MedPAC and What We Can Learn Regarding the Use of Ultrasound to Guide Procedures

HealthCare Business News
Jill Rathbun, Managing Partner at Galileo Consulting Group, Arlington, VA
In this View from the Hill article for DOTmed News, Jill Rathbun discusses how incorporating ultrasound into healthcare delivery may assist health systems to align with MedPAC's annual March report objectives.

Ultrasound Helps Reduce a $373 Million-Dollar Risk: Medicare Penalties for Hospital Errors

Becker's Hospital CFO
Haney Mallemat, MD Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine
Dr. Mallemat discusses the impact and expansion of the CMS Hospital Acquired Conditions payment program in patient care as well as overall Medicare payments to hospitals.  He also explains the role of point-of-care ultrasound at his hospital to assist in lowering complications and costs associated with central lines.

Ultrasound-Guided Vascular Access Program Saves St. Joseph's $3.5 Million

Becker's Infection Control & Clinical Quality
Matthew Ostroff, ARNP
The American College of Emergency Physicians issued a policy statement in 2016 advocating a new safety standard for vascular access through the use of ultrasound guidance. St. Joseph's Healthcare System, in Paterson, N.J., launched a program that has yielded significant safety and quality of care improvements for all patients requiring vascular access. This article describes how St. Joseph's cut healthcare costs and improved patient outcomes by achieving the "one-stick standard".

Hospitals Must Integrate Imaging Technology to Avoid Cuts to Medicare Payments

HealthCare Business News
Jill Rathbun, Managing Partner at Galileo Consulting Group, Arlington, VA
In this View from the Hill article for DOTmed News, Jill Rathbun discusses the Fiscal Year 2017 Proposed Inpatient Hospital Rule and how imaging, in particular ultrasound, can play an important role in achieving fewer complications and higher quality of care scores in CMS payment programs.

6 Steps to Implementing Ultrasound in Critical Care

by Nidhi Nikhanj, MD

In this article for ​Health Management Magazine, Dr. Nidhi Nikhanj lays out the path for a system-wide implementation of point-of-care ultrasound to bring quality of care and enhanced patient safety to the bedside. What 6 steps should a large health system use to successfully implement point-of-care ultrasound?

Read the full article from Health Management Magazine to find out!

Our Journey to Zero Patient Harm

Group Practice Journal
Michael Shabot, M.D. FACS, FCCM, FACMI, is chief medical officer, Memorial Hermann Healthcare System, Houston and Adjunct Professor at the University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics and the University of Texas School of Public Health at Houston.

Michael Warneke, M.D. is medical director of quality, Memorial Hermann Southeast Hospital.

Ultrasound-Guided Procedures: Financial and Safety Benefits

ICU Management
Diku Mandavia, MD, FACEP, FRCPC, Chief Medical Officer at Sonosite, and clinical associate professor of emergency medicine at the University of Southern California

Dr. Mandavia discusses how ultrasound guidance adds value to both patient safety and removing costs from healthcare delivery.

Read article

Smarter Use of Imaging Technology: Reduce Errors Costs

Medical errors continue to be a major problem in the US healthcare system, with hospital acquired infections (HAC) becoming an area of greater focus and where significant financial penalties are being incurred. Medicare has added one especially dangerous--or even potentially fatal--adverse event, iatrogenic pneumothorax during central line placement, to its HAC list. Along with putting patients in peril, the mistake can also increase hospital costs by up to $45,000 per incident, according to a study by the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research (AHRQ). 

Many excellent studies show that ultrasound guidance can powerfully improve the safety and success of this very common procedure. In fact, in one randomized study of 900 critical care patients, use of ultrasound visualization reduced the rate of collapsed lung during central line placement to zero, compared to 2.4 percent for blind placement. 

Dr. Sierzenski is the Director of Emergency, Trauma and Critical Care Ultrasound for Christiana Care Health System’s Department of Emergency Medicine. He is also the Chair, Government Policy & Public Relations for the American College of Emergency Physicians Ultrasound Section and a Master's Candidate in Health Quality and Safety at the Jefferson School of Population Health.

$330 Million Risk: What Boards Should Know

In his article that advises American Hospital Association member trustees, Rodney Hockman, MD warns that hundreds of hospitals are likely to be penalized by Medicare for patient injuries under the Hospital-Acquired Condition (HAC) Reduction Program starting in October 2014. He points out that each penalized hospital stands to lose nearly $434,000 in Medicare reimbursements on average, with large hospital systems and those with a high volume of Medicare payments potentially facing much greater losses should they provide unsafe care.

Dr. Hochman points to institutions using a bundle of best practices to address this,  including 353-bed White Memorial Hospital, part of the Adventist Health System in Los Angeles, to eliminate two of the serious complications used to determine penalties under Medicare’s HAC Reduction Program: pneumothorax and central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs).  Both conditions are now included on AHRQ’s list of patient safety indicators. 

Smarter Use of Imaging Technology: Reduce Errors Costs

Medical errors continue to be a major problem in the US healthcare system, with hospital acquired infections (HAC) becoming an area of greater focus and where significant financial penalties are being incurred. Medicare has added one especially dangerous--or even potentially fatal--adverse event, iatrogenic pneumothorax during central line placement, to its HAC list. Along with putting patients in peril, the mistake can also increase hospital costs by up to $45,000 per incident, according to a study by the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research (AHRQ). 

Many excellent studies show that ultrasound guidance can powerfully improve the safety and success of this very common procedure. In fact, in one randomized study of 900 critical care patients, use of ultrasound visualization reduced the rate of collapsed lung during central line placement to zero, compared to 2.4 percent for blind placement. 

Dr. Sierzenski is the Director of Emergency, Trauma and Critical Care Ultrasound for Christiana Care Health System’s Department of Emergency Medicine. He is also the Chair, Government Policy & Public Relations for the American College of Emergency Physicians Ultrasound Section and a Master's Candidate in Health Quality and Safety at the Jefferson School of Population Health.

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