Maryland ties payment to hospital performance on hospital-acquired conditions

Results from a state-wide hospital-acquired conditions reporting program were published last week by the state of Maryland.  Hospitals were required to report data in 49 categories of potentially preventable complications including HAIs.  Of the 45 hospitals that submitted data, 9 hospitals had higher rates than the state's target.

Maryland is currently the only state that ties payment to hospital performance on dealing with hospital-acquired conditions.  The state sets target rates for each reportable condition and payments to hospitals are tied to meeting the state's targets.

In 2008, Maryland's hospitals collectively had approximately 53,000 cases of hospital-acquired conditions out of a total of 800,000 inpatients and these conditions amounted to approximately $500 million in potentially preventable hospital payments.  The initiative was put in place in 2009 in an effort to address hospital-acquired conditions and to improve the quality of care for patients.

More info can be found at the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission website

Investigative reporting reveals dangers of HAIs in Las Vegas hospitals

Two reporters, Marshall Allen and Alex Richards, were tasked to investigate and report on the quality of hospital care in Las Vegas. After two years of extensive research, the Las Vegas Sun this month published their findings in a multi-series called, “Do No Harm: Hospital Care in Las Vegas.”

Allen and Richards dived deep into data that hospitals submitted to the state of Nevada (they obtained a record of every Nevada hospital inpatient visit going back a decade – 2.9 million in total) and what they found were both fascinating and alarming. For example, the rate of patients who contracted MRSA rose by 34% from 2008 to 2009 and that 2,010 patients were infected with MRSA and C. diff while hospitalized during the two-year period.

Here is a video summary by Brian Greenspun, editor and publisher of the Las Vegas Sun