Becker's Hospital Review

37 FINANCE CMO / CARE DELIVERY Results Are in for Essentia Health's Mandatory Flu Shot Program By Molly Gamble N ov. 20 marked the deadline for em- ployees of Duluth, Minn.-based Es- sentia Health to receive a flu shot, obtain exemption or face termination. As of Nov. 21, Essentia reported more than 99 percent compliance with the program. Fewer than 50 employees were fired. 2017 marked the first time Essentia required flu immunization or formal medical/religious ex- emption to work at the health system. e rule applies to students who train and vendors who operate at Essentia facilities, as well as volun- teers who give back through Essentia programs. "Essentia colleagues, volunteers, students and vendors have taken action in an inspiring way," said Rajesh Prabhu, MD, infectious disease and chief patient quality and safety officer for the system, in a statement shared with Becker's. "More than 99 percent of Essentia's 13,900 col- leagues have made a commitment to the safety of their patients and community by receiving the flu vaccine, being approved for an exemp- tion or in the exemption process." e results suggest upward of 350 employees acted with days to spare before the deadline. As of midmorning Nov. 15, the system re- ported 97 percent compliance, with roughly 420 people at risk of termination. Miranda Anderson, director of communi- cations for Essentia Health, told Becker's the system would still accommodate colleagues in need of immunization Nov. 20. e final tal- ly was taken upon the completion of the day's shis. Ms. Anderson specified that fewer than 50 employees were terminated as of Nov. 21. While Dr. Prabhu said "patients and the com- munity can be confident the expert care they receive at Essentia is taking place in a healing environment providing vital protection from influenza," the Minnesota Nurses Association is setting out to challenge the flu shot requirement. e MNA, which represents about 2,000 Es- sentia nurses, revealed plans Nov. 20 to fight for any fired nurses by filing grievances to get them their jobs and pay back. e MNA has filed an unfair labor practice charge against the health system and plans to file grievances for fired nurses. Essentia Health did not comment on the MNA's plans. n Suspending Weekend Hospital Services Does Not Hurt Patient Outcomes, Study Finds By Mackenzie Bean E liminating allied health services — such as speech ther- apy or dietetics — from hospitals on the weekends does not influence patient outcomes, suggests a study pub- lished in PLOS Medicine. For the study, researchers conducted two clinical trials from February 2014 to March 2015, involving nearly 15,000 pa- tients from 12 medical or surgical wards at two hospitals in Melbourne, Australia. Researchers gradually removed all weekend allied health services from the medical wards before introducing redevel- oped versions of the services based on feedback from physi- cians, nurses and allied health staff. Removal of the allied health services did not affect how much time patients spent at the hospital or threaten patient safety, ac- cording to the researchers. Re-establishing updated versions of the health services did not influence patient outcomes, ei- ther. Patients actually stayed slightly longer and had more ad- verse events when weekend allied care was in effect. "There is some evidence from randomized trials available that allied health services delivered on rehabilitation wards can be effective for improving health outcomes and reducing the length of stay," lead author Terry Haines, of Monash University in Victoria, Australia, told Reuters. "It could be a simple case of moving allied health resources from the acute medical and surgical wards over to the rehabilitation wards." n White House: Opioid Epidemic's Actual Cost Tops $500B By Brian Zimmerman A merica's opioid crisis cost the U.S. economy more than $500 billion in 2015, dwarfing pre- vious annual estimates produced by multiple groups of researchers, according to a report conduct- ed by the White House's Council of Economic Advisers. To develop the estimate, the CEA used a combination of statistical models and took a broader look at the val- ue of lives lost due to opioid-related overdoses than previous studies. Depending on the statistical method- ology, the researchers determined the economic loss caused by 33,000 opioid-related deaths in 2015 could be between $221 billion and $431 billion. Additionally, the CEA assessed the cost associated with opioid ad- diction as it pertains to treating patients with the dis- ease, the criminal justice system and lost productivity. The CEA researchers estimated a $72 billion loss relat- ed to the 2.4 million people with documented opioid addiction in 2015. "CEA finds that previous estimates of the economic cost of the opioid crisis greatly understate it by under- valuing the most important component of the loss — fatalities resulting from overdoses," said the CEA Nov. 19. "CEA estimates that in 2015, the economic cost of the opioid crisis was $504.0 billion, or 2.8 percent of [gross domestic product] that year. This is over six times larger than the most recently estimated eco- nomic cost of the epidemic." n

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