Beaufort Memorial penalized by federal Medicare program
Beaufort Memorial Hospital is among 13 South Carolina hospitals being penalized this year by the federal Medicare program for making too many preventable mistakes that harm patients.
The program scored hospitals on the number of "hospital-acquired conditions" affecting patients between 2011 and 2013 and penalized the worst scores 1 percent of their Medicare payments for the fiscal year that began in October.
Hospital leaders did not immediately know last week know how much the penalty would cost.
The scores include three categories of conditions: central-line associated bloodstream infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, and certain postoperative problems such as blood clots, infections and broken sutures.
Based on the number of those conditions at each facility, hospitals received a score of 1 to 10 (10 being worst) in each category and an overall score. Beaufort Memorial received a 7.025, the 12th-highest overall score in the state, including a 10 for catheter infections.
But those numbers are now outdated, and Beaufort Memorial has cut its scores to at or near zero, interim director of quality Shawna Doran said last week.
"We went beyond the (penalty) threshold by .025 percent, and it's hard when you're a smaller hospital, too," Doran said. "It does bite a little bit, but the only thing we can do is continue to improve, and we are."
More than 720 hospitals are being penalized nationwide as the Medicare program tries to push hospitals toward higher performance. In the past, hospitals have been paid by their number of Medicare patients.
In South Carolina, Palmetto Health Richland and Palmetto Health Baptist in Columbia received the worst overall scores in the state.
Hilton Head Hospital will not be penalized, but received the 17th-highest score in the state. Coastal Carolina Hospital received one of the best scores, but was not graded on blood infections.
Those scores are only a snapshot of each hospital's full scope of work, though, because they include only Medicare patients, Doran said.
Still, the scores have helped almost every hospital improve, Doran said. At Beaufort Memorial, staff is reviewing the scores daily to make rapid adjustments, she said.
Doctors and nurses also are now working more in teams, have standardized more procedures and are studying the latest best practices to bring to Beaufort, she said.
Last year, the S.C. Hospital Association honored Beaufort Memorial with a "zero harm" award for having no hospital-acquired bloodstream infections for a year in its intensive and progressive care units, Doran said. She is confident the hospital will not be penalized again next year.
"We were very proactive once we saw (the scores) so it wouldn't get worse," Doran said. "When we saw issues starting, we acted on it. Now the fruits of our labor are showing because we've done so well."
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This story was originally published January 3, 2015 at 5:41 PM with the headline "Beaufort Memorial penalized by federal Medicare program ."