january 2013 quality and safety narrative report
TRANSCRIPT
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GHS Quality and Safety Report January 2013
Core Measures / Value Based Purchasing
Background – The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and The Joint Commission (TJC) have developed process of care measures for Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI), Congestive Heart Failure (CHF), Community Acquired Pneumonia (CAP), and Surgical Care Improvement (SCIP) termed “Core Measures”. The term “All Care Measure” (ACM) refers to perfect care provided to a patient with a specific disease. It is the percent of patients who received all the needed core measures required for that disease state. The term “Composite” refers to the percent compliance of all possible opportunities (the total number of compliant opportunities for care divided by the total number of opportunities for care). The Composite score will always be higher than the All Care Measure Score. The measures differ slightly between CMS and TJC and are publicly reported on their respective websites (CMS) www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov and (TJC) www.qualitycheck.org. Reported results lag 3 to 6 months behind due to the complexity and requirements of external reporting. Over the past several years, we have set an organization wide goal for the All Care Measure (ACM). Beginning in FY 2012, we are changing our organizational goal to a Value Based Purchasing (VBP) score, but will continue to report the ACM and Composite scores. The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 directed CMS to develop a Value Based Purchasing (VBP) incentive program to begin to align Medicare payments with hospital quality performance. The Patient Care and Affordable Care Act put in place the mechanism and requirement for CMS to withhold a percentage of Medicare reimbursement and require hospitals to meet performance thresholds to earn back the withheld percentage. The amount CMS will withhold in FY 2013 is 1.0% of a facility’s CMS baseline DRG payment. This withhold will increase by 0.25% annually to 2.0% in FY 2017. Based on a hospital’s total performance score, hospitals will have their DRG payments adjusted by a factor somewhere between a loss of the entire withhold, to a gain of an amount equal to the withhold. The VBP program is budget neutral resulting in many hospitals losing money and others gaining money. To be eligible, hospitals must also continue to submit results to the Hospital Compare website. The total performance score of the VBP program is a combination of several measures. Hospitals will have two methods to gain points toward their total VBP score. For each measure, a hospital can either achieve a certain level of performance or they can obtain points for improving their scores as compared to their baseline data. CMS will count the greater of the two scores, achievement versus improvement. Because GHS has historically done very well on core measures, our opportunity for improvement is minimal and our clinical domain score will likely be determined primarily by our achievement score. CMS has established national benchmarks and thresholds for each VBP quality measure. The benchmarks represent the highest achievement levels whereas the thresholds represent the minimum achievement levels. Each of our four acute care facilities will receive their own VBP score and will each
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be susceptible to incentive payments or penalties. (North Greenville Memorial Hospital as a Long Term Acute Care Hospital is not eligible for inclusion under the current VBP program.) Year 1 of the VBP program involves quality metrics obtained for services between July 2011 and March 2012. The payment changes are applied to DRG payments beginning with FY 2013 in October 2012. During this period, CMS used two types of measures. The first domain is called the Clinical Process of Care Measures and included 12 core measures. This domain reflected 70% of the total VBP score. The second domain is called the Patient Experience of Care Measures and included 8 HCAHPs patient satisfaction measures. This domain reflected 30% of the total VBP score. In FY13, all GHS hospitals received an increase to their DRG payments based on our quality results. CMS intends to add measures to the VBP program. In Year 2, CMS added one additional core measure to the Clinical Process of Care Measures involving the removal of urinary catheters. They are weighting this domain at 45%. The Patient Experience of Care domain is weighted at 30%. They have added a third domain, termed Outcome of Care and weighted it at 25%. It is a measure of risk-‐adjusted mortality rates for acute myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure and community acquired pneumonia. The measurement period is from April 2012 through December 2012. Adjustments to DRG payments will be made in October 2013 at the start of FY 2014. GHS Goal – For FY 2013, the GHS quality goal is the new measure for Value Based Purchasing. Specifically, it is the composite compliance score for the 13 clinical core measures. Historically, our composite score for these measures has been around 98%, which approximates the 75th percentile. Thus, the GHS goal is set at 98.0% to maintain performance at this level. We will continue to report the ACM and Composite scores. GHS Results –
Value Based Purchasing – The initial results for the 6 month period April 2012 through September 2012 for all four acute care facilities exceed our target of 98.0% except for Greenville Memorial. The GHS overall VBP clinical process of care score is 98.6%, Greenville Memorial’s score is 97.4%, Greer Memorial’s is 99.0%, Hillcrest Memorial’s score is 98.4%, and Patewood Memorial’s score is 99.7%. ACM / Composite Scores – From October 2011 through September 2012, the GHS ACM compliance rate is 95.9% for inpatient measures, 97.9% for outpatient measures, and 96.2% combined. The inpatient composite compliance rate for this time period is 98.8%. The Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) ACM score for July -‐ September 12 is 99.0%, while the composite compliance rate is 99.7% (763/765). The Congestive Heart Failure (HF) ACM score for July -‐ September 12 is 99.5%, while the composite compliance rate is 99.8% (400/401).
