The Pennsylvania Department of Health published the Pennsylvania State Health Improvement Plan (SHIP) that outlines goals, objectives, and strategies to improve the health of all Pennsylvanians over the next five years. This unveiling of the plan coincided with National Public Health Week, April 3 through April 9.

The 2023-2028 SHIP was developed in collaboration with the Healthy Pennsylvania Partnership (HPP), with support from Harrisburg University. The HPP is made up of nearly 300 health care professionals, associations, health systems, health and human services organizations, community collaborations, local public health agencies, government agencies, and others focused on improving health outcomes across the Commonwealth.

“The Department’s vision is to create a ‘Healthy Pennsylvania for All,’” said Dr. Debra Bogen, Acting Secretary of Health. “Achieving that vision will take all of us working with people and organizations across the Commonwealth to increase opportunities for people to access quality health care, impactful programs, and needed resources.”

Under the overarching goal of improving the health status and life expectancy of Pennsylvanians, and eliminating health inequities, there are nine goals in the 2023-2028 SHIP:

• Increase financial well-being, food security, and safe affordable housing;
• Increase community safety by reducing the number of violent incidences that occur due to racism, discrimination, or domestic disputes;
• Improve environmental health, focusing on environmental justice communities;
• Increase the population at a healthy weight through increasing availability and accessibility of physical activity and affordable nutritious food;
• Reduce the impact of tobacco and nicotine use;
• Increase access to medical and oral health care;
• Improve mental health and substance use outcomes through improved mental health services, trauma-informed trainings, and substance use interventions;
• Improve health outcomes through improved chronic diseases management; and
• Improve maternal and infant health outcomes by improving prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal care.

Pennsylvania Governor Shapiro’s 2023-2024 budget supports many of the SHIP’s goals by proposing investments in key areas like $2.3 million to expand maternal health programming and study ways to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity, $500 million over the next five years for mental health services for students, and $16 million to increase the minimum Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit by 50%, among other investments.

The SHIP acts as a road map for the HPP and others to improve health outcomes and eliminate health disparities by working across the continuum from the social determinants of health, preventative interventions, and accessing quality and culturally humble care.

More information on the SHIP can be found on the Department of Health’s website at State Health Improvement Plan (pa.gov) or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Philadelphia Inquirer, Jason Nark, April 5, 2023

Berwick, a town of about 10,000 in Columbia County, is without a hospital for the first time in more than a century.

The emergency room was dark, the doors locked for months now, and a young woman stood outside in the rain, clutching her stomach and sobbing. No one was coming out to help.

The frantic people who drove the ailing woman to the hospital stood, dumbfounded, in the mostly empty parking lot.

“This is insane,” the driver said. “I’m going to have to call 911.”

On Sept. 17, the Pennsylvania Department of Health shut down Berwick Hospital Center’s emergency room because of a lack of staffing, accelerating a closure its owners planned out earlier that summer. Signs on the doors still advise patients to head to hospitals in Hazleton, 20 miles to the south, or Bloomsburg, 14 miles west, for emergencies. The 90-bed facility is currently operating only as a 14-bed inpatient geriatric psychiatry facility — but not everyone in this town of 10,349 on the Susquehanna River in Columbia County, knows that.

On that dreary March morning, the ill woman was carried back to a car to wait for an ambulance. Bette Grey, a Berwick resident and private medical advocate who fought, unsuccessfully, to keep the hospital open, was there to talk to The Inquirer. First, she watched her fears unfold.

“Hey, stay awake. Open your eyes,” Grey yelled, to the woman in the car, clapping her hands.

Read more.

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), announced a Modernization Initiative that includes several actions to strengthen accountability and transparency in the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN):

1. Data dashboards detailing individual transplant center and organ procurement organization data on organ retrieval, waitlist outcomes, and transplants, and demographic data on organ donation and transplant;
2. Modernization of the OPTN IT system in line with industry-leading standards, improving OPTN governance, and increasing transparency and accountability in the system to better serve the needs of patients and families;
3. HRSA’s intent to issue contract solicitations for multiple awards to manage the OPTN in order to foster competition and ensure OPTN Board of Directors’ independence;
4. The President’s Fiscal Year 2024 Budget proposal to more than double investment in organ procurement and transplantation with a $36 million increase over Fiscal Year 2023 for a total of $67 million; and,
5. A request to Congress included in the Fiscal Year 2024 Budget to update the nearly 40-year-old National Organ Transplant Act to take actions such as rRemoving the appropriations cap on the OPTN contract(s) to allow HRSA to better allocate resources, and expanding the pool of eligible contract entities to enhance performance and innovation through increased competition.

“Every day, patients and families across the United States rely on the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network to save the lives of their loved ones who experience organ failure,” said Carole Johnson, HRSA Administrator. “At HRSA, our stewardship and oversight of this vital work is a top priority. That is why we are taking action to both bring greater transparency to the system and to reform and modernize the OPTN. The individuals and families that depend on this life-saving work deserve no less.”

Today, HRSA is posting on its website a new data dashboard to share de-identified information on organ donors, organ procurement, transplant waitlists, and transplant recipients. Patients, families, clinicians, researchers, and others can use this data to inform decision-making as well as process improvements. Today’s launch is an initial data set, which HRSA intends to refine over time and update regularly.

This announcement also includes a plan to strengthen accountability, equity, and performance in the organ donation and transplantation system. This iterative plan will specifically focus on five key areas: technology; data transparency; governance; operations; and quality improvement and innovation. In implementing this plan, HRSA intends to issue contract solicitations for multiple awards to manage and improve the OPTN. HRSA also intends to further the OPTN Board of Directors’ independence through the contracting process and the use of multiple contracts. Ensuring robust competition in every industry is a key priority of the Biden-Harris Administration and will help meet the OPTN Modernization Initiative’s goals of promoting innovation and the best quality of service for patients.

Finally, the President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2024 would more than double HRSA’s budget for organ-related work, including OPTN contracting and the implementation of the Modernization Initiative, to total $67 million. In addition, the Budget requests statutory changes to the National Organ Transplant Act to remove the decades-old ceiling on the amount of appropriated funding that can be awarded to the statutorily required vendor(s) for the OPTN.  It also requests that Congress expand the pool of eligible contract entities to enhance performance and innovation through increased competition, particularly with respect to information technology vendors.

HRSA recognizes that while modernization work is complex, the integrity of the organ matching process is paramount and cannot be disrupted. That is why HRSA’s work will be guided by and centered around several key priorities, including the urgent needs of the more than 100,000 individuals and their families awaiting transplant; the 24/7 life-saving nature of the system; and patient safety and health. HRSA intends to engage with a wide and diverse group of stakeholders early and often to ensure a human-centered design approach that reflects pressing areas of need and ensuring experiences by system users like patients are addressed first. As a part of this commitment, HRSA has created an OPTN Modernization Website to keep stakeholders informed about the Modernization Initiative and provide regular progress updates.