June 04, 2010 01:22am EST 

In 1927, the last Model T was built, the television made its public debut, and Al Capone ruled Chicago. It was also the year that the Florida Hospital Association (FHA) was formed. Since then, FHA has stood as the leading advocate for hospitals and health systems in the state of Florida. The purpose of the Association is to advocate proactively on behalf of hospitals at the state level on issues that will assist is members in their mission of community service and care to Floridians. It currently boasts a membership of 168 hospitals, 17 Professional Membership Groups, and over 1,800 professional members, all of which benefit from the FHA’s advocacy and representation. FHA works for its members in many ways, including acting on behalf of membership in various legal situations, providing the latest data and information, authoring and publishing numerous newsletters and reports, developing programs, and much more. The unified voice of FHA provides its members with an avenue for voicing and fixing the issues that they face trying to provide quality, accessible, affordable health care in the state of Florida.
On December 03, 2009, FHA will provide a program named “Medicare 101″, which participants will be taught the fundamentals needed to understand the various Medicare hospital payment systems, including cost-based, prospective and fee schedule systems. Each participant will also receive a 140-page reference manual that contains information on provider reimbursement rules for each Medicare program area. They will also host the “50 Tips to Reduce Medication Errors” webinar on December 10, 2009 which aims to reduce medication errors, the most common type of error in health care. In the webinar, participants will learn over 50 tips that hospitals can use to reduce medication errors. In addition, trigger tools to detect errors and strategies to improve safety will be discussed. These programs are an example of how FHA provides educational seminars and materials for anybody who is interested.
FHA has been an association with strong values, a desire to serve, and outstanding members, and will continue to realign its mission and activities to match members’ needs. It stands as a very responsive and active organization that continues to serve their members and the patients of Florida with service, support, assisting, representation, and responsiveness.

Additional information about the Medicare 101 program and the webinar can be found on the FHA’s website.