Comments on: News 06/06/07 http://histalk2.com/2007/06/06/news-060607/ Healthcare IT News and Opinion Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:08:21 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Tim Gee http://histalk2.com/2007/06/06/news-060607/comment-page-1/#comment-9 Tim Gee Fri, 08 Jun 2007 17:28:46 +0000 http://histalk2.com/2007/06/06/news-060607/#comment-9 Regarding nurse to patient ratios and what will keep hospital management from under staffing: CMS has proposed that starting in 2008 they will no longer reimburse for 13 "hospital-acquired conditions" - i.e., preventable adverse events. Research has shown a clear link between nurse to patient ratios and resulting adverse events. While P4P may be the carrot to improve patient safety (and maybe not so effective per the Duke study), ending reimbursement for preventable adverse events is the stick. It will become a big stick when the 13 becomes 27 and commercial payors follow suit. Regarding nurse to patient ratios and what will keep hospital management from under staffing: CMS has proposed that starting in 2008 they will no longer reimburse for 13 “hospital-acquired conditions” – i.e., preventable adverse events. Research has shown a clear link between nurse to patient ratios and resulting adverse events.

While P4P may be the carrot to improve patient safety (and maybe not so effective per the Duke study), ending reimbursement for preventable adverse events is the stick. It will become a big stick when the 13 becomes 27 and commercial payors follow suit.

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