General believed so and developed the first set of voluntary guidelines in the nation for HMOs to follow in developing community benefits programs. This study reports on the initial year of the program and raises important policy questions regarding the responsibility HMOs have to the communities apart from the population they contract with, and the extent to which communities benefit from HMO community benefits programs.     

Discharge planning in acute care hospitals in Israel: services planned and levels of implementation and adequacy

This study aimed to examine the implementation, adequacy, and outcomes of discharge planning. The authors carried out a prospective study of 1,426 adult patients discharged from 11 acute care hospitals in Israel. Social workers provided detailed discharge plans on each patient. Telephone interviews were conducted two weeks post-discharge. Findings showed 40 percent of patients were referred to institutional care and 60 percent were sent home with plans to receive community services. At follow-up, the rates of implementation varied by planned services. Among patients referred to institutional care, 46 percent of those referred to nursing homes and 70 percent of those referred to rehabilitation facilities received the planned care. Of those discharged home, 65 percent received planned home attendant services and 59 percent received planned home health care. Implementation of institutional care was related to the patient's functional status and population group. Implementation of community and home services was related to age, gender, population group, and hospital department. These gaps in implementation of planned services have important policy implications. Discussion of the findings with the participating hospitals and national authorities resulted in plans to improve continuum of care.