Release of 2010 Indiana Medical Errors Report Poorly Covered by Media

Although dated for 11/7/2011, the 2010 Indiana Medical Error Report was released to the public on 11/28/2011.

The link to the press release is here.
The link to the report itself is here.
The link to the data tables (containing facility specific numbers) is here.

In the month since the release of this report, coverage from the media has been disappointing. A brief google scan of Indiana news coverage shows the following:

• The Indy Star and WTHR carried the same small piece on 11/29/2011 highlighting that bed sores were the most commonly reported error and foreign objects left inside patients after surgery was the second. To it's credit, the report did not single out any hospital with high raw numbers.
• However, on the day that the report was released, WTHR posted a separate story on its website highlighting that medical errors had reached a new high. Unfortunately, it reported raw numbers of events at various central Indiana facilities without any type of responsible interpretation. This story did attempt to offer readers advice on how to stay safe, however, the reporter clearly confused prevention concepts (surgery site marking, patient turning) with error reporting ("...what can you do if you suspect an error?).
• On 12/2/2011, the Palladium-Item from Richmond, IN, carried a story highlighting the performance of its local hospital (Reid). It focused on the two patients that Reid reported fell in 2010 causing serious disability or death. It appears that the reporter (Pam Tharp) did interview hospital officials (a vice president, the director of patient safety and quality, and a spokesman) and provided quotes to balance the reported numbers. The story then proceeded to report the 5-Year reporting high, but noted possible explanations (changes in operational definitions) for this.
• The Herald-Bulletin (Anderson), ran a story on 12/8/2011 describing the performance of the two area hospitals. The CEO of Community hospital provided detail of the hospitals process to minimize missing sponges and that it seeks to learn from its errors. The President of Saint John's Hospital and its CNO both provided similar detail as to how it prevents bed sores. Healthcare quality professionals will be happy to see that this article also noted that "Medical errors generally are not the sole result of people’s actions but rather the failure of the systems and processes used in providing health care... The requirement to report events identifies persistent problems, encourages increased awareness of patient safety issues and assists in the development of evidence-based initiatives to improve patient safety."

Of the above referenced coverage, it would appear that the reporter from the Herald-Bulletin (Abbey Dole) provided the most responsible reporting of the annual Medical Error report. With a story that could easily be irresponsibly covered to incite and inflame the public, this reporter educated the public on how the medical error reporting system helps healthcare in Indiana become safer.

CMS Posts Final FY11 Inpatient Rules, Payment Updates, and RHQDAPU Measures.

On Friday afternoon, CMS issued a press release announcing that the final FY11 inpatient prospective payment system rules have been posted to the Federal Register.

Excerpts of the press release is cut and pasted below wiht items of interest to healthcare quality professionals in red:

"In today’s action, CMS is updating acute care hospital rates by 2.35 percent. This update reflects a market basket increase of 2.6 percent for inflation, which is a slight increase over the FY 2010 inflation rate. The final rule reduces the 2.6 percent inflation update by 0.25 percent, as required by the Affordable Care Act. Further, CMS will apply a “documentation and coding” adjustment of -2.9 percent. Hospital coding practices following adoption of the Medicare severity DRGs increased aggregate payments to hospitals, but did not reflect actual increases in patients’ severity of illness. Under legislation passed in 2007, CMS is required to recoup the entire amount of FY 2008 and 2009 excess spending due to changes in hospital coding practices no later than FY 2012. CMS has determined that a -5.8 percent adjustment is necessary to recoup these overpayments. The -2.9 percent adjustment for FY 2011 is one-half of this amount. CMS estimates that payments to general acute care hospitals for operating expenses in FY 2011 will decline by 0.4 percent, or $440 million, compared with FY 2010 under the final rule, taking into account all factors that would affect spending."

"The final rule adds 12 measures to the RHQDAPU set, and retires one current measure – Mortality for selected surgical procedures (composite). However, only 10 of the new measures – including rates of occurrence for 8 of 10 categories of conditions that are subject to the hospital-acquired conditions (HACs) policy ‑ will be considered in determining a hospital’s FY 2012 update. The remaining 2 measures to be reported in 2011 would be considered in determining the hospital’s FY 2013 update."

The 1877 page document can be found here: http://www.ofr.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2010-19092_PI.pdf

• Changes to RHQDAPU start on page 505.
• The list of 47 measures adopted for FY11 start on page 517.
• The list of 55 measures adopted for FY12 start on page 567.
• The list of 57 measures adopted for FY13 start on page 595.
• The list of 60 measures adopted for FY14 start on page 606.
• A list of future potential measures being considered for adoption into RHQDAPU starts on page 608.

