WISCONSIN CHAPTER

Society for Social Work Leadership in Health Care

Of the American Hospital Association

Friday, December 1, 2000

Quality Inn, South Madison

Meeting called to order at 9:10am by Brenda Johnson, President

See attachment for listing of attendees.

Industry Updates

NASW: New Services/Marc Herstand:

1-866-462-7994 Help Line

Web site coming soon

Future Continuing Education:

* May 9-11 Issues of Diversity/Milwaukee

* February/Madison: Domestic Violence, Family Court Issues

Legislative Committee: very active this year.

* Lobby Day: March 22, Madison Masonic Center

E-mail address: naswwi@aol.com

Social Policy Issues Review:

* Family Care, National Health, Welfare Reform, Fair Hearings, Kinship Care, Child Abuse and Neglect legislation, Domestic Partnership, Budget Hearings.

Professional Policy Issues:

* Social Work Licensure Bill; AODA Counseling.

* Problems with processing of applications for certification:

Specific problems with certification applications should be documented in detail for verbal presentation to the SW Section.

Names need to be included for adequate follow up to be conducted.

Submit these stories to Brenda Johnson so that action can be taken.

SSWLHC Website will advertise the need for these stories.

Hiring Issues: recruitment and retention problems are arising due to the barriers with the certification process.

* There are shortages of persons available for hiring.

* Number of graduate school candidates has dwindled.

Health Care Power of Attorney Issue:

* Certification of Incapacity. Membership is reminded to enforce the law in regard to MD must examine the person and do an evaluation of a patient before they sign a certification of incapacity document. Some of these are being activated by fax, without evidence of MD examination of the patient prior to signature. Be mindful that this is clear violation of the law and social workers as patient advocates are bound to enforce this law.

Chapter Business Meeting

December 1, 2000 Minutes

Treasurer’s Report/Dave Schmidt:

Checkbook balance: $3,285.46

Membership are being renewed and dues are being collected.

Membership Issues:

Chapter membership is currently at 81 members. Information about the Chapter was recently mailed out to social workers in hospitals, hospice and home health agencies who currently aren’t Chapter members. A decision was made that we didn’t want to actively recruit against the nursing home social work group but we will share information about the upcoming meeting topics with the nursing home social workers and they are also very welcome to join the WI Chapter. Members will continue to be able to attend programs free of charge as a part of their membership dues. Non-members who attend our afternoon programs will be charged a fee of $30.00. A special effort was made to schedule our quarterly Chapter meetings on dates that do not conflict with other professional social work group meetings such as the nephrology and nursing home social work groups.

Society Update/Brenda Johnson:

New Leadership for 2001:

 

Linda Brandeis, from Seattle, WA is the new president-elect

Sonia Euster from NYC assumes the role of president of the Society

New Board Members:

  Mary Norris from Orlando, FL

Paula Crombie from Yale-New Haven Hospital

Marcia Holman from New York City

Committee on Nominations:

 

Beth Pettruce from Indianapolis, IN

John Newby from Bethesda, MD

Penny Mitchell from San Francisco, CA

Julie Abramson from Albany, NY

New website format – www.sswlhc.org – check it out

New format for the "Continuum" – Society has gotten positive feedback on the new look and layout for the "Continuum"

Annual Meeting and Conference - April 25-29 San Antonio – flier enclosed.

 

Chapter Business Meeting

December 1, 2000 Minutes

NASW Social Work Summit Update/Mike St. John:

On Oct 23rd a group of social work leaders met and the following issues were raised:

* Need to define the dimensions of how large the staffing shortage issues are.

* Increasing disincentives to going into social work.

* Overall sense of image problem for the profession.

* Potential for pulling together coalitions of practitioners.

* Participate in lobby day: Individual responsibility to get involved

* Budget issues for program support: AODA and mental health program funding has been dropping off in the Madison area.

 

Nomination Committee – Election Results/Karen Benson:

President-elect – Mary Jo Walsh

Secretary – Deb Hupf

Board Members At Large: Dean Feldmann & Sue Mooney

Brenda announced that new Board members will take office effective January 1, 2001. Chapter officers and Board members for 2001 are as follows:

President: Mike St. John – Columbus Hospital

President-elect: Mary Jo Walsh – Froedert Hospital - Milwaukee

Past President: Brenda Johnson – Meriter Hospital - Madison

Secretary: Deb Hupf – Beaver Dam Hospital

Treasurer: Dave Schmidt – St. Mary’s Hospital – Green Bay

Bd, Member At Large Sue Mooney – St. Mary’s Hospital - Madison

Bd. Member At Large: Dean Feldman-Southwest Health Center-Platteville

Brenda expressed appreciation to everyone who agreed to run for an office in this year’s election and a thank you to Karen Benson, Anne Harvieux and Cindy Koehn who served on this year’s Nomination Committee.

A special "thank you" was also given to Paula Cook, outgoing Chapter secretary and Karla White, outgoing Bd. Member at Large who will end their term of office. Brenda also expressed appreciation to all of the 1999/2000 Chapter Board members for their hard work, ongoing support and commitment to the work of the WI Chapter. A schedule of 2001 meetings and educational topics was distributed. March 2, June 8, September 14 and December 7. All meetings are scheduled at Quality Inn South.

Chapter Business Meeting

December 1, 2000 Minutes

 

 

Health Policy/Michael St. John:

* Expecting President Clinton to move on HIPPA regulations.

* Medicare regulations in regard to medical errors expecting hospitals to have a program addressing this.

* Patient Bill of Rights issues to be clarified.

* The state legislative picture is less clear than the national picture at this time.

Chapter Website Update/Neil O’Connor:

Coming soon to a theatre near you…

Miscellaneous:

WI Chapter 2001 Meetings – flier enclosed

Updated E-mail address list – list enclosed

Happy holidays to everyone. See you in March, 2001.

Meeting adjourned noon.

Submitted by,

Paula J. Cook, Secretary

 

A REMINDER

Don’t forget to renew your membership. Membership renewal forms are enclosed with this mailing. The new membership directory will be completed early in 2001, so please get your renewal form and dues to Dave Schmidt so that you can be included in the directory.