By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Wood County Hospital is one of nearly 800 hospitals in the U.S. that will see funding cuts due to higher than average rates of patient infections, injuries and readmissions.
Medicare is mandated each year to identify the 25% of general care hospitals that have the highest rates of patient safety issues. The government assesses the rates of infections, blood clots, sepsis cases, bedsores, hip fractures and other complications that occur in hospitals and might have been prevented.
Now in the sixth year, the Medicare penalties are facing criticism from all sides. According to Kaiser Health News, hospital officials say they are arbitrary and unfair, and some patient advocates believe they are too small to make a difference.
Wood County Hospital has made the list for the last three years.
But Stan Korducki, president of Wood County Hospital, said these type of “report cards” often need further explanation to be understood.
Korducki explained that the hospital had been ranked in the top 5% nationally, only to drop when the report card measurements changed.
For the hospitals identified among the 25% with the highest rates for patient safety issues, Medicare cuts every payment by 1% during the federal fiscal year.
“If you have some outliers, they take away a little bit of the Medicare payment,” Korducki said.
The money loss is not great, but, “We want to use everything we can for patient care and staffing,” he said.
Korducki went on to explain that some of the issues involve pre-existing conditions. For example, the hospital can be penalized if a nurse does not identify and document a skin ulcer on the patient upon arrival.
“Even though you’ve done 5,000 with no problems,” he said. “The threshold is almost perfection.”
The hospital tries to learn from the reports.
“The good part is, we are collecting this data,” Korducki said.
The hospital staff is working to “hard-wire processes, so we’re always consistent,” he said.
In recent years, the hospital has adopted a manufacturing term – zero error – “so nothing slips through the cracks,” Korducki said.
“It just goes to show you, you really need to stay on top of your game,” he said.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on Wednesday identified the 786 hospitals that will receive lower payments for a year. According to Kaiser Health News, the penalties are designed to encourage better care without dropping hospitals out of the Medicare and Medicaid programs, which would drive most hospitals out of business.
Other hospitals in the area making the latest Medicare penalty list include Bay Park and University of Toledo Medical College.
Since the program’s onset, 1,865 of the nation’s 5,276 hospitals have been penalized for at least one year, according to a Kaiser Health News analysis.
And the top medical facilities are not immune.
This year, Medicare penalized seven of the 21 hospitals on U.S. News’ Best Hospitals Honor Roll, an annual ranking often used to identify the most prestigious facilities.National Public Radio’s story on the ratings can be found at: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/01/31/801350993/several-best-u-s-hospitals-penalized-over-too-high-rates-of-infection-injury?fbclid=IwAR0uh7N9MG6pvzaOWFqnSQhDqGsAMBLw1-KdsHuZn0GCbJBo1GpG4j3eipQ
