issue 02-10
issue 02-10
October, 2002
Offering assistance to his patients and understanding their illnesses is a rewarding and self-fulfilling career for Clayton Chau, M.D., Community Mental Health Psychiatrist for HCA Behavioral Health's Adult Mental Health program and Alcohol & Drug Abuse Services.
Dr. Chau provides evaluation and treatment services to his patients, consults regularly with case managers on the best possible diagnosis and treatments for patients and offers his assistance with emergency medication services.
As an immigrant to the U.S., Dr. Chau's familiarity with the everyday struggles of life inspired him to choose a career path that provided him with an opportunity to give back to the community and participate in public service.
For the past two years, Dr. Chau has also provided educational training to staff members, keeping them abreast of the latest medications and techniques to better serve their mental health clients. In addition, he has been a keynote speaker at several of the Cultural Competency Program's multicultural conferences.
As a graduate of the University of Minnesota's Medical School, Dr. Chau originally wanted to begin his career as a surgeon. But, he quickly changed his mind and attended UCLA to obtain a degree in psychiatry when he saw the abundance of positive rewards that the field of psychiatry had to offer.
The 2002 United Way fundraising campaign, following the theme "Be Someone's Hero…Give From the Heart" officially kicked off during the week of October 7th. Various Health Care Agency programs participated in an assortment of fundraising events ranging from bake sales, taco fiestas and football tailgate parties, to selling special Krispy Kreme doughnut punch cards to help raise funds for this year's campaign.
On October 16th, the Hall of Administration Plaza played host to a kick-off rally involving County agencies who volunteered at booths selling everything from food, baked goods and other miscellaneous items to help support the United Way Campaign. This year, HCA's booth featured a menu of lasagna, salad and breadsticks, drawing a long line of hungry event attendees.
Special thanks to all HCA programs and employees who provided generous support and participation in helping to make this year's United Way Campaign yet another huge success.
…more photos on page 6
Celebrating its 75th birthday this month, Public Health's California Children's Services (CCS) Division hosted a series of events including a birthday breakfast honoring 12 CCS employees who have been with the program for 20 years or more. Congratulations to Linda Albrandt, Cathy Babiak, Charlyn Barton, Marty Bass, Maureen Cook, Susan Cremeans, Sue Cue, Tony Gordon, Lillian Kirby, Cindy Springer, Dolores Sweigart and Shirley Tanigawa for their dedicated years of service with CCS.
The CCS program was also recognized on October 7th with the presentation of a Board of Supervisors' Resolution in honor of the program's birthday.
CCS was established by the State of California in 1927 to provide specialized medical care for eligible children from birth to age 21 with special health care needs. Each year, CCS provides medical case management, physical/occupational therapy and financial assistance to 11,000 children. For more information about eligibility and/or available services offered, call CCS at (714) 834-8400.
Posing at CCS's Medical Therapy Unit in Fountain Valley are staff members (left to right) Marty Bass, Dolores Sweigart, Cathy Babiak, Maureen Cook, and Sue Cue. Not pictured are Cindy Springer and Susan Cremeans.
The Health Care Agency's clinics will begin offering free flu shots on Friday, November 1st to individuals considered at highest risk of contracting influenza including those aged 60 years and older and persons of any age with chronic diseases. The vaccine is also recommended for women who will be in the second or third trimester of pregnancy during the flu season.
HCA's walk-in immunization sites in Santa Ana, Buena Park, Costa Mesa and San Juan Capistrano will offer the free vaccine, which contains protection against three strains of influenza viruses that are expected to cause illness this winter.
For more information about the community sites participating in HCA's flu shot program, call the Orange County Health Referral Line at 1-800-564-8448 or for a listing of other available flu shot resources, visit www.findaflushot.com.
—Author Unknown
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An important part of the process of evaluating the performance of HCA's Compliance Program has been listening to feedback provided by the Agency's staff, which in part has come through a recently completed on-line survey.
According to Chief Compliance Officer David Riley, about 30% of all HCA employees participated in the survey conducted in August. "We were very pleased with the response and feel that the survey has provided valuable information about how the program is meeting the needs of our staff," said Riley.
The survey showed that over 80% of responding employees know or had access to the Compliance Program confidential hotline number and most employees said they would be comfortable using the hotline. Almost 90% of respondents said they could talk with a manager or supervisor if they had a compliance concern or issue and more than half of all participants knew where to find their Code of Conduct booklet.
Survey results revealed that some Agency staff have concerns about possible retaliation for reporting Compliance issues or don't believe that reporting an issue will result in any changes. "We want everyone to know that we do take all issues reported to the Compliance program very seriously and that the Agency has a strong non-retaliation policy in place to protect those who in good faith report compliance issues and concerns," Riley stressed. "This policy applies to all Agency staff including supervisors, managers and executives. The non-retaliation policy is being stressed during the current Compliance program refresher training and the concerns reported by survey participants will be addressed as part of our on-going improvement process."