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The Community Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) ACM score for July -‐ September 12 is 97.7%, while the composite compliance rate is 98.5% (261/265). The Surgical Care (SCIP) ACM score for July -‐ September 12 is 93.7%, while the composite compliance rate is 99.0% (4157/4201). The Outpatient Emergency Department (ED) and Surgical All Care Measure score for July -‐ September 12 is 97.6% while the composite score is 98.7% (517/524).
Specif ic Issues – The primary opportunity for improvement involves the removal of post-‐operative urinary catheters within 2 days of surgery in order to prevent a catheter associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI). An innovative build in our Soarian technology has led to the development of an alert in using Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) that is generated to the surgeon on post operative day 1 or 2. The electronic alert prompts the physician to either discontinue the urinary catheter or to document an evidence-‐based reason for continuing the catheter. The ‘go-‐live’ date was January 9, 2013. Concurrent monitoring will provide feedback on the effectiveness of this latest intervention.
Mortal ity Rates
Background – We assess mortality rates through four methods.
CMS 30 Day, All Cause Mortality Rates for AMI / CHF / Pneumonia – CMS calculates and reports 30 day, all-‐cause mortality rates for patients admitted with AMI, CHF, or pneumonia on their public website at www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov. Because they have complete claims and eligibility data, they are able to identify patients who die after being admitted to any hospital in the country. CMS calculates this data once annually. The current measures are for July 2008 through June 2011.
Premier In-‐Hospital Mortality Rates – We assess system, facility, and DRG business line level data of all-‐cause, in-‐hospital mortality throughout GHS utilizing the Premier Clinical Advisor database. A mortality rate index is calculated that represents a risk-‐adjusted measure of the observed mortality rate divided by the expected mortality rate. AHRQ Inpatient Quality Indicators (IQIs) – The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has developed the Inpatient Quality Indicators (IQIs), which are a set of measures that provide perspective on hospital quality of care using hospital administrative (claims) data. The data source for AHRQ IQI data is provided by CMS on an annual basis to all participating hospitals across the country. The benchmarks in the CMS annual report are derived from their national database. At this time CMS is scheduled to publicly report on their Hospital Compare website only two of the AHRQ IQI indicators, Hip Fracture Mortality Rate and AAA (Abdominal
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Aortic Aneurysm) Repair Mortality Rate. In this section, we are presenting data for the IQIs that assess inpatient mortality rates only.
GHS Site-‐Specific, 5-‐Year Cancer Survival Rates – Annually, we review our 5-‐year cancer survival rates for several specific forms of cancer as part of our cancer care accreditation. The data are obtained from our cancer registry and compared to the National Cancer Database (NCDB) national benchmarks. The September 2012 study performed by Dawn Blackhurst, DrPH assessed the 5-‐year survival of “analytic” cases diagnosed with cancer in 2003, 2004 and 2005. “Analytic” cancer cases are those who were diagnosed or received their first course of treatment at GHS. GHS survival rates were compared to rates from all NCDB hospitals (n=1474 hospitals). Rates were formally compared for statistical significance using 95% confidence intervals.
