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Collaborative takes aim at healthcare-acquired infectionsThe Oregon Patient Safety Commission (OPSC) is recruiting 10 to 15 Oregon hospitals to take part in a two-year quality improvement collaborative to reduce healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs) by spreading evidence-based best practices among Oregon hospitals. The goal of the collaborative, which kicks off on June 10–11, 2010, is to reduce HAIs by more than 10% below benchmark each year for the next two years. The collaborative is part of the Oregon Healthcare Acquired Infection Prevention Plan, which also encompasses analysis of Oregon data from a national database and a statewide HAI prevention plan. The Oregon collaborative is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) through a grant established by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Based on the Institute for Healthcare Improvement collaborative model, the program will include five group learning sessions (two of them virtual), interspersed with localized improvement activities and data collection. Hospital teams will receive practical tools for infection control and for staff engagement and coordination. Team members will learn successful practices in three foundational areas—hand hygiene, environmental cleaning, and antibiotic stewardship—as well as practices specific to reducing central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI), surgical site infections (SSI), and C. difficile infections. They will test and implement improvements to integrate those practices and will share their progress and results when the collaborative concludes in December 2011. This collaborative is also strongly linked to two other Oregon efforts: the Oregon Association of Hospital and Health Systems’ STOP BSI Collaborative and CareOregon’s Productive Ward program. These linkages will help hospitals that participate in more than one collaborative maintain alignment with goals and reduce redundancy of effort. Ruth Medak, MD, Acumentra Health’s associate medical director, serves on the expert panel that is planning program content. “The collaborative will deliver much more than providing a toolkit and telling the teams ‘what to do,’” Dr. Medak says. “It is a valuable opportunity for hospitals to learn from successful peers how to make an intervention work on the unit and achieve the goal of eliminating all preventable infections.” For more information and to register, contact OPSC collaborative manager Melissa Parkerton at 503-224-5034 or melissa.parkerton@oregonpatientsafety.org. Washington mental health service rules changeEffective May 20, the State of Washington revised its regulations defining the minimum standards for delivery of outpatient mental health services for Medicaid recipients. The changes to the Washington Administrative Code (WAC) update and clarify requirements related to mental health intake evaluations, development of an individual service plan (ISP), and contents of the clinical record. A broad stakeholder group of community mental health providers, Regional Support Networks (RSNs), and consumer and union representatives shaped the proposed changes, and a WAC revision committee submitted them for adoption. Some changes stemmed from the findings of Acumentra Health’s 2008–2009 External Quality Review assessments of managed mental health care services delivered through the RSNs. Acumentra Health submitted recommendations to the WAC revision committee, which also received input from key stakeholders including, among others, the Washington Community Mental Health Council, RSNs, and staff of the Health and Recovery Services Administration. The rule changes are intended to give mental health providers more flexibility in meeting enrollees’ mental health needs while still meeting statutory requirements for collecting and recording enrollee history data. Key changes include:
For more information, contact Jody Carson, at jcarson@acumentra.org. Oregon hospitals achieve 100 percent Medicare validationAcumentra Health recognizes three Oregon hospitals for achieving a 100 percent score on validation of medical records submitted for Medicare quality assurance and reporting for 2nd quarter 2009:
Validation is part of a process that qualifies hospitals to receive full payment from Medicare (called the Annual Payment Update, or APU). The 33 Oregon hospitals participating in Medicare's Prospective Payment System must meet specific data reporting and validation criteria:
As a Critical Access Hospital, Lake District Hospital does not fall under the same rules as the PPS hospitals; it voluntarily submits data on the quality measures and thus falls under the same requirement for validation. Acumentra Health commends these hospitals for the diligence and accuracy represented by this achievement. |
CEO commentary: Reducing hospital infections—a patient safety imperativeHealthcare-acquired infections are a major issue in the places we go for healing. Nationwide, as many as 1 in 6 people who are hospitalized come down with infections while receiving treatment for medical and surgical conditions, and such infections are among the top 10 leading causes of death. In Oregon, the cost of treating such an infection averages $32,000. The stakes are getting even higher as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid prepares to restrict Medicare payments for hospitals with high rates of HAI. Oregon’s mandatory statewide public reporting program for HAI (one of 10 across the nation) shines a bright spotlight on hospitals’ efforts to reduce infections. The first statewide report on HAI, issued by the Oregon Health Authority on May 24, shows that Oregon hospitals do better than the national average on two of the three forms of HAI studied, but more can be done to reduce the incidence of infection. As Oregon’s Medicare Quality Improvement Organization, Acumentra Health is in the thick of the battle against HAIs. Since 2005, we have led Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) activities in Oregon, bolstering hospitals’ efforts to align their internal culture and processes in support of evidence-based guidelines. In addition, we are helping a group of hospitals report methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) data to a national database sponsored by the CDC. We are also engaged in statewide efforts as a member of the Oregon IHI Network, which has developed and disseminated a version of the World Health Organization Surgical Safety Checklist. Our hospital patient safety work is closely aligned with the Oregon Patient Safety Commission’s upcoming HAI Collaborative, and we are pleased to assist the Commission in planning this important effort. The collaborative promises to be a game-changing initiative for Oregon hospitals, and we encourage hospitals to consider how participation might support them in sending patients home well. Jon K. Mitchell, FACHE May is Older Americans Month www.acumentra.org |
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Q-News, Issue 23 This material was prepared by Acumentra Health, Oregon’s Medicare Quality Improvement Organization, under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The contents presented do not necessarily reflect CMS policy. 9SOW-OR-GEN-10-03 |
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