Every quarter, along with updating the hospital compare website, CMS also makes the flat files available for download. With the flat files, anyone can compare any combination of CMS performance measures. Below is the performance of HF-1 for all Indiana hospitals that submitted data.

Note the following:

• Caution when looking at Hospitals with n<=25
• National Top 10% of hospitals submitting data was 99%
• Indiana Average of hospitals submitting data was 77%
• National Average of hospitals submitting data was 76%
• This is based on data submitted to CMS from Jan 08 to Dec 08
• Some hospitals sampled. Other Hospitals reported on all eligible patients

HF-1 n Hospital Name
100 303 PORTER, VALPARAISO HOSPITAL
100 60 MORGAN HOSPITAL AND MEDICAL CENTER
100 41 BLUFFTON REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER
100 22 DUPONT HOSPITAL LLC
100 9 COMMUNITY HOSPITAL OF BREMEN INC
100 38 ST VINCENT WILLIAMSPORT HOSPITAL INC
100 33 TIPTON HOSPITAL
100 27 JASPER COUNTY HOSPITAL
100 25 ST MARY'S WARRICK HOSPITAL INC
99 250 ST MARGARET MERCY HEALTHCARE CENTERS
99 327 ST CATHERINE HOSPITAL INC
99 169 ST JOSEPH HOSPITAL
99 101 RIVERVIEW HOSPITAL
99 296 INDIANA HEART HOSPITAL, THE
98 102 HOWARD REGIONAL HEALTH SYSTEM
97 252 ST MARY MEDICAL CENTER INC
96 251 CLARK MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
96 49 MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
96 191 COMMUNITY HOSPITAL OF ANDERSON AND MADISON COUNTY
95 751 CLARIAN HEALTH PARTNERS INC D/B/A METHODIST IUU
95 111 KING'S DAUGHTERS' HOSPITAL AND HEALTH SERVICES,THE
95 188 ST MARGARET MERCY HEALTHCARE CENTERS
95 42 DUNN MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
94 80 JOHNSON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
94 358 WILLIAM N WISHARD MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
94 98 GOSHEN GENERAL HOSPITAL
94 49 HENRY COUNTY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
94 291 REID HOSPITAL & HEALTH CARE SERVICES INC
94 363 BALL MEMORIAL HOSPITAL INC
92 218 GOOD SAMARITAN HOSPITAL
92 64 GREENE COUNTY GENERAL HOSPITAL
91 180 ST ANTHONY MEMORIAL HEALTH CENTERS
91 264 COMMUNITY HOSPITAL
91 91 CLARIAN WEST MEDICAL CENTER
91 23 MONROE HOSPITAL
90 331 ST MARY'S MEDICAL CENTER OF EVANSVILLE INC
90 52 KOSCIUSKO COMMUNITY HOSPITAL
90 10 WABASH COUNTY HOSPITAL
89 160 MARION GENERAL HOSPITAL
89 55 DECATUR COUNTY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
88 267 FLOYD MEMORIAL HOSPITAL AND HEALTH SERVICES
88 319 MEMORIAL HOSPITAL OF SOUTH BEND
88 56 WITHAM HEALTH SERVICES
88 26 ST VINCENT FRANKFORT HOSPITAL INC
87 231 METHODIST HOSPITALS, INC
87 223 TERRE HAUTE REGIONAL HOSPITAL
87 45 PARKVIEW HUNTINGTON HOSPITAL
87 54 MAJOR HOSPITAL
85 119 HENDRICKS REGIONAL HEALTH
85 13 GIBSON GENERAL HOSPITAL
85 33 ADAMS MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
84 318 ST VINCENT HEART CENTER OF INDIANA LLC
84 38 DUKES MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
82 131 COLUMBUS REGIONAL HOSPITAL
82 55 WESTVIEW HOSPITAL
81 412 UNION HOSPITAL, INC
81 37 DEKALB MEMORIAL HOSPITAL INC
81 42 SCOTT COUNTY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL AKA SCOTT MEMORIAL
80 185 BLOOMINGTON HOSPITAL
80 258 SAINT JOSEPH REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER - SOUTH BEND
80 465 LUTHERAN HOSPITAL OF INDIANA
80 25 CAMERON MEMORIAL COMMUNITY HOSPITAL INC
79 19 WHITE COUNTY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
78 153 LAPORTE HOSPITAL AND HEALTH SERVICES
78 67 SCHNECK MEDICAL CENTER
76 46 SAINT JOSEPH'S REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER - PLYMOUTH
76 144 SAINT JOHN'S HEALTH SYSTEM
74 563 DEACONESS HOSPITAL INC
74 31 ST VINCENT CARMEL HOSPITAL INC
73 210 ST ELIZABETH CENTRAL
73 56 ST CLARE MEDICAL CENTER
73 33 PERRY COUNTY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
72 576 ST VINCENT HOSPITAL & HEALTH SERVICES
72 18 PARKVIEW WHITLEY HOSPITAL
72 36 SAINT CATHERINE REGIONAL HOSPITAL
72 40 BEDFORD REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER
71 245 COMMUNITY HOSPITALS OF INDIANA INC (EAST)
70 80 ST JOSEPH HOSPITAL & HEALTH CENTER INC
70 100 ST FRANCIS HOSPITAL AND HEALTH CENTERS
70 47 CLARIAN NORTH MEDICAL CENTER
69 227 PARKVIEW HOSPITAL
69 32 MARGARET MARY COMMUNITY HOSPITAL INC
68 44 PARKVIEW LAGRANGE HOSPITAL
67 420 ST FRANCIS HOSPITAL AND HEALTH CENTERS-INDIANAPOLI
66 228 ST ANTHONY MEDICAL CENTER OF CROWN POINT
64 164 COMMUNITY HOSPITAL SOUTH
63 27 DAVIESS COMMUNITY HOSPITAL
60 53 LAFAYETTE HOME HOSPITAL
60 65 COMMUNITY HOSPITAL NORTH
59 29 SULLIVAN COUNTY COMMUNITY HOSPITAL
59 27 HARRISON COUNTY HOSPITAL
56 27 STARKE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
52 98 DEARBORN COUNTY HOSPITAL
52 149 MEMORIAL HOSPITAL AND HEALTH CARE CENTER
50 36 WEST CENTRAL COMMUNITY HOSPITAL
50 12 PUTNAM COUNTY HOSPITAL
48 62 FRANCISCAN PHYSICIANS HOSPITAL LLC
48 21 ST VINCENT CLAY HOSPITAL INC
45 304 ELKHART GENERAL HOSPITAL
42 86 HANCOCK REGIONAL HOSPITAL
41 46 PARKVIEW NOBLE HOSPITAL
41 44 ST VINCENT RANDOLPH HOSPITAL INC
34 90 FAYETTE REGIONAL HEALTH SYSTEM
33 21 PINNACLE HOSPITAL
25 4 ST FRANCIS HOSPITAL MOORESVILLE
23 13 JAY COUNTY HOSPITAL
11 9 ST VINCENT MERCY HOSPITAL
10 10 ST VINCENT JENNINGS HOSPITAL INC