GHS Goal – Our goal is for our mortality index or rates to be statistically better than expected. For the IQIs, our goal is to have a rate lower than the comparative benchmark. GHS Results
CMS 30-‐Day, All Cause Mortality Rates for AMI / CHF / Pneumonia – Our mortality rates for July 2008 through June 2011, reported in 2012 are statistically no different than the national average. Note that as the population becomes smaller around a specific disease, it is very difficult to show statistical significance.
Premier In-‐Hospital Mortality Rates – Our system wide in-‐hospital, all-‐cause mortality rate for October 2011 through September 2012 remains constant at 2.2% with a mortality rate index of 0.85. This is statistically better than expected for the Greenville Health System as well as for the individual facilities of Greenville, Greer and Hillcrest. Patewood has a 0.00% mortality rate, but due to lower volumes, does not reach statistical significance. DRG level mortality rate indices are presented for Greenville Hospital System as a whole with no major opportunities identified. AHRQ Inpatient Quality Indicators (IQIs) – For Greenville Memorial we have the ability to benchmark AHRQ IQI results with other UHC teaching hospitals. The IQI mortality rates are statistically unfavorable to the UHC benchmark for one of the Inpatient Quality Indicators, craniotomy. Several other IQI results are statistically higher than Premier peer rates, but these comparative hospitals have a lower acuity of patients making the UHC benchmark more comparable for GMH. The community hospitals have much lower volumes and are not statistically different for the procedures included in the AHRQ Inpatient Quality Indicators. GHS Site-‐Specific, 5-‐Year Cancer Survival Rates – Overall “combined-‐stage” GHS 5-‐year survival rates were comparable to NCDB rates for all 11 cancer sites [See Figure 1 in Appendix A]. GHS survival rates were slightly higher than NCDB rates for 9 of 11 cancer sites and slightly lower for 2 of the 11 sites; however, none of these differences were statistically significant.
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30 Day, Al l -‐Cause Readmission Rates
Background – We assess readmission rates through two sources.
CMS 30-‐Day, All Cause Readmission Rates for AMI / CHF / Pneumonia – CMS reports 30 day, all-‐cause readmission rates for patients admitted with AMI, CHF, or pneumonia. Because they have complete claims data, they are able to identify Medicare patients readmitted to any hospital in the country. CMS calculates this data once annually and reports it publicly at www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov. Current measures are for July 2008 through June 2011. CMS Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program for AMI / CHF / Pneumonia – CMS has been calculating and publicly reporting the readmission measures for Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting since 2009 (see above). The 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish a Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program that would reduce CMS Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) payments beginning October 1, 2012. The ACA further requires the adoption of the 30-‐day Risk Standardized Readmission measures for AMI, CHF and Pneumonia. To comply with these requirements CMS has calculated an Excess Readmission Ratio that will be used to determine payment adjustment for each eligible hospital. The data period for calculating the Excess Readmission Ratio in the first year will be based on July 1, 2008 through June 30, 2011. Premier 30-‐Day, All Cause Readmission Rates – We assess system, facility, and DRG business line level data for 30 day, all-‐cause readmissions to the same facility utilizing the Premier Clinical Advisor database. A readmission rate index is calculated that represents a risk-‐adjusted measure of the observed readmission rate divided by the expected readmission rate. A higher than expected readmission rate can be an indicator of poor quality care in the hospital, premature discharge from the hospital, or problems within the ambulatory care delivery system. A note on measurement: The collection and interpretation of this data is complex. Healthcare data is dynamic and a readmission rate can be one of the most variable measures in healthcare systems due to a variety of factors. In order to assess readmission rates, the medical record and coding of the care provided must be completed for both the first and second admission. Electronic data queries will capture a readmission only after the patient has been discharged a second time. Thus if a patient has a long stay in the hospital during his second admission it could potentially be at least several months before the data query will capture and include that patient’s readmission in the data results. For this reason, the readmission rate for any given quarter may increase over time as more cases are identified. Thus, the readmission rate is continually updated as ‘new’ patients are captured in the data reports. Additionally, current methods do not allow the capture of patients readmitted to other facilities.
