Events Calendar
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Browns find another way to lose
After 30 years at the helm of Akron Children's, Considine still looks to future
New version of Mozilla Thunderbird landing soon
SCORE offers wide variety of workshops
About Matsos Greek Dressing & Marinade
All-in-one units jolt desktop computer sales
Most Read Stories
Police accuse bank robbery suspect of gobbling up note (with dashcam video)
Victim of beating in Kent last week is declared dead at Akron hospital
Can DNA tests free ex-Akron captain?
Dad accused of forcing son into field, killing him
Does it work? Test team returns to try out new products advertised on television
Man found dead in North Akron home is identified
Blogs:
Pets:
Cat-loving chihuahua suckles seven abandoned kittens
The Heldenfiles:
Sunday Notebook
Patrick McManamon:
Browns sick after sick loss in Detroit
Akron Zips:
Zips advance to Sweet Sixteen
Tribe Matters:
Seven players added to Tribe’s 40-man roster
Cleveland Browns:
Post-game defensive quotes
Kent State Sports:
Kent State defeats Rochester College, 63-44
Cleveland Cavaliers:
Gameblog: Cavs vs. Philadelphia 76ers
Buckeye Blogging:
OSU – Michigan college football rivals meet in Baghdad
Varsity Letters:
Four area football teams play tonight
All Da King's Men:
The Sunday Sanity Challenge
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Will Health Care Reform Pass?
Akron Law Café:
Health Care Financing Reform: (69) The Brookings Institute Study on "Bending the Curve" – Four General Strategies
See Jane Style:
Vintage Chic
Car Chase:
TIME TO GET YOUR COLLECTOR CARS WINTERIZED
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Silverdome Potentially SOLD!
Ohio Travels with Betty:
George is looking for a Thanksgiving buffet in Akron.
Sound Check:
Steely Dan Plays "The Royal Scam" at E.J. Thomas Hall
HRLite House:
Personal Rant – You are All Wrong About Jobs, or the Lack of Jobs, Being the Reason People Do Not Live in NEO
Akron Gamer:
Nintendo's Mario endures even as games come and go
By Cheryl Powell
Beacon Journal medical writer
POSTED: 11:16 a.m. EDT, Oct 06, 2008
Summa President and Chief Executive Thomas J. Strauss unveiled a plan for health-care reform called ''Nine for '09'' during the Summit Health Policy Summit this morning at the Akron-Summit County Public Library in downtown Akron.
The event, attended by about 230 people, is part of an effort by Summit County's largest employer to take a bigger role in pushing for health-care reform on a national level.
The ''Nine for '09'' initiative is a list of principles that Summa leaders believe should guide national efforts to fix problems in health care, Strauss said.
''We have reached a tipping point in health care when it comes to health-care reform,'' Strauss said. ''At the end of the day, even if most of the debate occurs on the national level, all health care is local.
''As the conversation goes forward, we believe community-based systems need to have a seat at the table,'' he said.
These are the ''Nine for '09'' points that Summa is promoting:
• Make prevention of illness and disease a priority.
• Use a mix of public and private solutions and insist on individual responsibility to ensure health coverage for everyone.
• Do a better job of controlling health-care costs by coordinating care across health and social boundaries.
• Boost investment in research aimed at improving everyday health-care delivery.
• Recruit more nurses and primary-care doctors to avoid a shortage within the next couple decades.
• Move medicine into the 21st century by switching to electronic medical records and other health information technology that reduces errors.
• Prepare to care for the aging population by recruiting and realigning health-care professional recruitment, training and practice models to serve older adults.
• Mandate a community benefit standard that requires publicly traded insurance companies to provide an appropriate level of charity care, community investment and medical education.
• Provide health-care consumers more information about the quality and outcomes at hospitals and doctor practices.
During his talk, Strauss also defended Summa's plans to build a 100-bed, for-profit hospital in Northern Summit County in partnership with local doctors.
Critics passed out fliers against the proposed hospital to people this morning as they pulled into the library's parking garage.
