Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1020287
44 CMO / CARE DELIVERY Massachusetts hospital cited for lapses in high-risk pregnancy care By Megan Knowles C MS cited Springfield, Mass.-based Mercy Medical Center aer the hospital mishandled several high- risk obstetrics patients, including a failure to trans- fer a patient at risk for pregnancy complications to a facility for complex maternity patients, e Boston Globe reported. Six things to know: 1. e patient admitted to Mercy Medical Center showed clear signs of pregnancy complications. She had high blood pressure, was overweight, smoked and had preeclampsia. She was admitted to the hospital the morning of Feb. 12 to induce labor, and was having difficulty breathing and experiencing pressure in her chest by 11 a.m. 2. When the patient's condition quickly deteriorated, Mer- cy Medical Center did not transfer her to a hospital spe- cializing in treating complex maternity patients. Mercy, which is owned by Hartford, Conn.-based Trinity Health of New England, does not have state designation to treat high-risk pregnancies. e woman suffered a fatal heart attack just hours aer she had a cesarean section. 3. An April investigation found another mishandled case involving a high-risk obstetrics patient at the hospital. Federal regulators deemed the hospital in "immediate jeopardy" of harming patients, putting its Medicare con- tract at risk. 4. e immediate jeopardy designation was lied in May aer Mercy improved care procedures. A group of hospi- tals, public health officials and medical professionals plan to make statewide recommendations on maternity care levels in the next few months, the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association said. 5. Mercy "took decisive and effective action" aer the problems, bringing in national perinatal experts from its corporate office to recommend improvements, hospital executives told the Globe. Actions included identifying obstetrics patients in phy- sician practices who should be referred to high-risk practices and hospitals, and adopting a warning system for Mercy's maternity patients at risk for life-threatening complications. 6. Mercy declined to say if it had transferred high-risk patients to other practices since the inspection. "Safety and quality of care are our top priorities at Mercy Medical Center," a news release stated. "It is important to note that women in labor can develop complications abruptly and without sufficient warning to initiate a safe interfacility transfer." n Joint Commission will require hospitals to report newborns with unexpected complications By Megan Knowles B eginning Jan. 1, The Joint Commission will require hospitals to identify the percentage of infants with unexpected newborn complications among full-term newborns who do not have pre-existing conditions. The new requirement, called PC-06 Unexpected Complications in Term Newborns, will add to the organization's five measures re- quired for Joint Commission-accredited hospitals that have at least 300 live births annually. Hospitals seeking perinatal care certification from the Joint Commission will also have to report PC-06. "While measures have been developed to assess clinical practices and outcomes in preterm infants, The Joint Commission has iden- tified a lack of metrics that specifically assess health outcomes of term infants who represent more than 90 percent of all births," the organization said. "PC-06 is designed to address the metrics gap and gauge adverse outcomes resulting in severe or moderate morbidity in otherwise healthy term infants without pre-existing conditions." The Joint Commission recently approved requirements for hospitals to avoid misidentifying newborns after delivery by requiring hospi- tals to use distinct naming systems and identification tools for new- borns. Earlier this year, the organization also approved standards to improve the identification of mothers at risk for transmitting infec- tious diseases to their newborns near delivery time. n 10 congressional districts with the highest opioid prescribing rates By Harrison Cook A labama's 4th congressio- nal district had the high- est opioid prescribing rate in the country, according to an analysis published July 19 in the American Journal of Public Health. For the analysis, researchers cre- ated an estimate of 2016 pre- scribing rates for congressional districts using a secondary data and a population-weighted methodology. Here are the 10 congressional districts with the highest rates of opioid prescriptions: 1. Alabama, district 4 — 166.59 opioid prescribing rate per 100 2. Kentucky, district 5 — 147.00 3. Tennessee, district 3 — 133 4. Tennessee, district 1 — 131.95 5. Alabama, district 1 — 131.35 6. Mississippi, district 4 — 126.14 7. Arkansas, district 1 — 125.79 8. Virginia, district 9 — 124.49 9. Tennessee, district 6 — 118.79 10. Oklahoma, district 1 — 118.28 n