This blog is part of a month-long series from NAPH members addressing the relationship between gun violence and health care. Look for more posts this month covering issues from California to New York.

As a pediatrician, parents look to me to help them raise their children to be as healthy and happy as possible and prevent them from getting ill or hurt. The practice of medicine has changed a great deal in my lifetime. I no longer have to worry so much about the pathogens of the past -- deadly infectious diseases, such as meningitis and pneumonia -- because medical science has developed effective vaccines to prevent many of these illnesses and medications to treat them if they occur. Every day, scientists come up with new approaches, medicines and surgical procedures to treat cancers, heart disease, asthma and diabetes.

In my urban practice, though, almost every day I mourn tragedies my patients and their families have suffered....

Lawmakers and advocates are prepared to make gun violence a central issue for the State of the Union, according to many bloggers and journalists. Whether or not the issue takes center stage, many of us await new information from President Obama on plans to prevent gun violence nationwide.

We at NAPH have the unique perspective of being a singular voice for providers across the nation who deliver mental health services to the underserved. Our member hospitals and health systems also are often the only level I trauma centers (or trauma centers of any kind) in many communities, meaning they play a pivotal role in caring for victims of gun violence and in helping prevent its occurrence....

As if Congress does not have enough on its plate these days, this week we saw the immigration debate heat up. A bipartisan group of eight Senators, four democrats and four republicans, held a press conference where they released a plan that would include a path to citizenship for some of the nation’s more than 11 million undocumented immigrants. The senators noted that they hope to craft legislation in March, with passage in early summer. Not to be outdone by this group of senators, President Barack Obama also released this week a four-part plan for comprehensive immigration reform. The president’s plan would continue to strengthen border security, crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrant labor, create a path to earned citizenship and streamline America’s legal immigration system. However, both of these plans are still in their infancy and invite many questions....

Anyone who considers him- or herself a fan of politics has surely seen "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," a film that glorifies the Senate's filibuster rule. At its core, the filibuster allows a single senator to speak on a subject for as long as he or she likes. Once they begin, they cannot be compelled to stop. Now, there is a deal on the table to reform the filibuster.

Under the Senate's original rules, by extension, a single senator (or more likely, a group of them) could hold up final votes on legislation indefinitely. Previous filibuster reforms allowed a super-majority of senators (now 60) to "invoke cloture" and overcome a filibuster. For years, filibusters were relatively rare and only occurred on particularly high-profile and controversial legislation. Today, however, the filibuster is used on almost all legislation, effectively requiring 60 votes to move any piece of legislation through the Senate....

This week, the NAPH Safety Network (NSN) kicked off its 2013 webinar series, which builds on the distance learning opportunities we offered to our members throughout 2012.

During its first year, the NSN used several educational tools to make notable progress toward achieving the Partnership for Patients (PfP) aims of reducing hospital-acquired conditions by 40 percent and 30-day readmissions by 20 percent by 2013....

At approximately 11:00 p.m. on January 1st, the House of Representatives passed a bill to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff.” House passage – which was not assured until just hours earlier – followed days of around-the-clock rancorous negotiations between House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Vice President Joe Biden and many others. Once again, Congress managed – just barely – to avoid a catastrophe of their own making.

Indeed, the fiscal cliff is a purely manmade construct. The three largest pieces of the cliff – expiring tax cuts passed during the Bush Administration, deep automatic spending cuts and even deeper cuts to Medicare physician payment – were all enabled by a shortsighted Congress. Only the fact that these policy issues were set to kick-in simultaneously made this more than a routine issue for our dysfunctional Congress.

Even the deal struck at the last possible minute is dissatisfying....

Now that 2012 is coming to a close, it’s a fitting time to look back at what the NAPH Safety Network (NSN) has accomplished across the last year.

Achieving the goals of the Partnership for Patients – reducing nine hospital-acquired conditions by 40 percent and 30-day readmissions by 20 percent by the end of 2013 – is critical, especially for safety net patients, who face cultural and socioeconomic challenges that may increase their risk for hospitalization and poor outcomes....

Last week, I attended the annual QualityNet meeting in Baltimore, Md., with the NAPH Safety Network team.

The conference – which had more than 1,300 attendees – was hosted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Quality Improvement Organization Program, the End-stage Renal Disease Network Program, Partnership for Patients, and the Million Hearts Initiative. Its main goal was to unite U.S. health care leaders, government officials, patients, advocates, and researchers in order to identify the best and most innovative ways to improve patient safety.

While I attended sessions focused on a range of issues, my biggest takeaways from the conference related to patient and family engagement....

This week was our post-election Legislative Event, and I had the great honor of tagging along with Grady Health System for two days of Congressional meetings. Every member we met with in the Georgia delegation shared with us just how important Grady is to entire state. It was amazing to learn about all of the great work that Grady does, such as having over 40 outpatient clinics and being the second largest provider of mental health services in the state.

We held our fly-in with the anticipation that a lot would be going on in Washington… and we were certainly right. As the President and congressional leaders negotiate avoiding the fiscal cliff and pay for the potential cut to Medicare physician payments, Medicaid is a potential target to find savings....

It’s hard to imagine that a whole year has gone by since the last Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s 23rd Annual Forum. It was my first Forum experience and definitely the best gathering of health care innovators to date.

Upon arriving to the Forum last year, it was pretty daunting to know that I would be among more than 6,000 attendees. Based on my “wheelchair user” perspective, my biggest concern was making sure I didn’t run over anyone’s foot. In a matter of seconds, it became apparent to me that the “Blue Shirts” team was there to help out. They are the most welcoming and accommodating team and will help to navigate you throughout your time at the Forum.

As I delivered a keynote address with Senior IHI Fellow Tom Nolan last year, it was very evident that IHI is an organization dedicated to supporting Americas Safety Net Hospitals....