Alabama Hospital Association

Sponsored meetings: the Alabama Hospital Association conducts two major meetings for its membership each year. Both of these meetings provide timely educational programs qualifying for continuing education credit from executive, financial and clinical licensing entities. The annual meeting, with 80 Hospital executives participating, covered the following topics: post pandemic financing and delivery of health services, Alabama medicaid: reimbursement issues and lessons learned, variation in nursing care and patient outcomes, ensuring continued quality improvement, organ donation: collaborating to save lives, healthcare 2022 the future beyond covid-19, achieving a culture of zero tolerance, adapt; overcome; and win as one and an update on adph licensure & certification update. The Association recognized $207,549 in sponsorship revenue from this meeting and received $21,125 in registration income. The other major educational program conducted during the year is geared toward senior Hospital management, trustee board members, legislators and other stake holders. This two-day meeting held in february 2022 had 175 participants and was held virtually due to covid-19 concerns. The conference had an overall focus on healthcare in crisis. Specific educational topics included Hospital finances before and after the pandemic - a panel discussion, workforce challenges and opportunities, experience on the front lines during the pandemic - a panel discussion and new options for providing care that's covered. The Association recognized $15,144 in sponsorship revenue fees for this meeting.

Quality: alaha continues to support hospitals statewide on various quality improvement initiatives to ensure the best patient care possible. There are monthly meetings of quality directors and infection preventionists where information is provided and best practices are shared. Twice a year, almost 200 Hospital quality leaders gather for a day-long quality and patient safety conference. In addition, alaha contracts with the state's qio to provide focused work for 18 hospitals on specified quality improvement topics (such as preventing infections, adverse drug events and readmissions). In addition, the Association supports 8 different community coalitions that include not only hospitals, but also other healthcare providers, consumer advocacy organizations, and other community stakeholder organizations. In these communities the resources and coaching focus on topics such as care transitions, behavioral health and chronic conditions. This past year, alaha received a three-year grant with which it hired a seasoned infection preventionist to help hospitals build bench strength in infection prevention. The new staff person is currently visiting hospitals to help identify opportunities for improvement and provide resources to improve their infection prevention practices. In addition, she is connecting local ips with each other for ongoing support and best-practice sharing. For the year alaha received $226,263 in administrative and contract fees for these efforts.

Grants & administrative fees: the Alabama Hospital Association contracts with the state of Alabama department of public health for the administration of a Hospital preparedness grant. This grant provides redundant telecommunications via cellular service to prepare hospitals for natural and man-made disasters. During the year, 109 hospitals participated in the grant receiving a total of $36,051 in funding. The Association also administered grants targeting rural hospitals to include those designated as medicare critical access hospitals. One of the grants funded the following projects/initiatives: education on healthcare worker recruitment, retention, and engagement, patient experience and learning action networks focusing on antibiotic and diagnostic stewardship for the hospitals to address various quality and clinical issues. $255,372 was expended for this grant benefiting 38 hospitals. Another grant, ship (small Hospital improvement program) provides federal funds to assist 38 hospitals with 49 beds or less to implement Hospital improvement programs. $452,777 was expended for this grant. The final grant targeting rural hospitals provided funding to offset Hospital costs caring for covid patients (staffing, ppe, telehealth). $13,667,720 was expended for this grant benefitting 40 hospitals. Alaha also administered two federal grants on behalf of the office of the assistant secretary for preparedness and response (aspr) for a funding opportunity that is intended to support the urgent preparedness and response needs of hospitals, health systems, and health care workers on the front lines of this pandemic in order to prepare them to safely and successfully identify, isolate, assess, transport, and treat patients with covid-19 or persons under investigation (puis) for covid-19, and that it is well prepared for future special pathogen disease outbreaks. The grant awards totaled $2,495,882. Other grants administered include funding for staffing services that benefitted 28 hospitals and covered $11,679,567 in costs as well as two rounds of covid-19 coronavirus state and local fiscal recovery funds; the first round benefitted 75 hospitals and covered $39,693,564 in covid-19 eligible expenses and the second round 102 hospitals and $39,710,372 expended. The Association did not earn any administrative fees from these grants. The Association received $282,438 in administrative fees from the above referenced grants and or contracts.