Charles A. Crecelius, MD, PhD, CMD

State Network News August 2004 Front Page: HOD Chair's Message Lett Testifies in Congress AMA House of Delegates Update on AMDA Courses Medicaid Block Grants for States Nat'l Nursing Home Survey Research Network Member Profile Upcoming Chapter Meetings Printable Version of This Issue

E-mail Your Articles What better way to disseminate information to other AMDA chapters than to include an article in State Network News (SNN)? If you would like to include an article in an upcoming issue, please e-mail it along with permission to reprint to Nicole Germain, Membership Coordinator, at ngermain@amda.com.

State Chapter Meetings Click here for a listing of state chapter meetings.

AMDA's 2005 Annual Symposium Quality Leadership in Long Term Care: Affirming the Physician Role March 17-20, 2005, New Orleans, Louisiana Call for Posters Deadline: October 1, 2004

Campaign to Prevent Antimicrobial Resistance in Healthcare Settings The Centers for Disease Control has a new campaign aimed to prevent antimicrobial resistance in healthcare settings, including long term care. The campaign centers on four main strategies: prevent infection, diagnose and treat infection effectively, use antimicrobials wisely, and prevent transmission. Within the context of these strategies, a 12-step program for long term care was developed. Educational tools and materials are being developed for each patient population. Click here to view the 12-step program.

Message from AMDA's House of Delegates Chair

Resolution Evolution and Review...

Resolutions reflect the directions the House of Delegates give to the Board of Directors. Timely and to the point, they are an effective way to guide the organization. With time, however, they may no longer reflect the pulse of the membership.

Resolutions passed by the House often take time to be reviewed by the appropriate committee, reviewed and passed by the Board, researched and enacted by staff, and at times be brought back to the House for final passage. The AMDA Resolution & Results Compendium lists the current status of our resolutions (both defeated and passed), and can be reviewed by any member of AMDA by accessing the website.

AMDA's Policy Compendium is the sum of resolutions and position papers passed by both the House of Delegates and Board of Directors. It should reflect our current thoughts and approaches to the medical director and attending physician's involvement in long term care. It too is available for review online.

Our policy compendium has not been reviewed since its inception, which has resulted in a historically accurate but currently less informative document. Similarly, the resolution & results compendium has not been thoroughly reviewed by a formal process for several years. Lack of a thorough review process can result in resolutions that may not have reached full fruition.

To help solve these concerns, the Board of Directors has recently formed an ad hoc committee to review resolutions and processes. This committee consists of the chairs of the House and Public Policy committee, the House of Delegate representatives to the board, and three members of the Public Policy committee who have extensive experience with AMDA's policies and positions. Kathleen Wilson is the AMDA staff representative assigned to assist.

The duties of this committee are to review past resolutions to assess historical versus active status, determine if resolutions have been fully acted upon or need further evaluation by the House or Board, and arrive at a sound process which will operate continuously to keep the Policy Compendium an active and complete document that represents the member's concerns and interests. Recommendation of this committee will be taken back to the Board and House for consideration by the 2005 annual meeting.

Please contact me if you have concerns about our Policy Compendium or past resolutions so we can accurately reflect member's thoughts. Remember that the House of Delegates charge is to develop and debate policy recommendations and resolutions for presentation to the Board of Directors. Any concern of our membership that involves the need for position or policy change can be brought to my attention as Chair of the House year round.

Charles A. Crecelius, MD, PhD, CMD Chair, House of Delegates

In This Issue of State Network News:

Dr. Swagerty wants to hear from you regarding the questions that he posed in the July issue of AMDA Reports. In the Message from AMDA's President, Dr. Swagerty discusses long term care medicine evolving into an independent medical specialty. If you would like to respond to the questions in the article, send your comments to dswagerty@amda.com.

To access AMDA Reports, go to www.amda.com/publications/amdareports/.

Lett Testifies in Congress
Immediate Past President James E. Lett II, MD, CMD, testified to the Senate Special Committee on Aging on liability issues in LTC.

AMA House of Delegates
AMDA President Daniel Swagerty, MD, MPH, CMD, and current AMDA delegate to the AMA Arthur D. Snow, Jr., MD, had a busy meeting in June in Chicago.

AMDA's Curriculum on Geriatric Clinical Practice for Long Term Care and Revised Core Debut
AMDA's Curriculum on Geriatric Clinical Practice for Long Term Care and newly revised Core Curriculum on Medical Direction both debuted successfully.

States Seek Medicaid Block Grants
A recurring trend in states to seek federal block grants through the "1115" waiver process has raised strong opposition among many long term care organizations.

National Nursing Home Survey Underway
Data collection for the 2004 National Nursing Home Survey (NNHS) began on August 19, 2004. AMDA encourages its members to complete the survey. Also, AMDA member survey results.

Research Network Membership Profile
The Research Network Membership Profile has been developed to obtain information about the Network members and also obtain information about their facilities from publicly reported data such as the OSCAR data.