The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services are cracking down on the top offenders for Healthcare Acquired Infections (HAI). To encourage the worst offenders to improve their quality of care and reduce costs, beginning in FY 2015 (October 1, 2014), the Hospital Acquired Condition (HAC) Program was created as part of the Affordable Care Act. All hospitals that perform in the bottom 25% will have their payments from Medicare and Medicaid reduced by 1 percent.
During the first year of the program, the HAC score is based on patient safety, central line-associated blood stream infections and catheter-associate urinary tract infections. Each of these areas is rated on a scale of 1 to 10 and a composite score is created based on a weighted factor for each area. The period of measurements for the first year’s penalties is July 1, 2011 to June 31, 2013. Year two will add additional criteria to the measurements including surgical site infections and incident rates for two germ resistant antibiotic treatments.
The penalties will cost hospitals hundreds of millions of dollars in lost performance bonuses and penalties assessed. While hospitals have decreased infection rates overall, more proactive programs must be put in place to have a serious impact on the rate of infections. One of the key methods going forward to reduce HAI is utilizing technological innovations.
Instituting screening programs using WelloStation, a high-tech core body temperature measurement device, will have a major impact on the spread of infectious diseases. The normal regimen of the patient admission process catches and isolates patients that are at risk for spreading infections; however, non-patients go undetected and become spreaders within the hospital environment. WelloStation will detect febrile non-patients and keep infections out. Isolating infection spreaders will lower rates of HAI, decrease scores and reduce penalties to hospitals. Instituting affordable technology will have a quick and immediate payback.