Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1480010
20 PATIENT SAFETY & OUTCOMES The safety issues that put Novant hospital's Medicare contract at risk By Mackenzie Bean N ew details from a federal inspection report obtained by WECT News 6 offer a closer look at the safety issues that temporarily put Novant Health New Hanover Regional Medical Center at risk of losing its federal funding. State inspectors visited the Wilmington, N.C.-based hospital in June and identified deficiencies regarding patient rights, nursing services, emergency services, quality assessment and performance improvement. CMS accepted Novant's plan of correction Aug. 11, and the hospital regained compliance aer state inspectors performed a follow-up visit, according to a letter Novant shared with Becker's. Many of the care issues were related to nursing shortages at the hospital, which caused long wait times in the emergency room. In some cases, patients had to wait more than 10 hours to be seen. On June 13, records show the hospital had 13 ambulances waiting to offload patients into the ER. In another instance, a 77-year-old cancer patient died aer coding in the hospital's ER lobby while waiting for care. "eir investigation found issues that we had already identified and were working to correct, including concerns about wait times and the impact of our staffing shortages," a spokesperson for Novant Health told Becker's. e health system has hired hundreds of nurses to address these issues. "We have reviewed and enhanced policies and procedures, significantly reduced average ED wait times and are continuing to add new nurses and other clinical roles," the spokesperson said. n 10 most common sentinel events of 2022: Joint Commission By Mackenzie Bean P atient falls were the most common sentinel event reported among hospitals in the first six months of 2022, according to a Sept. 7 report from The Joint Commission. The accrediting body received 832 reports of sentinel events in the first six months of 2022, 90 percent of which healthcare organizations voluntarily reported. If this rate continues in the second half of the year, total sentinel event reports will likely surpass the 1,197 sentinel events reported in 2021, which represented the highest annual level seen since the accrediting body started publicly reporting them in 2007. The Joint Commission defines a sentinel event as a patient safety event that results in death, permanent harm, severe temporary harm or intervention required to sustain life. Only a small portion of all sentinel events are reported to The Joint Commission, meaning conclusions about the events' frequency and long-term trends should not be drawn from the dataset, the organization said. The 10 most frequently reported sentinel events for the first half of 2022: 1. Fall — 199 2. Unintended retention of a foreign object — 30 3. Suicide — 26 4. Delay in treatment — 25 5. Wrong surgery — 19 6. Assault/Rape/Sexual Assault — 16 7. Medication management — 12 8. Self-harm — 11 9. Fire — 10 10. Clinical alarm response — 7 n Image Credit: National Breast Cancer Foundation