Safety First

CMS announces new options for physician quality reporting

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on April 17 announced new data reporting options for its voluntary Physician Quality Reporting Initiative in 2008. As an alternative to submitting quality data as part of their Medicare claims, the program will allow physicians and other eligible professionals to submit the data through a medical registry, which will report the data to CMS. They also can choose to report data on individual measures, or on group measures that capture multiple data elements about common care processes for diabetes, kidney disease and preventive medicine.

Those who report using groups of measures can start reporting this July and still be eligible to earn an incentive payment in 2008, CMS said. The reporting changes were authorized by Congress late last year.

More than 100,000 physicians submitted quality data at least once in 2007, more than half of which are on track to receive an incentive payment, the agency said.

[ via AHA News Now ]

AHA comments on proposed rule for PSO program

The American Hospital Association on April 11 expressed support for an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality proposed rule implementing a voluntary, non-punitive national patient safety reporting program, and urged the agency to quickly finalize the rule. However, in the comment letter to the agency, the AHA expressed concern with certain aspects of the proposal, including the minimum contracting requirements to be certified and listed as a patient safety organization; the inability of providers to share patient safety work product with their independent contractors; and the exclusion of self-insured organizations from becoming PSOs.

Authorized by the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act, the proposed rule would allow a variety of public and private organizations, including hospitals, to become PSOs, which would confidentially collect and analyze data and establish and disseminate potential safety protocols.

Number of heparin-related deaths reported triples

A new report from the FDA suggests that recent problems with heparin have proven to be even worse than originally thought. The report concludes that deaths linked to all versions of heparin - including a tainted version of the drug sold by Baxter - have tripled.

There now are 62 reports of patients dying who were infused with heparin from January 1, 2007 through the end of this past March who had a one or more allergic reactions. A prior FDA report had only listed 19 deaths. At present, the FDA isn't sure what caused the spike in adverse reactions. Right now, they're suggesting that this is more of matter of delays in reports from companies and a growth in reports from consumers reading about Baxter's problems.

To learn more about the report, read this Chicago Tribune piece.

NQF backs infection-measurement standards

The National Quality Forum has endorsed seven new performance measures and released a framework for reporting healthcare-associated infection, or HAI, data.

Although many states currently require facilities to collect and report infection data, variations in diagnosis methods and data collection make it difficult for organizations to compare information regionally or nationally, the forum said in a report announcing its new measures. “Through endorsed national standards for HAI measurement, states and other organizations gain a valuable resource for implementing nationally comparable standards,” the NQF said in its report.

The seven performance measures are in three categories: intravascular catheter-associated bloodstream infections; ventilator-associated pneumonia and respiratory illness; and HAIs in pediatric populations. The new HAI measures, which join 13 others that were previously endorsed by the NQF, were developed through a 15-month project to find and endorse HAI data-reporting performance measures and are part of the forum’s National Voluntary Consensus Standards program.

The NQF report also listed five principles to help providers and data collectors develop a framework for standard and regular data reporting and eight research recommendations to develop additional HAI measurements.

[ via Jean DerGurahian, Modern Healthcare's Daily Dose ]

Actor founds organization to prevent medication errors

A much-publicized medication error that nearly cost the lives of his young twins has led actor Dennis Quaid to create a foundation to work towards reducing medical mistakes, the The Wall Street Journa reports.

The Quaid Foundation will push for such things as a bar code system at patient bedsides to ensure correct drug administration, as well as packaging changes to make different medications and medication dosages more readily identifiable.

Quaid has also filed suit against Baxter International, makers of the blood thinner involved in the error, over the labeling and packaging of Heparin.

For more information, click here.

[ via Accreditation Connection ]

AHRQ reports on hospitals’ patient safety culture

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality on April 3 released a report analyzing results from its Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture. The report includes data from 519 hospitals that administered the voluntary survey.

Initiated in 2004, the survey measures staff perceptions of patient safety in their work unit and hospital. Topics include teamwork and communication within and across units, management support for patient safety, and feedback and communication about errors.

Hospitals can use the report to compare their survey results to those for similar hospitals, target areas for improvement and track changes over time.

[ via AHA News Now ]

NQF to develop coordination-of-care measures

The National Quality Forum will begin to develop measures related specifically to coordination of care over the next 15 months. While the organization already includes some care coordination in its endorsed quality standards, the new project will target medication management, transitions and hand-offs while providing a more comprehensive set of measures that can help guide medical teams, said Janet Corrigan, president and chief executive officer of NQF. The program will study relationships among doctors across specialties, the roles of providers caring for a patient, and how to ensure patients and their families understand treatment plans.

The forum held a meeting in Washington recently at which health care providers, administrators and policymakers discussed care coordination issues. Better communication among providers and patients will lead to more effective outcomes, which is why standards of care coordination are emerging as a priority, Corrigan said. “It’s a complicated concept. You do need greater continuity and stability,” she said.

[ via Jean DerGurahian, Modern Healthcare's Daily Dose ]

Groups agree on standards for physician performance reporting

Consumer, employer and labor organizations on April 1 announced a national agreement with physician groups and health insurers on principles to guide how health plans measure doctors’ performance and report the information to consumers. The Consumer-Purchaser Disclosure Project, which spearheaded the effort, said the agreement will ensure consumers and physicians have input into the measurement and reporting process, and that measurement is based on sound national standards and methodology.

Supporters of the agreement include the American Medical Association and other physician groups, America’s Health Insurance Plans, AARP, Leapfrog Group, National Business Coalition on Health and AFL-CIO.

[ via AHA News Now ]