This week DVHC, nearly 40 southeastern Pennsylvania hospitals and health care agencies, county emergency management, and public health representatives participated in a full-scale, first-of-its kind exercise to determine readiness in the event of an act of terrorism. Simulating multiple detonations at the finish line of the 2013 Broad Street Run, the exercise required participating hospitals and health care agencies to rapidly assess the status and availability of key resources, such as staff, operating rooms, blood supply, and tetanus vaccine needed to manage mass blast injuries. Various scenarios throughout the exercise challenged the participating facilities to address issues such as mental health response for victims and providers, family reunification, and requests by multiple agencies for patient information. A formal after-action report will be shared with participants and will provide “lessons learned” that can be used to enhance health care systems’ response capabilities.

DVHC has analyzed the regional hospital information contained in the new Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4) report, Financial Analysis 2012: Volume One—General Acute Care Hospitals, released this week. As detailed in a DVHC memo, hospitals in southeastern Pennsylvania absorbed $368 million in uncompensated care during fiscal year 2012, an increase of 7 percent from 2011. In addition, nearly one-third of the regions hospital’s had negative three-year average total margins for fiscal years 2010-2012. In a press release on the report, DVHC reinforced the crucial health care services, community benefits, jobs, and economic stimulus provided by the region’s hospitals, and urged lawmakers to protect hospital Medical Assistance payments in next year’s state budget.

HealthShare Exchange of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Inc., a collaboration of the region’s health care stakeholders dedicated to improving patient outcomes and managing health care costs through electronic information exchange, launched its website last week. The website includes a list of member health plans, hospitals, and health systems; board of trustees; governance structure; and four-year implementation timeline. Also described are the two clinical use cases, discharge information and clinical activity history, that are the initial focus of exchange efforts.