The flier, although not signed, repeated many of the claims made by cross-town rival Akron General Medical Center that the new hospital will ''cherry-pick'' insured patients and threaten nonprofit hospitals.
But Strauss said the new facility will have the same standards as all of Summa's hospitals and will extend charity care north to residents of northern Summit and southern Cuyahoga counties.
The event also featured speeches by Dr. Robert Berenson, a Medicare expert and senior fellow at the Urban Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C.; and Chris Jennings, a national health policy expert who served as senior health-care adviser to President Clinton.
Cheryl Powell can be reached at 330-996-3902 or chpowell@thebeaconjournal.com.
Summa President and Chief Executive Thomas J. Strauss unveiled a plan for health-care reform called ''Nine for '09'' during the Summit Health Policy Summit this morning at the Akron-Summit County Public Library in downtown Akron.
The event, attended by about 230 people, is part of an effort by Summit County's largest employer to take a bigger role in pushing for health-care reform on a national level.
The ''Nine for '09'' initiative is a list of principles that Summa leaders believe should guide national efforts to fix problems in health care, Strauss said.
''We have reached a tipping point in health care when it comes to health-care reform,'' Strauss said. ''At the end of the day, even if most of the debate occurs on the national level, all health care is local.
''As the conversation goes forward, we believe community-based systems need to have a seat at the table,'' he said.
These are the ''Nine for '09'' points that Summa is promoting:
• Make prevention of illness and disease a priority.
• Use a mix of public and private solutions and insist on individual responsibility to ensure health coverage for everyone.
• Do a better job of controlling health-care costs by coordinating care across health and social boundaries.
• Boost investment in research aimed at improving everyday health-care delivery.
• Recruit more nurses and primary-care doctors to avoid a shortage within the next couple decades.
• Move medicine into the 21st century by switching to electronic medical records and other health information technology that reduces errors.
• Prepare to care for the aging population by recruiting and realigning health-care professional recruitment, training and practice models to serve older adults.
• Mandate a community benefit standard that requires publicly traded insurance companies to provide an appropriate level of charity care, community investment and medical education.
• Provide health-care consumers more information about the quality and outcomes at hospitals and doctor practices.
During his talk, Strauss also defended Summa's plans to build a 100-bed, for-profit hospital in Northern Summit County in partnership with local doctors.
Critics passed out fliers against the proposed hospital to people this morning as they pulled into the library's parking garage.
The flier, although not signed, repeated many of the claims made by cross-town rival Akron General Medical Center that the new hospital will ''cherry-pick'' insured patients and threaten nonprofit hospitals.
But Strauss said the new facility will have the same standards as all of Summa's hospitals and will extend charity care north to residents of northern Summit and southern Cuyahoga counties.
The event also featured speeches by Dr. Robert Berenson, a Medicare expert and senior fellow at the Urban Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C.; and Chris Jennings, a national health policy expert who served as senior health-care adviser to President Clinton.
Cheryl Powell can be reached at 330-996-3902 or chpowell@thebeaconjournal.com.
Health care in the USA will only be affordable after every corporation, farmer, business, outsourcer sweatshop, and nonprofit, tax-exempt, organization and Church markets the cost of every citizens health care and every workers, consumers, and taxpayers living (including pension and health care) in the wholesale and retail price of his or her product and service. Enabling parents to love, nurse, nurture, discipline, protect, and provide, for every child (job) they conceive and fund schools, infrastructure, national security, government services, and etc.; with money derived from wages or independent business profit.
Why doesn't Summa work on their own patient care first before outlining a plan for everyone else? Their ER is a joke, absolutely the worst patient care I have ever received. I've never known a doctor or nurses to be so short and cold to a crying, confused patient before. I was even refused written instructions on how to use the medicine they gave me....and then I was ushered out the door. I thought using their ER was smart since I had surgery there recently and am having pain in the same area where I was last operated on. They couldn't have cared less.
You must fix the cracks in your own foudation before you can fix your neighbor's!