GHS Goal – Our goal is to have our readmission index be statistically better than expected.
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GHS Results CMS 30-‐Day, All Cause Readmission Rates for AMI / CHF / Pneumonia – Current results on Hospital Compare reported in June 2012 are for July 2008 through June 2011. Our readmission rates for all 3 populations at Greenville Memorial Hospital (GMH) continue to improve slightly compared to results from the previous year. For the fourth consecutive year GMH has rated better than the U.S. national average in AMI and CHF. GMH was the only hospital in South Carolina to achieve this ranking for AMI and only one of four South Carolina hospitals to achieve this “better than” ranking in CHF. Additionally, GMH has the 8th lowest overall 30 day readmission rate for CHF in the entire country. For Pneumonia GMH rated no different from the U.S. national average. Hillcrest and Greer Memorial Hospitals are statistically no different from the national average for CHF, AMI and Pneumonia. Note that as the population becomes smaller around a specific disease, it is very difficult to show statistical significance. CMS Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program for AMI / CHF / Pneumonia – The Excess Readmission Ratio is a measure of relative performance. If a hospital performs better than an average hospital that admitted similar patients (that is, patients with similar risk factors for readmission such as age and co-‐morbidities), the ratio will be less than 1.0000. If a hospital performs worse than average, the ratio will be greater than 1.0000. Results for Greenville Memorial, Hillcrest Memorial, and Greer Memorial for all 3 clinical populations were less than 1.0000. GMH’s Excess Readmission Ratio for Heart Failure was 0.7959 which is consistent with other benchmarking initiatives that illustrate top performing status. Premier 30-‐Day, All Cause Readmission Rates – Our system wide 30 day, all-‐cause readmission rate for October 2011 through September 2012 is 8.46% and our readmission rate index is 0.81 which is statistically significantly better than expected. Readmission rates for all 4 acute care hospitals are statistically significantly better than expected. DRG level readmission rate indices are presented for Greenville Hospital System. No DRG Business Line is statistically unfavorable in the most recent quarter, July – September 2012.
AHRQ Patient Safety Culture Survey Background – Key to Patient Safety is the development of an organization wide culture of safety. This is best measured using the AHRQ Patient Safety Culture Survey tool with standardized results and benchmarks. AHRQ publishes their benchmarks typically a year after they are obtained. We survey all GHS employees and physicians each August. GHS Goal – For FY 2012, our GHS organization wide goal for the AHRQ Patient Safety Culture was to be in the top quartile using a rolled up measure of the entire survey tool. AHRQ reports their data a year after it is collected. Thus, the AHRQ benchmarks we used to set our goal came from the 2011 AHRQ Report that included data collected in 2010 and 2011. We approximated the ~82nd percentile as the half-‐way point between the 75th and 90th percentiles reported by AHRQ.