CMS Releases Hospital Outpatient and Ambulatory Surgery Center Payment Update

Last week CMS released the CY2010 hospital outpatient payment update in a final rule with comment period. Hospitals will be getting a 2.1% increase in payments from Medicare, however, hospitals that are not participating in HOP QDRP will only be getting 0.1% increase.

The full text of the press release is below with items of interest to hospital quality professionals in Red.

The full text (1936 pages!) of the final rules (with comment period) can be downloaded at: http://federalregister.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2009-26499_PI.pdf
The HOP QDRP section starts on page 1135.

(Note! CY2012 HOP QDRP Measures under consideration can be found on page 1167.)



FINAL 2010 POLICY, PAYMENT CHANGES FOR HOSPITAL OUTPATIENT DEPARTMENTS AND AMBULATORY SURGICAL CENTERS‏

OVERVIEW

On Oct. 30, 2009, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a final rule with comment period that updates payment policies and rates for both hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs) and ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs) for calendar year (CY) 2010. The update to ASC rates constitutes the third year of a four-year transition to a revised payment system that aligns ASC payment rates with those paid to HOPDs for similar services. The final rule with comment period also seeks to promote higher quality, efficient services for Medicare beneficiaries by adopting improvements to the Hospital Outpatient Quality Data Reporting Program (HOP QDRP) and establishing procedures to make the data collected through the HOP QDRP publicly available.

CMS projects that total payments for services furnished to people with Medicare in HOPDs during CY 2010 under the Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) will be $32.2 billion, while total projected CY 2010 payments under the ASC payment system will be approximately $3.4 billion.

