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Joint Commission takes lead on reducing surgical fires


The Joint Commission is now the lead or- ganization for the Preventing Surgical Fires Initiative, with Dr. Gerard Castro directing this effort. In tandem with this change in leadership, the web pages for the Initiative are being hosted by the Council for Surgical & Perioperative Safety (CSPS). The original web pages for the Initiative, which resided on the FDA website, are being phased out with this transition.


In addition, education programs for healthcare providers has been added. Funda- mental Use of Surgical Energy (FUSE) Edu- cational Program for OR Safety — Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES). SAGES’ FUSE program was developed in collaboration with gyne- cologic (AAGL), urologic (AUA), anesthesia (ASA), and nursing colleagues (AORN). FUSE covers a wide variety of topics in the use of surgical energy and has a specific focus in the prevention and management of fires in the operating room. The program was designed to certify that a successful candidate has demonstrated the knowledge fundamental to the safe use of surgical energy-based devices in the operating room, endoscopic suite and other procedural areas. FDA’s Safe Use Initiative leads the Pre- venting Surgical Fires Initiative, in partner- ship with other FDA offices and 26 external stakeholder groups.


Half of nation’s hospitals fail again to escape Medicare’s readmission penalties


Once again, the majority of the nation’s hospitals are being penalized by Medicare for having patients frequently return within a month of discharge — this time losing a combined $420 million, government records show. In the fourth year of federal readmis-


sion penalties, 2,592 hospitals will receive lower payments for every Medicare patient that stays in the hospital — readmitted or not — starting in October. The Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, created by the Affordable Care Act, was designed to make hospitals pay closer attention to what happens to their patients after they get discharged. Since the fines began, national readmission rates have dropped, but roughly one of every five Medicare patients sent to the hospital ends up returning within a month. Some hospitals view the punishments as unfair because they can lose money even if they had fewer readmissions than they did in previous years. All but 209 of the hospitals penalized in this round were also punished


last year, a Kaiser Health News analysis of the records found. The fines are based on readmissions be-


tween July 2011 and June 2014 and include Medicare patients who were originally hospitalized for one of five conditions: heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, chronic lung problems or elective hip or knee re- placements. For each hospital, Medicare determined what it thought the appropriate number of readmissions should be based on the mix of patients and how the hospital industry performed overall. If the number of readmissions was above that projection, Medicare fined the hospital. The fines will be applied to Medicare pay-


ments when the federal fiscal year begins in October. In this round, the average Medicare payment reduction is 0.61 percent per pa- tient stay, but 38 hospitals will receive the maximum cut of 3 percent, the KHN analysis shows. A total of 506 hospitals, including those facing the maximum penalty, will lose 1 percent of their Medicare payments or more.


Overall, Medicare’s punishments are slightly less severe than they were last year, both in the amount of the average fine and the number of hospitals penalized. Still, they will be assessed on hospitals in every state except Maryland, which is exempt from these penalties because it has a special pay- ment arrangement with Medicare. Most of the 2,232 hospitals spared pen-


alties this year were excused not because Medicare found readmissions to be suf- ficiently infrequent, but because they were automatically exempted from being evalu- ated — either because they specialized in certain types of patients, such as veterans or children, because they were specially designated “critical access” hospitals, or because they had too few cases for Medicare to accurately assess.


Brent T. Johnson receives AHRMM’s 2015 Leadership Award


The Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management (AHRMM) of the American Hospital Association has named Brent T. Johnson the recipient of the 2015 George R. Gossett Leadership Award. The Leadership Award is presented in memory of George R. Gossett, an early president of AHRMM. Gossett envisioned the prominence of resource and materials management in the healthcare field and championed the educational and profes- sional development of the resource and materials management discipline. It is the highest honor bestowed by AHRMM and is given to an individual who has demonstrat-


8 September 2015 • HEALTHCARE PURCHASING NEWS • www.hpnonline.com


ed an extraordinary level of leadership and professionalism in the field, made significant contributions to AHRMM and advanced the healthcare supply chain.


Johnson, president and CEO of Amerinet


Inc., has more than 30 years of experience in supply chain management, currently serves as a board member of AHRMM and is the current chair of the AHRMM Annual Conference Education Committee. Before joining Amerinet, Johnson served


as the vice president of strategic sourcing at Intermountain Healthcare where he was responsible for all purchasing, sourcing, contracting, distribution and logistics func- tions, which include all non-labor spending involving clinical, non-clinical, pharmacy, IT, facility, equipment and professional services. His chief involvement and leader- ship activities contributed to Intermountain Healthcare being recognized by Gartner as a Top 25 Healthcare Supply Chain. Johnson was also elected into the Bellwether Class of 2014 Hall of Fame.


APIC releases manual for construction and renovation projects in healthcare facilities Any construction or renovation project at a healthcare facility can have infection impli- cations. The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) has released the Infection Prevention Manual for Construction & Renovation, a critical resource for all healthcare facility construc- tion and renovation projects, to serve as a blueprint for planning through completion. Intended for the infection preventionist (IP) who is developing a comprehensive infection control program during construc- tion, the manual provides policies and procedures, resources, models, examples, and educational material for all patient populations. These can be used by new and experienced IPs both as samples of how other facilities have developed their infection control programs during construction, and as templates to adapt for their own facilities. The Infection Prevention Manual for Construction & Renovation contains topics on construction and renovation policies, dust control techniques, water sampling, air monitoring, equipment resources, architectural and design resources, flood recovery and mold abatement, and an extensive listing of construction resources from regulatory agencies and professional organizations that includes a state-by-state table of healthcare building authorities. Visit the APIC Bookstore at www.apic.org to view the table of contents, and preview the chapter: Trends and Issues in Healthcare Construction and Renovation. HPN


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