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(1) < 50th percentile < 61.99% or lower (2) 50th to 74th percentile 62.00% to 66.99% (3) 75th to ~82nd percentile 67.00% to 68.99% (4) ~82nd to 90th percentile 69.00% to 70.99% (5) > 90th percentile 71.00% or higher
While we continue to strive for top quartile performance on the rolled up and individual composite scores, the GHS Organization-‐wide Goal for FY 2013 is to increase overall survey participation to 60% rather than achieve a specific score. GHS Results – In December 2008, GHS took the survey for the first time. We surveyed only clinical staff and we had a response rate of 55.2% with an overall score of 59.8%. In August / September 2010, GHS again took the survey, but this time did it electronically. We again surveyed only clinical staff and we had a response rate of 35.7% (2,138 / 5,996) and an overall score of 62.4%. This was a statistically significant improvement from baseline and approximated the 57th percentile. For comparative purposes, the national mean was 62%, median was 61%, 75th percentile was 67%, and maximum was 85%. The FY 2011 survey was administered from August 15th to September 5th, 2011. This year, rather than surveying only clinical staff, we made the survey available electronically through a link on GHSNet to all GHS employees and sent the survey link via e-‐mail invitation to physicians. This is how AHRQ usually does their surveys and typically results in lower response rates, but higher scores. Our response rate decreased to 27.2% (2,742 / 10,097) and the overall score increased to 62.8%. The FY 2012 survey was administered from August 13th to September 3rd, 2012. This year we again made the survey available electronically through a link on GHSNet to all GHS employees and sent the survey link via e-‐mail invitation to physicians. Our response rate did increase to 28.4% (3100/10,934). The overall score for GHS increased to 64.2%, which is above the AHRQ mean of 63% and a statistically significant increase from the 2008 baseline. We have not yet reached our goal of top quartile performance of 68% (75th percentile). The overall score is made up of 12 domains. The safety culture is particularly positive in two areas. GHS employees have the perception that within a unit, there is exceptional teamwork and cooperation (83.4%). Secondly, there is a strong perception that unit manager expectations and actions promote patient safety (79.2%). Both of these measures are in the top quartile nationally. Previously, we had identified 3 significant areas of opportunity: (1) the perception of a punitive culture; (2) handoffs and transitions; and (3) teamwork across units.
o In 2012, of the three previously identified opportunities, handoffs and transitions is now our most serious challenge with a score of 38.9% (mean 45%, 75th 51.0%). This is followed by staffing as a growing concern at 55.4% (mean 57%, 75th 62%).
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o Although it continues to be a challenge, our performance related to Just Culture (non-‐
punitive culture) has improved significantly from 32.4% to 45.0% (mean 44%, 75th 49.0%). This was our lowest performing domain in FY 2010. To improve this score we provided just Culture training in the May 2011 Leadership Development retreat and a break-‐out training update on “Just Culture” at our July 2012 Leadership Development Retreat.
Detailed reports for each hospital are provided in a separate annual report.
National Patient Safety Goals
Background – The Joint Commission (TJC) has established a number of National Patient Safety Goals (NPSG), which are process steps that should be implemented to ensure optimal patient safety. NPSGs are not publicly reported and they represent a self-‐audit. Consequently, there is no national comparative data. In 2011 the GHS audit process for NPSGs changed when a new methodology for data collection was developed. Previously, compliance was evaluated by a unit self-‐audit. Data is now collected by the Quality Management Data Collector Nurses. The currently reported NPSGs include the following:
• NPSG 1 – Patient Identification: Use at least two patient identifiers when administering medications, blood, or blood components; when collecting blood samples and other specimens for clinical testing; and when providing treatments or procedures. The patient's room number or physical location is not used as an identifier. Label containers used for blood and other specimens in the presence of the patient. Audit methodology: Staff are directly observed by Quality Management RNs while performing procedures for compliance with the requirements for patient identification including the use of barcoding technology.
• NPSG 2 – Reporting of Critical Result: Notification of appropriate providers of a critical test
result within one hour of the test’s availability. Audit methodology selected: A list of critical results is obtained from the laboratory; then, a chart audit is done for the documentation and timeliness (one hour or less turn-‐around time) of reporting critical results.
• NPSG 3.06 – Medication Reconciliation: Obtain information on the medications the patient is currently taking when he or she is admitted to the hospital or is seen in an outpatient setting and compare the medication information the patient brought to the hospital with the
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medications ordered for the patient by the hospital in order to identify and resolve discrepancies. Provide the patient (or family as needed) with written information on the medications the patient should be taking when he or she is discharged from the hospital or at the end of an outpatient encounter and explain the importance of managing medication information to the patient when he or she is discharged from the hospital or at the end of an outpatient encounter. Audit methodology: Medical charts are audited for evidence of a completed medication list on admission; reconciliation of the medication list; and medications to be listed along with completed education of the patient and family at discharge.