Riley also noted the survey has stressed the need for continued communication about some of the program's most important aspects. "We want all HCA employees to know how they can access the resources available to them, including the Code of Conduct and confidential telephone hotline. It's important that they are familiar with the Compliance program staff, should they need to come to us about an issue or concern," Riley stated. "Because we are committed to our employees and this program, we will be looking for additional ways to improve communication about these and other important topics."
The HCA Intranet includes a Compliance Program page that features a downloadable copy of the newly revised Code of Conduct, information about the confidential telephone hotline and Compliance policies and procedures, including the non-retaliation policy. Check it out at http://balsam/intranet/compliance/default.asp.
Some people call it Cerner. Some people call it the Enterprise Management System. Some people call it the Enterprise System. Some people aren't sure what to call it, but some day, everyone in HCA may be calling it by the catchy name you suggest! That's right, this is your big chance to come up with the perfect name for the Enterprise Management System that will become a mainstay of HCA's operations for years to come!
The agency's leadership team is hoping you will join in the fun and submit your creative entry for our "Name The System" contest! Entries will be accepted up until Friday, November 8th when the judging will take place.
Get your creative juices flowing, working individually or as a team, and come up with a simple, catchy name that will provide our own personalized touch to the important project. If your entry is an acronym, make sure you tell us what each letter stands for!
The First Place winner will receive a $50 gift certificate to their choice of a favorite restaurant or Main Place Mall. The Second and Third Place winners will receive Main Place Mall gift certificates for $40 and $30. Entries must be submitted via e-mail to Howard Sutter, hsutter@ochca.com, or through the pony to Quality Management/Public Information, Bldg. #38-S. No entries will be accepted after Friday, November 8th.
This is a great chance to use your creativity and be part of a major Agency project, so get started today! Good luck!
With the new e-mail and Internet distribution format of HCA's monthly "What's Up" newsletter, many employees are providing positive feedback and enjoying the bright and vivid color of the on-line version. The new format is one of the cost-saving suggestions recently provided to the Agency's Labor Management Committee (LMC) and many actually prefer this distribution method as opposed to the previous inclusion with payroll. If you would like to provide us with your feedback, please send Howard Sutter or Tricia Landquist your comments and/or suggestions via e-mail.
We also need your help in making sure that a copy of the newsletter is printed out and made available in employee gathering areas at all locations. If you are aware of a facility that has no e-mail or Internet access, please let us know and we will provide a copy of the newsletter by Pony or regular mail. We appreciate your help in making sure that all employees have continued access to the information contained in "What's Up!"
Approximately 900,000 children in the U.S. today have elevated blood lead levels. To further educate the County's community and medical providers about these alarming statistics, the Health Care Agency's Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program (CLPPP) observes Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Week from October 20 - 26.
During this time, CLPPP will distribute informational materials and provide education to the community on sources of lead and stress the importance of testing children.
The CLPPP program provides follow-up for children with elevated blood levels, fingerstick testing training to medical providers and lead prevention education to the community. Since June 2000, CLPPP has tested approximately 8,000 children for lead poisoning. For more information on childhood lead poisoning prevention, call CLPPP at (714) 834-8006.
Orange County residents who are interested in quitting smoking may now call a new smoking cessation hotline offered by Public Health's Tobacco Use Prevention Program (TUPP). By calling the new hotline 1-866-NEW-LUNG, tobacco users will be referred to the nearest service provider where they may receive services that include: telephone counseling, cessation classes, support groups, one-on-one counseling and a smoking cessation seminar.
TUPP collaborates with community agencies, youth, service and health organizations, city officials and schools throughout Orange County to offer a variety of tobacco education, cessation and policy programs. For more information about the program or the new cessation hotline, contact Elke Shattuck at (714) 834-3294.
November Health Observances
American Diabetes Month
National Alzheimer's Disease Month
National Epilepsy Month
National Marrow Awareness Month
Great American Smokeout 17
National Adoption Week 18-24
The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 establishes a number of new regulations with which Orange County must comply. Information Technology (IT) is now integrally involved in assuring HCA is in compliance with these regulations. These requirements will impact IT as well as most business aspects of HCA.
Electronic Transactions and Code Sets
Regulations dealing with electronic transactions and code sets are intended to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the healthcare system. Standardizing the electronic transmission of certain administrative and financial transactions will protect the security and privacy of transmitted information.
A national standard establishes one format for electronic transactions. Once the standards are in place, providers will be able to submit a standard transaction containing standard content to any health plan, and the plan will have to accept it. Furthermore, plans will be able to send one standard transaction (remittance advice or claim) to providers.
HIPAA also mandates standards for code sets. A code set is any set of codes used for encoding, such as tables of terms, medical diagnosis codes and procedure codes.
Privacy
A number of the privacy regulations include security components, which IT will need to address in order to ensure the privacy of individually identifiable health information.
Security
Provisions within the HIPAA regulations mandate the adoption of security standards to protect an individual's health information, while permitting appropriate access to, and use of, information by providers, clearinghouses and health plans.
