New PHAB Report Open for Public Comment

The Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB), a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving and protecting the health of the public by advancing the quality and performance of Tribal, state, local, and territorial public health departments, has taken the recommendations of the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors (NACDD) and updated their Standards and Measures document to address health equity. The public is invited to comment on the revised document through August 9, 2013. You can use this survey link to submit comments directly to PHAB. The NACDD leadership celebrates the effective work of the council and all members that have contributed to the ongoing advancement of health equity everywhere.

New Infographic from the Public Health Institute

Skyrocketing health care costs and escalating chronic disease rates place a huge economic burden on America’s business owners. Yet 75% of America’s health care costs come from diseases that are preventable. Health matters in the workplace: A healthier workforce brings higher productivity, fewer work days missed and lower health insurance costs. Creating a healthier workplace makes a difference, but healthy people live in healthy communities—and businesses flourish when they help build healthier communities, too.

Prevention Means Business, a new infographic created by the Public Health Institute in partnership with the American Public Health Association, graphically illustrates the connection between healthy places and thriving businesses. View, download and share the infographic here.

New Resource for Community Health Assessment and Improvement Planning

The National Association of County and City Health Officials has developed the Resource Center for Community Health Assessments (CHAs) and Community Health Improvement Plans (CHIPs) to support local communities in their community health improvement efforts. This resource center is an online, publicly accessible venue available at no cost, that contains over 150 resources developed by and for health departments and their partners, including:

• Practical, customizable tools; 
• Key resources; 
• Example high-quality CHAs and CHIPs; and 
• “How-to” webinars and training materials. 

To access the CHA/CHIP Resource Center, visit www.naccho.org/chachipresources.

We hope NBCH members and their employer members will find the resource center helpful to their work.

For any questions, please e-mail: CHACHIP@naccho.org.

CDC Flu Resources

As we are all aware, the 2012-2013 influenza season began early and currently most of the country is experiencing high or widespread influenza activity. This season, as always, high risk patients – especially people 65 and older – should get vaccinated against the flu. If they get flu-like symptoms, regardless of whether or not they got vaccinated, they should get medical attention promptly. Some children are at greater risk of developing severe complications related to flu, including children younger than 5 and children of any age with certain chronic health conditions, e.g. asthma, diabetes, a weakened immune system for any reason, and neurological or neurodevelopmental disorders.

• It's not too late to get vaccinated. Since vaccine shortages have been reported in the media lately, you may find the flu vaccine finder helpful to find a place to get vaccinated in your area. 

• CDC also has audio and video public service announcements(PSAs) that can be posted to your website or linked in social media posts. 

• For a variety of other resources, including up-to-date statistics on this season's flu, visit the CDC's seasonal influenza website.

Trust for America's Health Report Urges Coordinated Approach on Preventive Care

The non-profit Trust for America's Health is calling for a revamp of public health management at the federal, state and local levels in a report that urges a greater focus on preventive care.

The report, called “A Healthier America 2013: Strategies to Move From Sick Care to Health Care in the Next Four Years,” argues that the different agencies in HHS involved with preventive healthcare should work more closely together to coordinate efforts, and existing attempts to become more coordinated have been too slow in creation.

At the local level, meanwhile, the Trust for America's Health authors recommend that public health departments take more responsibility for the public's health and strengthen their role as chief health strategist in the community.

Employers, through wellness programs and disease management programs, have an important role to play in preventive care coordination as well.

Launch of the 23rd Annual America's Health Rankings

On Tuesday, December 11, America's Health Rankings will announce the 2012 rankings on a public webinar. The theme of this year’s live event will be “Healthy Communities, Healthy States.” The moderator will be Dr. Reed V. Tuckson, MD, FACP, Executive Vice President and Chief of Medical Affairs at UnitedHealth Group. Author of the best-selling book “The Doctor in the Mirror,” Dr. Tuckson is first and foremost a physician who’s been a leading voice in healthcare issues throughout his career.  Tune in to hear about the latest findings and learn more about the current state of our nation’s health.