• NPSG 15 – Suicide Risk Assessment and Safety: Conduct a risk assessment that identifies specific
patient characteristics and environmental features that may increase or decrease the risk for suicide, and address the patient’s immediate safety needs and most appropriate setting for treatment. Audit methodology: On the day this NPSG is audited, a list of behavioral patients present in the emergency department is obtained. A review of those patients’ chart is conducted to determine if the initial suicide risk assessment was completed, as well as evidence of on-‐going risk assessment.
• Universal Protocol / Bedside Time-‐out: Implement a preprocedure process to verify the correct procedure, for the correct patient, at the correct site, mark the procedure site (if applicable), and perform a time-‐out before the procedure. Audit methodology: A chart audit is done for the presence of the completed bedside time-‐out form on the charts of patients who have had a bedside procedure.
GHS Goal – Specific organization wide goals for the NPSGs have not been set, but best practice encourages that they should be carried out 100% of the time. TJC typically expects 90% compliance. During a recent Joint Commission visit GHSUMC was commended on performance improvement efforts for Patient Identification related to labeling of laboratory specimens at the bedside as evidenced by the National Patient Safety Goal data and observation during the survey. GHS Results – Current quarter results range between 84.1% and 99.3% with an overall score of 91.4%. This represents a significant improvement in individual and overall NPSGs and is the first time since the change in the auditing methodology that the overall score has exceeded 90%. Significant improvement has been sustained for suicide risk assessment and critical results after focused improvement initiatives were completed. There was also significant improvement in medication reconciliation due to the addition of educational information to the Patient Admission Packet related to
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the maintenance of the discharge medication list in order to comply with the requirement. This was completed at the end of the second quarter.
Anticoagulat ion Therapy and Monitoring
Background – Bleeding from anticoagulant use has been recognized as a prevalent complication and an important cause of morbidity and mortality. For this reason Joint Commission added National Patient Safety Goal 03.05 that required the development and use of hospital policies to help reduce the likelihood of harm to patients receiving therapeutic anticoagulation or long-‐term prophylaxis. GHS initiatives began January 1, 2009. In 2010, a multidisciplinary team from Greenville Memorial collaborated with industrial engineers from Clemson University to analyze and direct further efforts to reduce adverse drug events associated with warfarin (Coumadin). Numerous changes to processes were made. The International Normalized Ratio (INR) is used to monitor the extent of anticoagulation. It may take several days of dosing for the INR to reach therapeutic values. As part of this initiative, specific metrics were developed:
• Measure 1: The percent of patients with an INR between 2.0 to 3.5 representing optimal levels of anticoagulation.
• Measure 2: The percent of patients with an INR in the “Critical Value Range”, which is defined as being greater than or equal to 5.0 and carries with it a significantly increased risk of bleeding.
• The denominator is the count of INR values for hospitalized patients who received Warfarin. Since 2010, GHS pharmacists have been increasingly involved with education and monitoring of patients on warfarin in multiple outpatient clinics to reduce admissions with INR values > 5.
Goal – Reduce the likelihood of patient harm related to major bleeding events as evidenced by an increase in the percent of INRs within the therapeutic range and a decrease in the percent of INRs at or over the critical range. Results – The data points reflect a rolling 12-‐month period, trending January 2009 forward. The percentage of therapeutic INR values for January-‐December 2012 is 35.80%, which continues to trend positively. The percentage of critical INR values is 1.91%, showing a less favorable trend from the preceding year and being equivalent to Jan-‐Dec 2009. It is notable that the Greenville Memorial acute care population being treated with warfarin has diminished by 332 as compared to calendar year 2011, and 626 fewer than CY 2010. The denominator for total INR values is 2,813 less than CY 2011. Some of the decline in utilization can be related to newer oral anticoagulants approved by the FDA in 2010 and added to the GMH formulary in May 2011.
