Patient Safety News Roundup

CMS penalizes 758 hospitals for patient safety infractions

The CMS has fined 758 hospitals across the country for high rates of patient safety incidents including infections, sepsis, and hip fractures.

More than half of the hospitals that were fined in 2015 also received fines the previous year, according to Kaiser Health News. Hospitals will pay a total of $364 million in penalties.

The federal penalties have been a divisive issue, splitting patient safety advocates that argue the fines are not large enough to make sustainable gains in preventing patient harm, against providers, who say hospitals are unfairly punished for falling below certain thresholds, even when they have made significant strides in reducing adverse events.

One thing is for certain: Medicare fines don’t discriminate based on reputation. Stanford Health Care, Denver Health Medical Center, Mount Sinai Hospital Medical Center, and Mayo Clinic hospitals were among the providers fined this year.

Continue reading this article on the Patient Safety Monitorwebsite. Subscribers have free access to this article in the February issue.