America’s Health Rankings - a project supported by the United Health Foundation - provides the longest running state-by-state analysis of our country’s health and the factors that affect it. The ultimate purpose of America’s Health Rankings® is to stimulate action by individuals, elected officials, medical professionals, public health professionals, employers, educators and communities to improve the health of the population of the United States.

National Influenza Vaccination Week

National Influenza Vaccination Week (NIVW) is a national observance that was established by CDC to highlight the importance of continuing influenza vaccination, as well as fostering greater use of flu vaccine after the holiday season into January and beyond. This year NIVW will be held December 2-8, 2012.

Historically, vaccination activity drops quickly after the end of November. CDC and its partners, including NBCH, want to dispel the myth that vaccination beyond the holidays is "too late." As long a flu viruses are spreading and causing illness, vaccination should continue and can provide protection against the flu. Even unvaccinated people who have already gotten the flu can still benefit from vaccination since the flu vaccine protects against three different flu viruses and more than one flu virus circulates each season. CDC recommends a yearly flu vaccine for everyone 6 months of age and older as the first and most important step in protecting against flu viruses. The flu vaccine is the best way modern medicine currently has to protect against this serious disease.

Vaccine supplies are ample and there are more choices than ever available this year, both in terms of where to get vaccinated and what vaccine to get. Millions of doses of influenza vaccine have been delivered to people safely for decades. This season, the regular flu shot is available along with the nasal spray vaccine. There also is a “high-dose” vaccine for people 65 and older and an intradermal vaccine with a much smaller needle that is approved for use in people 18 to 64 years old.  Once vaccinated, you can enjoy this holiday season knowing that you have taken the single best step to protect yourself and your loved ones against the flu.

To kick-off the week CDC has a number of activities planned including a national media teleconference and radio media tours to get the word out that it’s not too late to get vaccinated. A Twitter chat is planned forDecember 5, 2012 from 1-2pm ET. The hashtag for the chat will be #NIVW2012 and you can follow @CDCFlu for more information. We encourage you to participate and also promote the chat with your members, colleagues, and partners. 

You can find more NIVW materials at http://www.cdc.gov/flu/nivw/index.htm, and NIVM activities at http://www.cdc.gov/flu/nivw/activities.htm.

Lastly, don’t forget to share your NIVW activities -- CDC would like to celebrate and share your involvement in the campaign.

November is National Diabetes Month

In observance of National Diabetes Month, the National Diabetes Education Program and its partners are changing the way diabetes is treated by working together to help people better understand HOW to make the necessary changes in their day-to-day lives in order to prevent type 2 diabetes, manage their diabetes to prevent complications, and live healthier lives. The website has a variety of tools and resources coalitions can use to promote diabetes awareness and education throughout the month.

New Employer-Sponsored Program Effective at Increasing Influenza Vaccination

A study presented on October 29, 2012 at the American Public Health Association annual meeting in San Francisco and recently published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine found that influenza-like illness took a significant toll on employee health and productivity during a recent influenza season. A new employer-sponsored influenza immunization program that was developed for this study was effective at engaging both employees and families.

The prospective, multi-site study was designed by Ofstead & Associates, Inc. and conducted in collaboration with a major U.S. manufacturer that is an active member of the Employers Health Coalition in Ohio. Study sites included factories in three Midwestern towns, with a study population of 13,520 covered employees and dependents.

During the 2010-2011 influenza season, only 35% of working-age adults were vaccinated against influenza even though the annual vaccine is recommended for everyone in the United States and vaccination is a covered health benefit for many workers. This is far short of the Healthy People 2020 objective of 80 percent coverage and indicates the need for innovative approaches to achieving higher immunization rates.

