Never Events Outlined by CMS
Beginning October 1, 2008, Medicare will no longer pay the hospital at a higher rate for these conditions, if they were acquired during the hospital stay:
* Object inadvertently left in after surgery
* Air embolism
* Blood incompatibility
* Catheter associated urinary tract infection
* Pressure ulcer (decubitus ulcer)
* Vascular catheter associated infection
* Surgical site infection-Mediastinitis (infection in the chest) after coronary artery bypass graft surgery
* Certain types of falls and trauma
CMS is also proposing to expand the list of conditions. As of this writing, they are considering adding some of these events:
* Surgical site infections following certain elective procedures
* Legionnaires' disease (a type of pneumonia caused by a specific bacterium)
* Extreme blood sugar derangement
* Iatrogenic pneumothorax (collapse of the lung)
* Delirium
* Ventilator-associated pneumonia
* Deep vein thrombosis/Pulmonary Embolism (formation/movement of a blood clot)
* Staphylococcus aureus septicemia (bloodstream infection)
* Clostridium difficile associated disease (a bacterium that causes severe diarrhea and more serious intestinal conditions such as colitis)
CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) is also proposing to expand the hospital quality measure reporting program, which reduces the amount a hospital is paid if it does not participate in the voluntary reporting of standardized quality measures. Incentives are also under consideration for top-performing institutions.
Read more DOTmed coverage and what's in story next year at:
https://www.dotmed.com/news/story/6650/
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