CMS Moves To Further Reduce Hospital Readmissions, Decrease Patient Harm

CMS announced last week it is expanding hospital quality efforts with new programs to reduce patient harm and keep bringing down the hospital readmission rate.  A blog post by CMS's Patrick Conway said the agency is releasing a request for proposal for hospital improvement and innovation networks, which will work with existing Quality Improvement Organizations and related hospital safety and engagement programs. The goal is to have the networks through 2019 pursue "bold new national aims" that includes a 20 percent decrease in overall patient harm and a 12 percent reduction in 30-day hospital readmissions from the 2014 baseline. Click here for details.

• Initiatives to reduce medical errors, the nation's third-leading cause of death, have made progress, according to research published by AHRQ.  Researchers analyzed medical malpractice payment reports, one of the primary mechanisms for identifying errors, and found they dropped 28 percent between 2004 and 2014. Furthermore, they noted a year-over-year downward trend every year but 2013 when it ticked up slightly. Click here for the annual Chartbook AHRQ report.