Editorial: Going to a hospital is safer now

Going to a hospital is getting safer: The chances that U.S. patients would pick up infections, get the wrong drug or dose, or be hurt in other ways, ranging from falls to bed sores, fell 17 percent between 2010 and 2013.
But there is still a lot of room for improvement.
A progress report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services shows such mistakes happened 121 times for every 1,000 people discharged from a hospital in 2013, down from 145 per 1,000 in 2010.
We don’t believe it’s a coincidence that the improvements occurred at a time of “concerted attention by hospitals throughout the country,” the report says. Those efforts were inspired in part by safety initiatives and payment incentives called for in the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare.
Whatever the reason, the results are good news for patients, and show progress being made in patient care and in the wise use of tax dollars.
The progress made since 2010 has prevented 50,000 deaths and saved $12 billion, the report says.
Still, the report found hospitals harmed patients 3.9 million times in 2013 and that nearly 10 percent of patients were hurt in some way. “That rate is still too high,” the report says.
Other Affordable Care Act initiatives to improve care and reduce costs have helped reduce hospital readmissions in Medicare by nearly 10 percent between 2007 and 2013 – translating into 150,000 fewer readmissions – and quality improvements have resulted in saving 15,000 lives and $4 billion in health spending during 2011 and 2012.
And the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services continues to work on improvements.
It just released a proposal to strengthen the Shared Savings Program for Accountable Care Organizations by focusing more on primary care services, and encouraging hospitals and other care facilities to focus their efforts on better patient outcomes.
The point of the new rule is to provide seniors and people with disabilities with better care at lower costs.
The objective is to reward value and care coordination – rather than volume and care duplication.
CMS works with providers and stakeholders to continuously refine and improve the Medicare Shared Savings program.
Through the Affordable Care Act, ACOs encourage doctors, hospitals and other health care providers to work together to better coordinate care when people are sick and keep people healthy, which helps to reduce growth in health care costs and improve outcomes.
ACOs become eligible to share savings with Medicare when they deliver that care more efficiently while meeting or exceeding performance benchmarks for quality of care.
The Shared Savings Program now includes more than 330 hospitals and other accountable care organizations in 47 states.
In its first year, 58 hospitals and other ACOs held spending below their benchmarks by a total of $705 million and earned shared savings payments of more than $315 million.
Another 60 ACOs had expenditures below their benchmark, but not by enough to earn shared savings. The programs continue to be adjusted to encourage participation and cost-savings.
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