OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. - August 25, 2008) A new grant from The Commonwealth Fund will be used by The Joint Commission to revise and develop accreditation standards for culturally competent patient-centered care in hospitals across America. This standards development initiative builds upon The Joint Commission’s ongoing Hospitals, Language, and Culture: A Snapshot of the Nation study that examines how hospitals in the United States respond to the diverse cultural and language needs of their patients.The Joint Commission is currently seeking nominations for the Expert Advisory Panel. All qualified individuals are encouraged to apply. The deadline to submit nominations is Monday, September 8, 2008. Read more at http://tinyurl.com/5fhryd [scb]

MCMLA Library Advocacy Task Force is sponsoring a contest for “Frontier Forerunners of Library Marketing and Promotion!” Here is your chance to show off your marketing project or promotional activities that you have used to improve or expand services in your library or for your users. MCR members are encouraged to submit materials to Marketing and Promotion Categories: you may enter one or both categories

Prizes for the best entry scoring above 80 points will be awarded. Entries will be evaluated on Design, Presentation and Evaluation Criteria. Entries should be submitted to Barb Jones jonesbarb@health.missouri.edu by September 1, 2008. Judges for the contest will be members of the MCMLA Library Advocacy Task Force. All entries are encouraged to display their projects and promotional materials at the Marketing Booth at MCMLA. The winners will be announced at MCMLA 2008 in Cody, Wyoming. (bbj)

A new calculator has been added to the online tools available through the MCR website. Check the Evaluation section for a link to the CBA/ROI calculator. This tool helps you discover the dollar value your book and journal collections return to your organization. Click on http://nnlm.gov/mcr/evaluation/roi.html to give it a try. Contact Betsy Kelly with any questions and please do send comments. Your input will help make this tool useful for you! [bk]

Attention AHIP’sters and AHIP’ster wannabes!

The MCRML has identified several ways Network members who are working towards earning
Academy of Health Information Professionals (AHIP) points can also work with their MidContinental Region Medical Library. If you are working towards or renewing your AHIP or would just like to find out how to get involved in the interesting MCRML projects, please visit http://nnlm.gov/mcr/advocacy

April 24th, from 3-4:30PM EST
Join The Disparities Solutions Center as they continue their Robert Wood Johnson Foundation sponsored web seminar series with an event launching “Creating Equity Reports: A Guide for Hospitals.” During the web seminar Dr. Robin Weinick, PhD, lead author of the Guide, will explain its use as a resource that can help staff develop an equity report. Topics covered in the guide include practical information on how to collect data on race, ethnicity, language, and socioeconomic status - and how to use those data to develop an equity report that will allow your hospital to take action. Dr. Weinick will be joined by three representatives from hospitals featured in thereport: Baylor Health Care System, Seattle Children’s Hospital, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and by Dr. Katherine Flaherty, also an author of the Guide. The 90-minute, interactive, web-based seminar is free and open to the public. For more information, and to register: http://www.massgeneral.org/disparitiessolutions/resources.html [posted on CLAStalk-list] scb

Health insurer WellPoint has taken a stand that most other U.S. insurers are likely to follow: It has announced that it, in coming months, will no longer pay for care resulting from serious medical error. WellPoint will start by denying payment for three never events: foreign objects left in patients after surgery, operations on wrong body parts and operating on the wrong patient. It’s also refusing payment for hospital-acquired injuries, pressure ulcers, air embolisms, blood incompatibility, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, vascular catheter-associated infections, hospital-acquired injuries and chest infections after CABG. It is, of course, following CMS’s lead, which announced last year that it would stop paying for treatment related to certain adverse events. (bbj)

MCMLA Library Advocacy Task Force is sponsoring a contest for “Frontier Forerunners of Library Marketing and Promotion! Here is your chance to show off your marketing project or promotional activities that you have used to improve or expand services in your library or for your users. MCR members are encouraged to submit materials to Marketing and Promotion Categories: you may enter one or both categories.

Prizes for the best entry scoring above 80 points will be awarded. Entries will be evaluated on Design, Presentation and Evaluation Criteria. Entries should be submitted to Barb Jones (jonesbarb@health.missouri.edu) by September 1, 2008. Judges for the contest will be members of the MCMLA Library Advocacy Task Force. All entries are encouraged to display their projects and promotional materials at the Marketing Booth at MCMLA. The winners will be announced at MCMLA 2008 in Cody, Wyoming. (bbj)

Beginning April 8, 2008, the MCRML will be offering a free online class on using Routing Tables in DOCLINE.

This 60 minute online class will provide an in-depth look into DOCLINE Routing Tables.

Participants will learn about using their Borrowing Preferences, explanation of copyright compliance, editing Routing Tables, M/A/N Map, setting up Lending Options, and more!

The live class is taught the second Tuesday of each month starting at 10am (Mountain Time). This class is for beginning and intermediate level DOCLINE users but all DOCLINE users are welcome to attend!

Click for more information

Attention LINKOUT libraries!

The Library Submission Utility will be updated to a new version in the first week of April. There will be a shut down of the current utility the morning of April 1 (Tuesday) to convert all participants’ holdings information to the new utility. (This is NOT an April Fools event!)

If all goes according to plans, the new utility will be up and running on April 4 (Friday).

Important Note! The functioning of your library icons and links in PubMed will NOT be affected during this period!

The new version of the utility has an improved layout and offers new functions, including a management interface for Outside Tool and Document Delivery Service, in addition to LinkOut.

Click here for more information

Should you have any questions, please write to lib-linkout@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

“Web 2.0 and Chronic Illness: New Horizons, New Opportunities,” published in the Healthcare Quarterly, Volume 11, No. 1, 2008, is an interesting article detailing the opportunities for hospitals to participate in Web 2.0 information services for the benefit of themselves and their patients. You can read the article at:

http://tinyurl.com/2b2ujn

[SD]