Medicare penalized 751 facilities for hospital-acquired conditions in 2017: See list

Delivering quality care has become even more essential for hospitals and health systems since Medicare started issuing penalties for high rates of hospital-acquired conditions -- things like falls, ulcers and infections that could well have been avoided. The statistics from the past year underscore this importance: In 2017, according to HealthITAnalytics, Medicare penalized 751 hospitals and health systems for that very reason with a 1 percent reduction in reimbursement rates in the coming year.

The Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction Program, or HACRP, has yielded some positive results when it comes to mitigating these preventable occurrences. Since 2010, infections, falls and pneumonia associated with ventilator use have seen a 17 percent decline.

[Also: Ochsner deploys robots to zap germs in fight against deadly hospital-acquired infections]

Yet the program stipulates that the bottom quartile of hospitals will always receive a reimbursement cut, even if they improve their metrics in this area. This has drawn ire from organizations like the American Hospital Association, which takes umbrage with the program's data and methodologies.

A year ago this December, a study from KNG Health Consulting revealed that large hospitals, and academic medical centers dealing with complex patients, are the most adversely affected by the HACRP. Larger institutions, for example, are more likely to see sepsis-related deaths, likely because they deal with patients who require highly specialized care.

Criticism of the HACRP's methods was only exacerbated this year when a programming error in the penalty calculations altered the threshold that separated the bottom quartile from the rest of the field.

That error was corrected, but by that time hospitals had already received their initial performance reports.

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