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Hospital Acquired Condit ions (HACs)
Background – The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently adopted eight of the ten Hospital Acquired Condition measures as part of their Pay-‐for-‐Reporting requirements. This initial set of eight measures will be publicly reported on the CMS Hospital Compare site by June 2011 as a downloadable file. The selected measures were established in collaboration with the CDC and other external agencies to determine conditions or events which were considered serious and reasonably preventable through application of evidence-‐based guidelines. The conditions are identifiable through claims data for Medicare fee-‐for-‐service patients only. Identification of inpatients with a HAC is determined through the use of qualifying ICD diagnostic codes and qualifying Present on Admission (POA) codes. In addition CMS has proposed to include the eight HAC measures as part of its Value Based Purchasing Initiative in 2014, but recently suspended this initiative for one year. The eight Hospital Acquired Conditions that CMS will begin to publicly report are:
1. Retained Foreign Object after surgery 2. Air Embolism 3. Blood Incompatibility 4. Pressure Ulcer 5. Falls and Trauma 6. Vascular Catheter-‐Associated Infection 7. Catheter-‐Associated Urinary Tract Infection 8. Poor Glycemic (blood sugar) Control
There is significant concern regarding the accuracy of these measures. They are all developed exclusively from claims data which is subject to errors in documentation and coding. In many situations, the HAC data is not correlating with much more specific data at GHS that is obtained using detailed condition definitions and chart audits. Additionally, in some circumstances, there are medically justified reasons for a HAC to occur. They may not be 100% preventable. GHS Goal – No goal has been set at this time for HACs. Ultimately our goal will be to minimize the number of HAC’s for all eight measures across the system. GHS Results – CMS’s initial HAC report covers the time frame July 2009 – June 2011. All HAC measures for Greenville Memorial Hospital were lower than the national rates except for Foreign Object Retained after surgery (1 occurrence), Catheter-‐Associated Urinary Tract Infection (GMH rate is 0.910 compared to a national rate of 0.358) and Poor Glycemic Control (two events resulted in a GMH rate of 0.087 compared to a national rate of 0.058). Greer Memorial Hospital had one event for the measure “Falls and Trauma” resulting in a rate of 0.36 compared to a national benchmark rate of 0.527. Hillcrest Memorial Hospital also had one event for the measure “Falls and Trauma” resulting in a rate of 0.608 compared to a national benchmark rate of 0.527. All other HAC measures for Greer and Hillcrest showed zero events. Patewood Memorial Hospital had no identified HAC’s during this time frame.
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AHRQ Patient Safety Indicators (PSIs)
Background – A method of assessing inpatient patient safety and complication events is to use the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Patient Safety Indicators (PSIs). The PSIs are a set of measures that provide perspective on hospital quality of care using hospital administrative (claims) data. The indicators are used to screen for potential adverse events occurring during hospitalization following surgeries, procedures and childbirth. They are based on evidence based medicine and use complex algorithms that are risk adjusted. While the PSIs were intended for internal screening to identify potential areas of improvement opportunity, they are now frequently being used to rate the quality and safety of care delivered by hospitals. At this time CMS is publicly reporting on their Hospital Compare website the following seven AHRQ PSI indicators: Patient Safety Indicator
• Iatrogenic Pneumothorax • Post op PE or DVT • Post op Wound Dehiscence • Accidental Puncture or Laceration • Death among Surgical Inpatients with Serious Treatable Conditions • Post op Respiratory Failure • Complications/Patient Safety for Selected Indicators (Composite Score)
There is significant concern regarding the accuracy of these measures. They are all developed exclusively from claims data which is subject to errors in documentation and coding. GHS Goal – No goal has been set as these are screening tools. For each PSI, we would like the actual measure to be lower than the comparative benchmark. GHS Results – UHC and Premier provide external benchmarks for the PSI’s and thus we are able to track our performance throughout the year. Current data through September 2012 continues to trend favorably with fewer opportunities for Greenville Memorial. Post-‐operative pulmonary embolus or deep vein thrombosis and birth injury to neonates both are statistically better than expected compared to a benchmark. Opportunities include post-‐operative respiratory failure, post-‐operative sepsis and obstetrical trauma during vaginal delivery without instruments. No outliers exist at Greer, Hillcrest or Patewood relative to Premier external benchmarks. A Lean Six Sigma project was launched in January 2012 to develop a methodology to improve AHRQ Patient Safety Indicators (PSI). The initial focus was around the PSI ‘Accidental Puncture or Laceration; however, the project also focused on PSI for ‘Post Op Hemorrhage & Hematoma’ and ‘Birth Trauma Injury to Neonate’. A significant finding of this work is that the Accidental Puncture or Laceration PSI
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was driven primarily by documentation and coding issues rather than clinical care. After addressing both clinical and documentation issues Greenville Memorial has achieved top quartile rates compared to UHC benchmarks over the past four quarters. An AHRQ PSI that we have begun to trend internally even though it is not yet publicly reported is the rate of pressure ulcers. Reviewing our results compared to the UHC benchmark shows that the overall pressure ulcer rate at Greenville Memorial is at or below benchmark. The pressure ulcer process improvement core team is developing a project charter and preparing for the inaugural team meeting in February.
