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New Medicare Rule Designed to Improve Care Quality, Reduce Costs
In an effort to drive hospitals to improve medical quality and enhance patient safety, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will implement a new policy this fall.
Beginning Oct. 1, Medicare will no longer pay the extra costs of treating certain complications patients acquire in the hospital.
Eight hospital-acquired complications fall under the new rule:
- Catheter-associated urinary tract infection
- Vascular catheter-associated infection
- Falls
- Pressure ulcers
- Object left in a patient after surgery
- Air embolism (gas bubbles in an artery or vein)
- Blood incompatibility
- Mediastinitis (inflammation of the area between the lungs) after coronary artery bypass surgery
“The new rule compels all hospitals to monitor processes and ensure they have procedures in place to prevent these complications,” said Geoffrey Lamb,MD, Medical College of Wisconsin internist and associate director of the Joint Clinical Quality Office of Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin.
“We already have processes in place to address the majority of these complications,” Dr. Lamb said. “We have quality teams preparing for the new rule when it takes effect.”
Source: Froedtert Today Date: March 2008 |
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