A baseline survey found that 45% of employees experienced influenza-like illness, with high rates of associated absenteeism (>25%), presenteeism (>80%), and healthcare utilization (30%). The economic toll on employees totaled more than $600,000 in lost wages and out-of-pocket costs at each factory. Many employees had concerns and misconceptions about influenza and vaccination, and multiple barriers to receiving vaccine were identified. Employees commonly perceived that immunization was expensive, inconvenient, and unnecessary for healthy adults. The survey findings were used to design multifaceted interventions that provided educational information and addressed barriers to vaccination during the 2010-2011 influenza season.

According to the co-principal investigators, Cori L. Ofstead, MSPH and Bruce W. Sherman, MD, vaccine uptake significantly increased at the two intervention sites, whereas it decreased at the control site, reflecting a national trend toward lower vaccination rates among working adults. A follow-up survey and claims data analysis revealed that convenient access to free vaccine was the primary driver of immunization. One half of vaccinated employees indicated they would not have received vaccine were it not offered free through the corporation’s program.

A strong association was found between employee and family vaccination status. When the employee was vaccinated, nearly all spouses (94%) were vaccinated; when the employee was unvaccinated, few spouses (10%) were vaccinated. In addition, households with vaccinated employees were significantly more likely to have vaccinated all of their children than households with unvaccinated employees.

Evidence showed that customized, evidence-based education successfully served as an important cue to action, but did not result in significant changes in employee knowledge or beliefs. Employees were motivated to receive vaccine primarily due to economic reasons, including convenient access to free vaccine and a desire to avoid missing work due to illness, rather than fear of catching influenza or transmitting it to others.

IBM, CDC and PHDSC collaborate to enable real-time reporting of public health cases

IBM scientists are collaborating with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Public Health Data Standards Consortium (PHDSC) to further standardize the exchange and use of public health information to improve health care quality and coordination of care.

Controlling major outbreaks of infections such as whooping cough or tracking circulating flu strains is critical to public health. However, the lack of public health electronic reporting standards results in irregular and delayed reports that often create inconsistencies and duplication of efforts.

According to the news release, IBM Research is working with the CDC and PHDSC to develop a new approach to defining and delivering public health reporting by drawing insights from structured and unstructured data that currently exists in disparate systems. The scientists are creating templates for public health case reports that could work with electronic health record (EHR) systems, allowing critical information in the proper format to be easily shared among local, county, state and federal public health agencies to speed response times to public health issues.

AcademyHealth Delivery System Science Fellowship Opportunity

AcademyHealth is pleased to announce a new training opportunity, the Delivery System Science Fellowship (DSSF), which provides a paid post-doctoral learning experience to help researchers gain more applied experience conducting research in delivery system settings. Applications will be accepted through August 23, 2012, with anticipated start dates between November and December 2012. This year, fellowship placements are available at Geisinger Health System, Intermountain Healthcare, and the Palo Alto Medical Foundation Research Institute (PAMFRI). Students and researchers with an interest in conducting research in delivery system settings are encouraged to apply.

Eligibility requirements include:

• A doctoral degree in HSR or a related field (Note: You may apply for the fellowship if you will receive your doctoral degree before the fellowship start date. We anticipate most applicants will have finished their training in the last three years, but more experienced candidates considering a career shift will also be considered.)
• AcademyHealth membership

Overall, the goal of the fellowship is to provide hands-on training and professional opportunities for highly qualified researchers with background in HSR or related fields to enhance analytic skills and ultimately increase the capacity of the HSR workforce.

Study: Employers Could Dump Sickest Employees On Public Health Care

Carolyn Pare, president of the Minnesota Buyers Health Care Action Group, doubts that large employers would engage in what the professors termed "target dumping" of their sicker workers.

Pare represents about 40 businesses; about half are large employers based in the Twin Cities, such as 3M, General Mills, and Medtronic.

She said companies must balance their financial bottom lines against the cost of harming their reputations. And from a public relations perspective, dumping workers is a bad idea.

"I don't see the financial benefit to just dumping your sicker patients into a public program or a health insurance exchange," Pare said. "And I really don't see the savings as great enough to incent them to do that." Read the full article...