Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/774606
28 QUALITY IMPROVEMENT & MEASUREMENT Fiscal Penalties for Low-Performing Hospitals Linked to Improved Readmission Rates By Morgan Haefner T he financial penalties instituted by the ACA's Hos- pital Readmissions Reduction Program were asso- ciated with a reduction in readmissions, an analysis published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found. Researchers from three Boston-based institutions — Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Massachusetts General Hos- pital — led the analysis. They researched the effects of the HRRP, which was implemented in 2012 to curb the number of Medicare patients readmitted within 30 days of discharge following treatment for common condi- tions like heart failure, pneumonia and heart attack. Medicare fee-for-service hospitalization data from more than 2,800 U.S. hospitals between 2000 and 2013 were included in the analysis. Data from more than 15 million Medicare discharges were analyzed. Here are three findings from the analysis. 1. All four groups of hospitals outlined in the study — or- ganized into highest performing, average performing, low performing and lowest performing hospitals based on the amount of penalties incurred under HRRP — im- proved on some level, according to the report. 2. The lowest performing hospitals with the highest pen- alties saw the largest improvements in readmissions. Spe- cifically, for every 10,000 patients discharged annually, the lowest performing hospitals avoided 95 readmissions they would have seen before readmissions were penal- ized under the ACA. 3. "It's a testament to the fact that hospitals do respond to financial penalties, in particular when these penalties are also tied to publicly reported performance goals," co-senior author Francesca Dominici, PhD, professor of biostatistics and senior associate dean for research at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said in a pre- pared statement. n 2016 Baldrige Quality Award Recipients Named: 5 Things to Know By Heather Punke T he National Institute of Standards and Technology announced four winners of the 2016 Malcolm Baldrige Nation- al Quality Award in November, and two of them were healthcare organizations. e two healthcare category winners are Kindred Nursing and Rehabilitation Cen- ter-Mountain Valley in Kellogg, Idaho, and Memorial Hermann Sugar Land (Texas) Hospital. e other two winners — Don Chalmers Ford in Rio Rancho, N.M., and Momentum Group in Irvine, Calif. — earned the award in the small business category. Here are five things to know about the award and this year's winning healthcare organiza- tions. 1. e Malcolm Baldrige National Quality is the nation's highest award given annually by the White House for performance excellence through innovation, improvement and lead- ership. Recipients fall in one of six catego- ries: manufacturing, service, small business, healthcare, education and nonprofit, which includes government agencies. 2. Winners are selected by an independent board of examiners. is year, 34 organiza- tions applied. 3. "Like those before them, the 2016 hon- orees have created robust processes and cultures that focus on benefitting their cus- tomers, workforce and communities, and in doing so, have achieved outstanding op- erational and business success," said Robert Fangmeyer, director of the Baldrige Perfor- mance Excellence Program. 4. Kindred-Mountain Valley, a 68-bed skilled nursing facility, is the first ever organization in Idaho to receive a Baldrige Award. e SNF has received a five-star rating from CMS for seven straight years. It also has a 90 percent employee retention rate, which is more than 20 percent above national indus- try average. 5. Memorial Herman Sugar Land is a 149- bed acute care hospital with 641 employees. e hospital ranks in the top 10 percent nationally for numerous performance met- rics, including emergency department arriv- al-to-discharge time and use of computer- ized physician order entry. n The lowest performing hospitals with the highest penalties saw the largest improvements in readmissions.