OUTPATIENT PROSPECTIVE PAYMENT SYSTEM

Background:

Since August 2000, Medicare has paid hospitals for most services furnished in their outpatient departments under the OPPS. Medicare currently pays more than 4,000 hospitals ‑‑ including general acute care hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, inpatient psychiatric facilities,
long-term acute care hospitals, children’s hospitals, and cancer hospitals ‑‑ for outpatient services under the OPPS. Medicare also pays community mental health centers (CMHCs) under the OPPS for partial hospitalization services. The OPPS payments cover facility resources including equipment, supplies, and hospital staff, but do not pay for the services of physicians and nonphysician practitioners who are paid separately under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS).

All services under the OPPS are classified into groups called Ambulatory Payment Classifications (APCs). Services in each APC are similar clinically and require the use of similar resources. A payment rate is established for each APC. The APC payment rates are adjusted for geographic cost differences, and payment rates and policies are updated annually through rulemaking. The final rule is generally issued by November 1 each year and, unless otherwise specified, becomes effective January 1 of the subsequent year.

Beneficiaries share in the cost of services under the OPPS by paying either a 20 percent coinsurance rate or, for certain services, a copayment required under the Medicare law not to exceed 40 percent of the total payment for the APC. The statutory copayment is gradually being replaced by the 20 percent coinsurance as the composition of APC groups is updated in response to policy changes or new cost data. CMS estimates that the overall beneficiary share of the total payments for Medicare covered outpatient services will be about 22.6 percent in CY 2010.

Significant Changes For Calendar Year 2010

CMS projects that the aggregate Medicare payments to providers under the OPPS in CY 2010 will be $32.2 billion, a $1.9 billion increase over projected payments in CY 2009.

Implementing New Coverage Authorized by MIPPA: The final rule with comment period implements several expansions of Medicare coverage that were required in the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (MIPPA), including:

Kidney disease education –CMS is establishing payment to rural providers under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) for kidney disease education services furnished on or after Jan. 1, 2010 for Medicare beneficiaries diagnosed with Stage IV chronic kidney disease.

Pulmonary and cardiac rehabilitation – CMS is establishing OPPS payment for new, comprehensive pulmonary and intensive cardiac rehabilitation services furnished to beneficiaries with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cardiovascular disease, and related conditions, effective Jan. 1, 2010.


Strengthening Ties between Payment and Quality:
Payment reduction for failure to report quality measures – As required by law, CMS will reduce the CY 2010 annual inflation update factor by two percentage points for most services furnished by hospitals that failed to meet the CY 2009 reporting requirements of the HOP QDRP. The reduction will not apply to payments for separately payable pass-through drugs, biologicals and devices, separately payable non-pass-through drugs and non-implantable biologicals, separately payable therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals, and services assigned to New Technology APCs.

Quality measures to be reported – CMS will continue to require hospitals subject to HOP QDRP requirements to provide quality data for the current 7 chart-abstracted emergency department and surgical care measures and 4 claims-based imaging efficiency measures for CY 2011 payment determinations.

Validation of quality reporting – CMS will be implementing a HOP QDRP validation requirement to ensure that hospitals are accurately reporting measures using chart-abstracted data. Under this requirement, CMS will select a sample of reported cases, request the corresponding medical records, re-abstract the HOP QDRP chart-abstracted measures, and compare the results with the measures reported by the hospital. Hospitals will be required to return paper copies of requested medical records for this CY 2011 requirement within a 45 calendar day timeframe. However, the validation results will not affect a hospital’s CY 2011 OPPS payment. This initial validation requirement for CY 2011 will provide hospitals an opportunity to become familiar with the process for future years.

Public reporting of quality data – CMS is establishing procedures to make HOP QDRP quality measure data publicly available as early as June 2010.

Supervision of Hospital Outpatient Services:
· Supervision requirements for outpatient services – In order to ensure that hospital outpatient services are appropriately supervised by qualified practitioners while not impeding beneficiary access to these services, and in response to concerns raised by the hospital community, CMS is revising or further defining several current policies for the supervision of outpatient services. First, in CY 2010, CMS will allow certain nonphysician practitioners ‑ specifically physician assistants, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, certified nurse-midwives, and licensed clinical social workers ‑ to provide direct supervision for all hospital outpatient therapeutic services that they are authorized to personally perform according to their state scope of practice rules and hospital-granted privileges. Under current policy, only physicians may provide the direct supervision of these services.


