Leapfrog urges CMS not to suppress hospital safety data

Photo: Luis Alvarez/Getty Images

In a statement this week directed at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Leapfrog Group urged the federal agency to nix a proposal that would put an end to the public reporting of data on medical and surgical complications.

The group targeted the CMS Patient Safety and Adverse Events Composite, a measure included in the 2023 Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System proposed rule, which Leapfrog said would effectively suppress data reported by hospitals on 10 potentially fatal care complications, from lung collapses to blood clots and pressure ulcers.

"This would be a giant leap backward in patient safety and a violation of the trust we place in the federal government to alert the public to threats to health and safety," Leapfrog president and CEO Leah Binder said in a statement.

Leapfrog's position is that, because some hospitals are more dangerous than others, the information CMS is seeking to curtail is critical for patients seeking the best-performing hospital, which can make a big difference when it comes to outcomes. According to the group, patients are four times more likely to die from a preventable blood clot, twice as likely to suffer a deep pressure ulcer, and nine times more likely to have a surgical hemorrhage if they choose the worst performing hospital instead of the best.

Comparison among hospitals is even more critical for people of color due to persistent racial disparities, said Binder. She cited a study from the Urban Institute that found Black patients had significantly higher risk of suffering many of these complications, compared with white patients.

WHAT'S THE IMPACT?

Two months ago, leaders at CMS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that since 2020, federal data shows a significant increase in the number of common hospital infections and patient safety mistakes occurring during the pandemic.

In early May, the Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General investigated Medicare and concluded CMS was not reporting enough of the errors and complications that harm Medicare beneficiaries. The OIG report recommended CMS report more of the harms patients suffer.

"We are calling on citizens and advocacy organizations to write letters and sign our letter in opposition to the CMS proposal to suppress the data on these hospital complications," Binder said.

THE LARGER TREND

Hospital-acquired infections, one of the concerns raised by Leapfrog, have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a September 2021 CDC analysis. 

Increases were attributed to factors including more and sicker patients requiring more frequent and longer use of catheters and ventilators, as well as staffing and supply challenges.

With dramatic increases in the frequency and duration of ventilator use, rates of ventilator-associated infections increased by 45% in the fourth quarter of 2020, compared to 2019. The analysis found sharp increases in standardized infection rates, indicating that the increases were not simply a reflection of more devices being used.

From 2019 to 2020, major increases were also found in catheter-associated urinary tract infections, ventilator-associated events and antibiotic-resistant staph infections.
 

Twitter: @JELagasse
Email the writer: jeff.lagasse@himssmedia.com