By KHI News Service
TOPEKA — The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reports that the number of Medicare beneficiaries readmitted to hospitals and the number of health care-related infections has gone down nationally and slightly more so in areas where so-called Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs) have programs aimed at reducing the problems.
Officials with the Kansas Foundation for Medical Care, the state’s designated QIO, said hospital readmissions here among the Medicare population went down almost 15 percent between October 2010 and March 2013 and that hospital admissions also dropped by almost 10 percent. That translated into more than 6,000 fewer hospitalizations and 1,547 fewer readmissions.
The Foundation has been working statewide to reduce avoidable admissions and also with provider coalitions in Hays, Kansas City, Topeka and Wichita.
The group also has been working with other agencies to decrease the incidence of infections acquired in healthcare settings.
It is partnered with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and various health care providers to address Clostridium difficile infections (C. diff).
Foundation officials said seven facilities have joined the Kansas Clostridium difficile Prevention Collaborative, which is working to reduce the infections through better awareness and training.
The officials said early results have shown a 16.5 percent “relative improvement rate in reducing the number of hospital onset C. diff infections.”
Representatives of the foundation and KDHE were selected to report on the collaborative at the national Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) annual conference.
The CMS data showed that hospital readmissions among Medicare beneficiaries nationally declined by 13.22 percent in QIO communities, compared to a national drop of 12.55 percent. Similarly, hospital admissions declined further in QIO communities—by 8.39 percent vs. 8.12 percent nationally.
Foundation officials said the reduced hospitalization had saved Medicare nearly $1 billion nationally.