For purposes of on-campus hospital outpatient therapeutic services, CMS is defining “direct supervision” to mean that the physician or nonphysician practitioner must be present anywhere on the hospital campus and immediately available to furnish assistance and direction throughout the performance of the procedure. For services furnished in an off-campus provider-based department, “direct supervision” would continue to mean that the physician or nonphysician practitioner must be present in the off-campus provider-based department and immediately available to furnish assistance and direction throughout the performance of the procedure.

CMS also will require that all hospital outpatient diagnostic services furnished directly or under arrangement, whether provided in the hospital, in a provider-based department, or at a nonhospital location, follow the MPFS physician supervision requirements for individual tests.

Payment for Drugs, Biologicals, and Radiopharmaceuticals:
Drugs and pharmacy overhead – CMS will pay for the acquisition and pharmacy overhead costs of separately payable drugs and biologicals without pass-through status at the average sales price (ASP) plus 4 percent in CY 2010. The payment rate of ASP plus 4 percent is based upon the cost of separately payable drugs and biologicals calculated from hospital claims and cost reports (ASP minus 3 percent), with an adjustment for pharmacy overhead cost that reflects the redistribution of $200 million of the pharmacy overhead cost currently attributed to packaged drugs and biologicals (both coded and uncoded) to separately payable drugs and biologicals without pass-through status.

Pass-through implantable biologicals – Beginning in CY 2010, implantable biologicals that are surgically implanted (through a surgical incision or a natural orifice) and that are not receiving pass-through payment before Jan. 1, 2010 will be evaluated for pass-through status using the device category pass-through process rather than the drug and biological pass-through process. Implantable biologicals that initially qualify for device pass-through status beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2010 will be paid at hospitals’ charges adjusted to cost for the two to three year pass-through payment period.

Drug and biological pass-through payment eligibility period – Consistent with current policy, in CY 2010, CMS will continue to recognize the first date of OPPS pass-through payment of ASP plus 6 percent as the beginning of the two to three year pass-through payment eligibility period for a new drug or non-implantable biological.

· Therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals – Beginning Jan. 1, 2010, CMS will provide payment for separately payable therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals with ASP data at ASP plus 4 percent. If ASP data are not available, payment will be based upon mean unit cost from hospital claims data. Subregulatory guidance on submitting ASP for OPPS radiopharmaceutical payment based on ASP is available on the CMS Web site at: www.cms.hhs.gov/HospitalOutpatientPPS/.

Payment for Brachytherapy Sources:
CMS is adopting the proposal to pay for brachytherapy sources based on median unit costs in CY 2010, as calculated from claims data according to the standard OPPS ratesetting methodology.

Partial Hospitalization Services, including Services Provided by CMHCs:
CMS will continue paying two separate partial hospitalization program (PHP) per diem rates: one for days with three services ($150) and one for days with four or more services ($211). The CMHC multiple outlier threshold will continue to be set at 3.4 times the APC payment amount for the higher intensity partial hospitalization day for CY 2010.


AMBULATORY SURGICAL CENTERS

Background:

There are approximately 5,000 Medicare-participating ASCs. Since Jan. 1, 2008, ASCs have been paid under a revised ASC payment system that both aligns payment in ASCs and hospital outpatient settings by basing ASC payment rates on the APC relative weights for similar services and extends payment to more surgical services in ASCs than under the prior payment system. To minimize the impact of the revised payment system, the ASC payment rates calculated under the new ratesetting methodology are being phased in over four years. CY 2010 is the third year of the transition. In general, the revised ASC payment rate for a surgical procedure is a percentage of the payment rate for the same procedure under the OPPS; however, there are a few exceptions. For device-intensive procedures (assigned to a subset of the OPPS device-dependent APCs where device costs account for more than 50 percent of the total cost of the service), ASCs receive the same payment for the device cost as under the OPPS. For new ASC procedures that are predominantly performed in physicians’ offices, the ASC payment is capped at the amount the physician is paid under the MPFS for practice expenses for providing the same procedure in an office.

In the CY 2008 final rule that revised the ASC payment system, CMS added approximately 800 procedures to the list of ASC procedures for which payment could be made. Only those surgical procedures that would be expected to pose a significant safety risk to beneficiaries or that would be expected to require an overnight stay following the procedure are excluded from the ASC list. These changes in payment policies for ASCs give patients broader access to surgical services in settings that are clinically appropriate.

Significant Changes For Calendar Year 2010:

ASC Payment Rate Updates: The revised ASC payment rates were established to reflect the same relativity of resource use among procedures as under the OPPS, taking into consideration the lower costs of surgical procedures performed in ASCs and maintaining budget neutrality in the payment system. By law, CY 2010 is the first year that CMS may provide an inflation update under the revised ASC payment system. The percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers that updates the ASC conversion factor for CY 2010 is 1.2 percent.