To speed the process of analyzing these new regulations and applying them to our specific situation, HCA has contracted with a HIPAA-experienced vendor, as discussed in the accompanying article, to explore the Agency's current systems, and other systems being implemented at this time. The consultant will review:
• How in-house, vendor-developed or state-provided computer applications function to ensure necessary access, security and patient data privacy.
• How Agency programs may store or use patient data in their efforts to electronically maintain medical information or to do case management.
The HIPAA vendor will produce a report identifying areas within HCA where remediation is necessary, including Agency computer systems. A risk analysis will evaluate the areas of non-compliance and recommend priorities for remediation. Finally, an implementation plan will provide a road map for establishing compliance with the HIPAA regulations and a cost estimate for each needed remediation.
Many of you have either met with or have seen our HIPAA vendor in your workplace. We appreciate your assistance in providing all requested information to ensure that we will be in compliance with HIPAA regulations as each deadline approaches.
By now, you have either signed up for, or completed, your annual compliance training, which includes an overview of the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). Eventually, the term HIPAA will probably fade away and be replaced by terms such as Privacy and Confidentiality because the essence of the Administrative Simplification portion of the Act is ensuring privacy and confidentiality for everyone. Although the name may fade, the intent of HIPAA will remain the same.
Compliance with HIPAA takes the form of enhanced technology security and structure (see related article in Tech Talk) as well as enhanced business practices. There are several compliance deadlines with the first being for Privacy Standards on April 14, 2003. This will require us to train staff and address physical and business practices as well as some technology issues to ensure privacy. HCA has retained a consultant to review our information technology, physical environment and business practices while providing recommendations to help us meet compliance deadlines. The Agency has also assigned a HIPAA Coordinator who is working closely with County Counsel, the Custodian of Records, HCA Programs and other
County departments to implement HIPAA.
You will soon receive HCA's Notice of Privacy Practices and our Privacy Policies & Procedures (P&Ps). Many aspects of our privacy policies have been in place in different forms and under different Administrative, Clinical or even Service-level P&Ps. We are hoping to provide an easier way to reference the Privacy P&Ps by placing them together in a section of the Administrative P&Ps. Additionally, the Agency will be using What's Up as a way to communicate practical applications of our policies. Starting next month, we will feature questions that have come up since the annual compliance training began in October, offering practical answers to assist you in implementing HIPAA. If you have questions that you would like answered, and feel that the answers will help others as well, contact Howard Sutter at What's Up, hsutter@ochca.com.
Ultimately, compliance with HIPAA requires more than mandated policies and procedures. It requires a culture of concern. Luckily for us, HCA has a dedicated and professional staff that takes their public responsibilities seriously. Thank you for your contribution to our culture of concern for the protection of patient, staff and organizational information.
Congratualtions to Maridet Ibanez on her promotion to HCA Program Manager II and her appointment as the Family Health Division's new Nutrition Services Manager. Maridet brings an abundance of Public Health experience gained from her role as interim manager, 5 years as program supervisor and other assignments including office support as well as clinical and dietician experience she received while serving at the Los Angeles County —USC Medical Center. Maridet will oversee and manage 124 staff members of the Nutrition Services Program, which addresses major health issues in the community and is the largest Woman, Infants & Children (WIC) provider in Orange County.
Congratulations to Doug Barton, Behavioral Health Services Deputy Agency Director, on receiving the Rose Jenkins Award from the California Institute for Mental Health and the California Mental Health Directors Association. Doug is the first mental health director to receive this distinguished recognition. He was acknowledged for his tireless efforts in advocating for Assembly Bill 2781, which provides state funding for psychotherapy and other mental health services for special education children who are handicapped and/or disabled.
—William Shakespeare, Macbeth
As part of the festivities, Ruben the dog had the honor of unveiling the spay/neuter stamp for everyone to see.
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After completing his residency at UCLA, Dr. Chau was interested in working in Orange County because of its diversified population and cultural melting pot.
"By helping others in such a diversified community, I am able to learn something new each day from my patients by understanding their various cultures," said Dr. Chau. "This understanding helps me to pinpoint issues and/or concerns that may lead them on a road to recovery."
Dr. Chau holds a fellowship with the National Institute of Mental Health in Psychoneuro Immunology and recently received the Mead Johnson fellowship from the American Psychiatric Foundation where he plans to provide leadership training in community psychiatry. He is also a member of the HIV Planning Council.
In the future, Dr. Chau would like to pursue a career in health care administration where he may create and implement educational programs for the Orange County community and participate in outreach to younger individuals in areas where the stigma of mental health is a concern.
we're on-line!
You can check out the latest issues of the Health Care Agency's newsletters by using this URL:
http://www.ochealthinfo.com/newsletters/
We will keep current issues on line for a year. Let us know how you like the convenience!
What's UP is a newsletter for employees of the County of Orange, CA, Health Care Agency.
Editors Howard Sutter
Tricia Landquist
Anne Fialcowitz
Your Input
Phone (714) 834-5109
E-mail HSutter@ochca.com
FAX (714) 834-7644
Pony Bldg. 38-S, 4th Floor
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