The Safe Patient Project is a Consumers Union campaign focused on eliminating medical harm, improving FDA oversight of prescription drugs and promoting disclosure laws that give information to consumers about health care safety and quality.
HHS
House health reform bill tackles hospital infections
Our message caught on! A coalition of House Democrats have included public reporting of hospital-acquired infections in their reform bill (HR 3200), and reducing payment to hospitals that aren’t doing enough to prevent infections.
Categories: Hospital Acquired Infections, MRSA
Tags: HHS, Medicare, public reporting, surgical site infection
Medicare releases data on hospital readmissions
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced last Thursday that it has added readmission rates for more than 4,000 hospitals across the U.S to its Hospital Compare website. With proper care, most people should not have to go back to the hospital shortly after release. This is a key indicator of quality and varies a lot between hospitals.
Categories: Hospital Acquired Infections, Medical Errors
Tags: HHS, medicare part d, Patient Safety Day, RFO, surgical error, surgical site infection
Secretary Sebelius calls on hospitals to fight hospital-acquired infections
Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, tells hospitals to take “basic steps to fight infections” that harm millions of patients every year and add billions to our nation’s health care costs.
Categories: Hospital Acquired Infections, MRSA
Tags: CDC, HHS, ICU, medicare part d, public reporting, RFO
CMS decisions on non-payment for surgical errors
It’s official. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will no longer pay for surgery in which certain “never events” occur: wrong surgery, wrong patient, wrong body part.
Categories: Medical Errors
Tags: HHS, medicare part d, surgical error
HHS releases plan to prevent health care-associated infections
This week the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services released its “Action Plan to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections” which sets five-year prevention targets for six major types of infection. Such as (from Table 1):
• A 30% reduction in C. difficile
• A 25% reduction in urinary catheter infections
• A 50% reduction in MRSA infections
Categories: Hospital Acquired Infections, MRSA
Tags: C. diff, HHS, VRE
NYT calls for doctors to be included in Medicare non-payment rules
The New York Times came out Sunday with a strong call for making the new Medicare rule to stop paying for care needed after hospitals harm their patients apply to physicians too, stating the current policy lets “doctors off scot-free.”
Categories: Hospital Acquired Infections, Medical Errors
Tags: CDC, HHS, Medicare, surgical site infection
Medicare won’t foot the bill for medical errors
Effective today, Medicare will stop compensating hospitals for the additional costs to treat patients who suffered from certain preventable infections and errors due to bad medical care.
Categories: Hospital Acquired Infections, Medical Errors
Tags: HHS, Medicare, surgical error, surgical site infection