Changes to ASC Covered Surgical Procedures and Covered Ancillary Services: CMS is adding 26 surgical procedures to the list of procedures for which Medicare would pay when performed in an ASC. CMS also is newly designating 6 procedures as office-based procedures (subject to payment at the lesser of the national office practice expense payment to the physician or the national ASC rate), and temporarily designating an additional 16 procedures as office-based procedures based on coding changes for CY 2010. The final rule with comment period also updates the list of device-intensive procedures and covered ancillary services and their rates, consistent with the OPPS update.

The CY 2010 OPPS/ASC final rule with comment period will appear in the Nov. 20 Federal Register. Comments on designated provisions are due by 5:00 p.m. Eastern time on Dec. 29, 2009. CMS will respond to comments in the CY 2011 OPPS/ASC final rule.
For more information on the CY 2010 final rule with comment period for the OPPS and ASC payment system, please see the CMS Web site at:
OPPS: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/HospitalOutpatientPPS/
ASC payment system: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/ASCPayment/

Proposed future changes in RHQDAPU

As mentioned earlier, CMS posted its annual Proposed Rules in the Federal Register today. You can access the entire 1,228 page document here.

Although the entire document may be of interest to the healthcare quality professional, of particular interest would be the section describing new quality measures linked to payment - especially ones that will require additional chart abstracting.

• The RHQDAPU section starts on page 323 with a history of the program.
• Proposed FY2010 measures are listed on page 329.
• Proposed FY2011 measures are listed on page 345.
• Two of the FY2011 proposed measures will require chart abstraction: 1) SCIP-Inf 9 - Postoperative Urinary Catheter Removal on PostOp Day 1 or 2; 2) SCIP-Inf 10 - Postoperative Temperature Management.
• Page 347 starts a list of possible additional measures for consideration for FY2012.

If you don't like what you see, you can send comments to CMS until June 30, 2009.

NQF Releases Safe Practices for Better Healthcare 2009 Update: A Consensus Report

A few days ago, the NQF released its 2009 Update of a previously released consensus report: Safe Practices for Better Healthcare.


The following is an excerpt of the document description posted on the NQF website:

Safe Practices for Better Healthcare—2009 Update presents 34 practices that have been demonstrated to be effective in reducing the occurrence of adverse healthcare events. This revised set of NQF-endorsed safe practices has been updated with current evidence and expanded implementation approaches, and it provides additional measures for assessing the implementation of the practices.

As of today, only the electronic pdf version of the report is available. You can buy it here for $29.99.
A free summary report is here.


Did you miss out on the 2006 version? ...Not sure if your hospital can pay you back the $30? You can download the 2006 version for free at: http://www.qualityforum.org/pdf/projects/safe-practices/SafePractices2006UpdateFINAL.pdf

Interestingly, a quick Internet search will reveal the draft version of the 2009 version here.

Comment Period for Nursing Sensitive Care Measures

The NQF today announced a comment period for the Nursing Sensitive Care Performance Measure Set. The project summary can be found here. The deadline for public comments is Feb 26, 2009.

This project summary document provides a history of the development of this measure set and how it was tested nationally. Of interest to the acute care quality professional is the last paragraph that reads:

Following a detailed discussion of each individual measure, there was consensus among the members to recommend that each of the measures move forward. The NSC measure set is due to undergo a maintenance review by the National Quality Forum in early 2009. The Hospital Quality Alliance Principals adopted the measure set in December 2008, pending NQF endorsement. The Joint
Commission is currently in the process of considering the set as an additional core measure selection option.

Remember that NQF endorsed measures have a tendency to be selected by CMS for public reporting. If you are wondering what measures make up this set, they are listed here:

1. Death among surgical inpatients with treatable serious complications (failure to rescue).
2. Pressure ulcer prevalence
3. Falls prevalence
4. Falls with injury
5. Restraint prevalence
6. Urinary catheter-associated UTI for ICU patients
7. Central line catheter-associated blood stream infection for ICU and HRN patients
8. Ventilator-associated pneumonia for ICU and HRN patients
9. Smoking cessation counseling for AMI
10. Smoking cessation counseling for HF
11. Smoking cessation counseling for PN
12. Skill Mix (RN vs LPN vs unlicensed assistive personnel, vs contract)
13. Nursing care hours per patient day
14. Practice environment scale - Nursing work index
15. Voluntary turnover