Patient Injuries: Hospitals Most Likely To Be Penalized By Medicare

Compensability extends in most jurisdiction to injuries sustained in the course of medical treatment for work related injuries. Medicare through enforcement wants to reduce treatment injuries. Today's post was shared by Kaiser Health News and comes from www.kaiserhealthnews.org

Medicare has identified 761 hospitals that are in line to be penalized for high rates of infections and complications this fall. Some of these hospitals may avoid the penalties in the fall after federal officials factor into their analysis an additional year of infections.

Below are the 175 hospitals that are most likely to be penalized because their preliminary scores are nine or above on a scale of 1 to 10. You can download the complete list of all hospitals here. You can also read the KHN story, KHN explanation of how the penalty program works, and look at the KHN analysis.

Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
[Click here to see the rest of this post]

Related articles

• Medicare To Punish 2,225 Hospitals For Excess Readmissions (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Rehospitalization Rates Fell In First Year Of Medicare Penalties (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Nearly 1,500 Hospitals Penalized Under Medicare Program Rating Quality (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Hospitals May Soon Be Reaching For The Stars (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• HHS Inspector General Scrutinizes Medicare Observation Care Policy (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Medicare Seeks To Curb Spending On Post-Hospital Care (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)

Found on

Despite Progress, Three-quarters of a Million Infections Threaten Hospital Patients Each Year

Hospital Acquired Infections are a compensable condition and significantly raise treatment costs and time to recuperate from a work related accident or disease. Today's post is shared from the US CDC.

On any given day, approximately one in 25 U.S. hospital patients has at least one infection picked up during the course of their care, adding up to about 722,000 infections, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This information is an update to previous CDC estimates of healthcare-associated infections.

The agency released two reports today – one, a New England Journal of Medicine article detailing national healthcare-associated infection estimates, and the other an annual report on national and state-specific progress toward U.S. Health and Human Services HAI prevention goals. Together, the reports show that progress has been made in the effort to eliminate infections that commonly threaten hospital patients, but more work is needed to improve patient safety.

"Although there has been some progress, today and every day, more than 200 Americans with healthcare-associated infections will die during their hospital stay,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “The most advanced medical care won’t work if clinicians don’t prevent infections through basic things such as regular hand hygiene. Health care workers want the best for their patients; following standard infection control practices every time will help ensure their patients’ safety."

OpEd from CDC Director, Dr. Frieden on Fox News (includes 5 patient stories): http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/03/26/cdc-director-progress-in-war-on-hospital-infections-but-battle-far-from-over/

What Patients Can Do: Six Ways To Be A Safe Patient

Study: Healthcare-linked infections cost US $10 billion a year

Sep 05, 2013

For HAI incidence estimates, the investigators used the National Healthcare Safety Network of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which includes 1,700 reporting sites. By conducting a systematic literature ...

http://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/

Protecting Healthcare Workers is a Goal of NIOSH

May 09, 2013

Some infections are contracted during treatment such as infection that are acquired during hospital stay. Those are called Hospital Acquired Infections (HAI). These infection are expensive to treat and are a major concern to .

http://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/

3 Ways Infections Become Compensable in Workmens Comp

Jun 09, 2011

Those are called Hospital Acquired Infections (HAI). These infection are expensive to treat and are a major concern to insurance carriers and government insurance programs such as Medicare. Medicare plans to impose ...

http://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/

Workers' Compensation: CDC Reports Hospital Infections (MRSA ...

May 31, 2013

Some infections are contracted during treatment such as infection that are acquired during hospital stay. Those are called Hospital Acquired Infections (HAI). These infection are expensive to treat and are a major concern to .

http://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/

….

Jon L. Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson). For over 4 decades the Law Offices of Jon L Gelman  1.973.696.7900  jon@gelmans.com  have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.

CDC Reports Hospital Infections (MRSA) Can be Dramatically Reduced With Soap and Water

Many injured workers, and other hospital patients, reportedly contract compensable serious hospital infection as a result of poor hygiene. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that increased use of better hygiene in hospitals will dramatically improve the problem of contracting hospital infections.

