For US Trauma Providers: CATC.06.WashReport.9.29.061.doc

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FYI. Federal attention to healthcare infrastructure: the apathy and the
entropy.

Any registered voters out there?

Pret Bjorn, RN
Bangor, ME USA 
________________________________


 

The  Coalition for American Trauma Care Washington Report

 

 

Howard R. Champion, FRCS, FACS, President

HRChampion at aol.com

 

Marcia Mabee, MPH, PhD, Executive Director

mmabee at ix.netcom.com

 

National Office, Suite 200, 11479 Waterview, Reston, Virginia 20190

703-709-3001 telephone  -703-709-3003 fax

 

www.traumacoalition.org

 

 

Volume  8, No. 17
September 29, 2006 

 


INSIDE THIS ISSUE


 

.. SENATE SUBCOMMITTEE HOLDS FIRST ROUNDTABLE ON IOM 

    REPORT

 

.. HOUSE FAILS TO TAKE UP TRAUMA SYSTEMS REAUTHORIZATION BILL 

     DESPITE DEAL STRUCK WITH SENATE

 

.. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION INCLUDES BURN AND TRAUMATIC 

     BRAIN INJURIES IN FUNDING PRIORITIES

 

.. NATIONAL ACADEMIES FIND MAJOR OBSTACLES IN ADULT 

    MEDICAL LITERACY

 

.. UNINSURED RISES TO 15.9 PERCENT

 

.. DOT Proposes Anti-Rollover Technology for New Vehicles

 

 

SENATE SUBCOMMITTEE HOLDS FIRST ROUNDTABLE ON IOM REPORT - On September
27th, the Senate Subcommittee on Bioterrorism and Public Health
Preparedness held the first of what is likely to be more roundtables or
hearings focused on the findings and recommendations of the June IOM
report on the Future of Emergency Care in the United States Health
System.  Trauma systems and the need to focus on injuries and emergency
response for terrorism involving explosives was a theme in the
roundtable discussion entitled, "Crisis in the ER:  How can we improve
emergency medical care?"  In addition, Adrienne Roberts of the American
College of Surgeons' Washington office and Marcia Mabee, Executive
Director of the Coalition for American Trauma Care also followed up with
Subcommittee staff to provide additional information.  Staff was quite
knowledgeable about trauma systems, and the IOM report's recommendation
that trauma systems provide a model for needed regionalization of
emergency care.  The Coalition will pursue the possibility that Sen.
Burr (R-NC) may send a letter to Sen. Specter (R-PA), urging him to
ensure that the $1 million provided in the Senate Labor-HHS-Education
Appropriations bill 

 

HOUSE FAILS TO TAKE UP TRAUMA SYSTEMS REAUTHORIZATION BILL DESPITE DEAL
STRUCK WITH SENATE -- In the final days and hours of the 109th Congress
-- before the November elections - winds down, hope fades that Congress
will reauthorize Title XII -- the Trauma Care Systems Planning and
Development Act.  The legislation may be taken up and passed by the
Senate before adjournment tomorrow (9/29) or Saturday (9/30), but the
House Energy and Commerce Committee did not mark up the bill this week
as hoped due to a number of other pressing items on the agenda.  There
will be a lame duck session of the 109th Congress after the November
elections and the House trauma bill's sponsor, Rep. Michael Burgess, has
been promised priority attention for H.R. 5555 when Congress returns on
November 13th.  However, the election results could cast a pall over the
appetite of Republican Members to move on any issues other than must do
appropriations measures.  

 

Hopes have also faded for enactment of the Pandemic and All-Hazards
Preparedness Act, which reauthorizes the 2002 Public Health Security and
Bioterrorism Response Act and had included trauma systems and trauma
centers as part of the hospital preparedness grant program.  

 

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION INCLUDES BURN AND TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURIES IN
FUNDING PRIORITIES -  The U.S. Department of Education September 19 (71
FR 181 pages 54869 - 548879) proposed certain funding priorities for the
Disability and Rehabilitation Research Projects and Centers Program
administered by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation
Research (NIDRR). Included in the priorities are burn injuries and
traumatic brain injuries.

