The 31st Annual Conference of the Association of California Nurse Leaders started out with John Garamendi, Lt. Governor of California, who starting out with a few facts: 6-7 million Americans are without healthcare in this country and the “social compact has unraveled,” he said. The system is fragmented and one third of health care is spent on administrative costs.

He compared this to the Medicare system which started 41 years ago and has only 2% administrative costs and 10-12% on the payment side.

His solution? Lower the age of Medicare eligibility from 65 to zero. In other words a cradle to grave system otherwise known as universal health care. As Garamendi was the former insurance commissioner of California, I’m hoping he has solutions regarding the insurance industry and lobby.

Garamendi’s talk was part of a broad range at the conference, “Exploring the Treasures of Nurse Leadership,” which took place at the Monterey Marriott, the Portola Hotel & Spa at Monterey Bay, and the Monterey Conference Center.

“Dead Men Do Tell Tales”
Beatrice Crofts Yorker, RN, MS, JD, FAAN, dean of health and human services at California State University, Los Angeles, holds joint appointments in the schools of nursing and criminal justice, entertained attendees with tales from her research about nurses and other healthcare providers who have been convicted of killing patients. Some providers were convicted of lesser charges such as manslaughter, or never convicted at all, due to the “unwitnessed” nature of the crimes. Often perpetrators weren’t uncovered until clusters of adverse outcomes were linked to the presence of a specific provider.

CalNOC going international!
Directors of the Collaborative Alliance for Nursing Outcomes (CalNOC) also announced they anticipate enrolling their first international hospital, an academic medical center in Sweden, in their nursing indicators database project. ACNL and the American Nurses Association California started the project, in which hospitals from Western states, mostly California, submit monthly reports on unit-level nurse staffing, patient care workload, and key processes of care. The facilities also report on patient outcomes, including falls and hospital-acquired pressure ulcers. These data enable member hospitals to see how they vary in practice and outcomes and learn from some of the nation’s best performers.
Additionally, CalNOC Principal Investigator and Research Team Coordinator Nancy Donaldson, RN, DNSc, Administrative Coordinator Patricia McFarland, RN, MS, and Mary E. Foley, RN, MS, associate director of the Center for Nursing Research & Innovation, announced a recent partnership with the Northwest Organization of Nurse Executives. The partnership will allow the project to include more hospitals from Oregon and Washington.