English: Magnified 20,000X, this colorized scanning electron micrograph (SEM) depicts a grouping of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria. See PHIL 617 for a black and white view of this image. These S. aureus bacteria are methicillin-resistant, and are from one of the first isolates in the U.S. that showed increased resistance to vancomycin as well. Note the increase in cell wall material seen as clumps on the organisms’ surface. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today, on CDC's Safe Healthcare blog, lead author of the REDUCE MRSA trial, Dr. Susan Huang, discusses the results of the landmarkstudy and provides insight into what the findings mean for infection prevention and patient safety. The REDUCE MRSA trial found that using germ-killing soap and ointment on all intensive-care unit (ICU) patients could reduce bloodstream infections by up to 44 percent and significantly reduce the presence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in ICUs.

Dr. Huang is an Associate Professor at the University of California Irvine School of Medicine and Medical Director of Epidemiology and Infection Prevention at UC Irvine Health.

Join the conversation at http://blogs.cdc.gov/safehealthcare.

Read the entire study in NEJM: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1207290

Protecting Healthcare Workers is a Goal of NIOSH

In the US there are over 14 million healthcare workers and many are not adequately protected from hospital and nursing home infections. Now NIOSH is going on the education offensive to alert healthcare workers on how to use respiratory protection at work.

Over the last few months, I have seen first hand how hospitals struggle to stop the spread of Staph
and Strep infections to little avail.Many healthcare professional don't know how to properly take an efficient culture while swabbing the patient's skin leading to alarming rates of incorrect diagnosis and frantic use of high powdered antibiotics that merely stress that patient more.

"Poor compliance with respiratory protection requirements and proper use recommendations in healthcare settings remains a vexing problem."

Click here to read the complete NIOSH announcement.

CDC Seeks to End Needle Stick Injuries

Infections caused by transmission through needle-stick injuries have plagued work comp systems for decades. Today the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has launched a public relations effort to prevent needle stick injuries.

Sharps injuries are a significant injury and health hazard for health care workers and also result in a number of direct and indirect organizational costs. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that about 385,000 sharps-related injuries occur annually among health care workers. More recent estimates from The Exposure Prevention Information Network (EPINet™) indicate this number may have been increasing steadily during the past nine years. It is estimated about one third of these injuries go unreported. Most reported sharps injuries involve nursing staff, but laboratory staff, physicians, housekeepers, and other health care workers are also injured.

Workers' Compensation benefits include temporary, medical and permanent disability awards. On many occasions, medical monitoring is ordered by the Court for the duration of the life of the injured workers. If the infections results in a fatality, then the employer may be responsible for dependency benefits payable to to surviving dependents.

For over 3 decades the Law Offices of Jon L. Gelman 1.973.696.7900jon@gelmans.com have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.

Related articles

• Pulmonary Embolism Due to Sedentary Work Held Compensable (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• NIOSH Proposes Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia As Compensable (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• 3 Ways Infections Become Compensable in Workmens Comp (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Employers Face a Tripple Legal Threat for Distracted Driving Claims (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)

3 Ways Infections Become Compensable in Workmens Comp

Infections are nasty and sometimes fatal. Ill employees maybe entitled to collect workmens comp benefits for the treatment and residuals of an infection. Infections are considered communicable diseases and are contagious. There are 3 types of infections that be eligible for payment.


Infections that flow from a traumatic event are generally compensable. Even if there is a delay in seeking professional medical care the injured employee may be entitled to benefits. Sometimes the infections is dormant and does not become manifest for some time after the traumatic event that caused the injury. Preventative antibiotic treatment is sometimes recommended.


Some infections are contracted during treatment such as infection that are acquired during hospital stay. Those are called Hospital Acquired Infections  (HAI). These infection are expensive to treat and are a major concern to insurance carriers and government insurance programs such as Medicare. Medicare plans to impose economic penalties on hospitals for infections, ie. staph (MRSA),  that patient acquired during hospital stays.


A third type of infections are those that are the result of occupational accident and injuries. First responders and medical personnel  who suffer from exposure to meningitis, strep and HIV patients. These exposures may occur by simple contamination of the work area. In California legislation has been offered to establish a presumption that hospital employees infected on the job qualify for workers' compensation benefits.

For over 3 decades the Law Offices of Jon L. Gelman  1.973.696.7900  jon@gelmans.com have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.


Related articles

• Hospitals Are Not For Sick People (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Silica Workers Prone to Fungal Infections (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Hospital Acquired Infections - The Next Wave of Litigation (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Driving Home From A Conference Held to Be Compensable (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)