 

Among the Proposed Priorities

 

Priority 1 - National Data and Statistical Center for the Burn Model
Systems

 

Priority 2--Burn Model System (BMS) Centers

 

Priority 4--Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems (TBIMS) Centers

 

Priorities 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11--Rehabilitation Engineering
Research Centers (RERCs) for Spinal Cord Injury (Priority 5),
Recreational Technologies and Exercise Physiology Benefiting Individuals
With Disabilities (Priority 6), Translating Physiological Data Into
Predictions for Functional Performance (Priority 7), Accessible Medical
Instrumentation (Priority 8), Workplace Accommodations (Priority 9),
Rehabilitation Robotics and Telemanipulation Systems (Priority 10), and
Emergency Management Technologies (Priority 11). 

 

Comments on the priorities must be received by October 19, 2006.

 

Address all comments about these proposed priorities to Donna Nangle,
U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW., room 6030,
Potomac Center Plaza, Washington, DC 20204-2700. If you prefer to send
your comments through the Internet, use the following address:
donna.nangle at ed.gov.You must include the term ``Proposed Priorities for
DRRPs and RERCs'' in the subject line of your electronic message.

 

NATIONAL ACADEMIES FIND MAJOR OBSTACLES IN ADULT MEDICAL LITERACY - Only
12 percent of American adults could easily navigate the healthcare
system, according to a new assessment from the National Center for
Education Statistics. More than half of the participants understand
basic health instructions though, such as reading medication labels for
dosage. 

The assessment tested more than 19,000 adults, ages 16 and older. Women
and people with higher levels of education consistently scored higher,
and adults who received health insurance through an employer had the
highest average health literacy. Participants older than 65 had lower
health literacy scores than younger participants. 

The Institute of Medicine report Health Literacy: A Prescription to End
Confusion found that nearly half of all American adults have difficulty
understanding and using health information, and there is a higher rate
of hospitalization and use of emergency services among patients with
limited health literacy.

UNINSURED RISES TO 15.9 PERCENT - The percentage of Americans without
health insurance in 2005 rose to 15.9 percent, 46.6 million people,
according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The number of uninsured children
also increased, for the first time since 1998, to 8.3 million. 

Most people have health insurance through their job or that of a family
member. However, the percent of people with employment-based coverage
fell to less than 60 percent in 2005, a 6 percentage point drop since
1999.

The Institute of Medicine estimates that approximately 18,000 Americans
die prematurely each year because they lack health insurance. This is
just one of many consequences presented in a series of reports looking
at uninsurance and its effects on individuals, families, communities,
and society as a whole. The IOM recommends that by 2010 everyone in
America should have health insurance, and in its report Insuring
America's Health: Principles and Recommendations, it offers policymakers
a set of guiding principles and a checklist to help them compare and
judge proposals to extend coverage.

 

DOT Proposes Anti-Rollover Technology for New Vehicles -- A new proposal
to require auto manufacturers to install electronic stability control
(ESC) as a standard feature on all new passenger vehicles has the
potential to save more than 10,000 lives every year, the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced today.

The proposed rule, announced today, would require all manufacturers to
begin equipping passenger vehicles under 10,000 pounds with ESC starting
with the 2009 model year and to have the feature available as standard
equipment on all vehicles by the 2012 model year (September 2011).

ESC systems use automatic computer-controlled braking of individual
wheels to help the driver maintain control in situations where a vehicle
without ESC would skid out of control and likely leave the road. Nearly
all rollover crashes occur after a vehicle leaves the road. A 2004 study
by NHTSA estimated that ESC reduced fatalities in single-vehicle crashes
by 30 percent for passenger cars and 63 percent for SUVs.

NHTSA Administrator Nicole Nason called electronic stability control for
cars "the greatest life saving improvement since the safety belt."

The agency estimates that ESC will save between 5,300 and 10,300 lives
annually and prevent between 168,000 and 252,000 injuries. ESC will
prevent between 4,200 and 5,400 of the more than 10,000 deaths that
occur each year as a result of rollover crashes.

According the NHTSA's proposed regulation, the average cost is estimated
to be $111 per vehicle on vehicles that already include ABS brakes.

Since 2004, NHTSA has urged manufacturers to voluntarily add ESC as
standard equipment on vehicles. As a result, almost 29 percent of all
2006 models - 57 percent of SUVs - are already equipped with ESC.

NHTSA is asking for comments on the ESC proposal for the next 60 days. A
copy of the proposed regulation and the accompanying regulatory analysis
can be seen here.

 

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