Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

34 QUALITY IMPROVEMENT & MEASUREMENT 38 top-rated hospitals hit with Medicare penalties By Ayla Ellison C MS will trim 764 hospitals' Medicare payments in fiscal year 2022 for having the highest rates of patient injuries and infections. irty-eight of those hospitals are simultaneously ranked as the best in the country by CMS, according to Kaiser Health News. e Hospital-Acquired Conditions Reduction Program aims to prevent harm to patients by providing a financial incentive for hospitals to prevent hospital-acquired conditions. Under the program, a hospital's total score is based on performance on several quality measures, including rates of infections, blood clots and other complications that occur in hospitals and might have been prevented. Each year, Medicare cuts payments by 1 per- cent for hospitals that fall in the worst-per- forming quartile. e fiscal year 2022 penalties are based on patients who stayed in the hospital between mid-2018 and 2019. CMS excluded 2020 data from the calcula- tions in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency. is year's list of penalized hospitals includes 38 hospitals that have five stars, the highest rating, on Medicare's Care Compare website, according to Kaiser Health News. e hospitals received five stars for "overall quality" based on dozens of metrics, including infection rates, readmission frequencies and death rates. e 38 hospitals make up about 9 percent of the 404 hospitals that were both included in the HAC Reduction Program and received five stars. Nearly 17 percent of the 814 four- star hospitals included in the program were penalized, and 67 percent of one-star hospi- tals were punished, according to an analysis by Kaiser Health News. More than 2,000 hospitals have been penal- ized at least once in the eight years since the Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction Program began. e hospital industry has argued the pro- gram's design punishes hospitals that test most thoroughly for infections, since these facilities will appear to have the highest rates of infection, while those with less-thorough testing might appear to have lower rates. CMS said it can't substantially alter the program. "CMS is committed to ensuring safety and quality of care for hospital patients through a variety of initiatives," CMS told Kaiser Health News. "Much of how the Hospi- tal-Acquired Condition Reduction Program is structured, including penalty amounts, is determined by law." n 1 thing that should be on CMOs' priority list, per Leapfrog CEO Leah Binder By Gabrielle Masson S ome hospitals are bringing in underqualified or nonspecialized physicians because of staffing shortages, a move Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, believes may sacrifice patient safety. The Leapfrog Group is a nonprofit watchdog organi- zation that aims to monitor and improve safety, quality and affordability of U.S. healthcare. Amid national staffing shortages, Ms. Binder told Becker's that some hospitals have had to bring in phy- sicians who aren't board-certified or trained in specific specialties, particularly in intensive care settings. While acknowledging the difficulties of the current condi- tions, she emphasized the importance of having highly trained and qualified physicians in intensive care unit settings, adding that having professionals not specifi- cally trained in ICU medicine can compromise quality. "Right now hospitals are under enormous pressure to just get staff," she said. "It's a real crisis that is playing out in a way that is potentially deadly." Ms. Binder said the issue should be on all CMOs' radars: "If it's not on their priority list, it should be on it today." n US sees record number of organ transplants in 2021 By Gabrielle Masson I n 2021, a record-setting number of organ transplants were performed in the U.S., with more than 40,000 transplants performed annually for the first time in the nation's history, according to preliminary data from the United Network for Organ Sharing. Six things to know: 1. The U.S. performed 41,354 organ transplants, up 5.9 per- cent from 2020. 2. The three most commonly transplanted organs — kidney, liver and heart — all set annual volume records. The U.S. performed 24,669 kidney transplants, 9,236 liver transplants and 3,817 heart transplants in 2021. 3. In 2021, 13,861 Americans became deceased organ donors — the eleventh consecutive record year for deceased donation. 4. For the third year in a row, the most common age range of deceased donors was 50-64, with 4,270 donors, up 14.6 percent from 2020. 5. Living donor transplants, which decreased significantly in 2020 amid the pandemic, increased in 2021, but are still at lower totals than prior years. Overall, 6,541 living donor transplants were performed in 2021, a 14.2 percent increase from 2020. 6. Donation from individuals who died of cardiorespiratory failure continued to substantially increase. n

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