IHI Global Tr igger Tool
Background – Traditional efforts to detect adverse events have focused on voluntary reporting of events by healthcare providers and tracking and trending of errors. Public health researchers have established that only 10 to 20 percent of errors are ever reported and, of those, 90 to 95 percent cause no harm to patients. The IHI Global Trigger Tool for Measuring Adverse Events was implemented in 2003, providing a method for accurately identifying events (harm) and measuring the rate of adverse events over time. “Harm” is defined as “unintended physical injury resulting from or contributed to by medical care that requires additional monitoring, treatment or hospitalization, or that results in death”. The concept is to move from a focus on error and whether it was preventable or not, to the measurement of global institutional harm, whether preventable or not. The process involves a retrospective review of a random sample of inpatient medical records using “triggers” or clues, to identify possible adverse events. GHS Goal – A goal will be set after a establishing a baseline since IHI recommends obtaining at least twelve data points prior to performing data analyses. GHS Results – The Quality Management Department began using the IHI Global Trigger tool in January 2012, reviewing 20 random charts per month. Based on four quarters of data 67 patients had 82 harm events that were identified through chart reviews and were corroborated by the appropriate Vice Chairs of Quality. One way to present the data is in a run chart that displays the number of ‘Adverse Harm Events per 1000 patient days’. GHS results, which includes Greenville, Hillcrest, Greer and Patewood Memorial Hospitals, range from 50.2 to 79.9 harm events per thousand patient days per quarter. Florida Hospital System’s historical average was selected as a benchmark since it is also a multi-‐facility system similar to GHS and has years of experience with the IHI Global Trigger Tool.
Event Reporting
Background – Critical to the ability to improve quality and prevent adverse events is the need to identify errors and near misses, analyze and understand opportunities for improvement and implement
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targeted improvement initiatives. This identification and measurement of actual and potential adverse events is critical to the development of a safety culture and a high reliability organization. The search for opportunities for improvement comes from data across a spectrum that includes patient complaints, reported unsafe conditions, near misses and adverse events, the investigation of adverse events and malpractice litigation. Unsafe conditions represent issues that present the potential for patient safety issues if not corrected and include such things as computer system, equipment safety, infrastructure failure and security issues. They are not patient specific. The ability to proactively identify and trend such issues via the event reporting system has been in place since 2011. Near misses and adverse events both relate to the care of a specific patient. Near misses are potential events that were caught and prevented prior to the patient being involved. An adverse event occurs when the event or care did involve the patient. The adverse event may or may not have caused any patient harm. It is reported in the literature that typically only 5 to 10% of errors are actually reported in hospitals. This is also consistent with baseline data from other high risk industries. Thus, there is a significant need to increase the rate of reporting of all errors in order to detect and mitigate potential harm to patients. GHS converted to University HealthSystem Consortium’s (UHC) Patient Safety Net (PSN) for event reporting in late December, 2010. This web-‐based tool provides a mechanism to identify, catalogue and analyze events and unsafe conditions, which can then be systematically corrected to improve outcomes and prevent patient injury. GHS Goal – We measure the reporting of errors and adverse events as a rate for inpatient settings (number of events reported per 1000 patient days) and as a rate for outpatient settings (number of events reported per 10,000 procedures). The current goal is set at the 75th percentile of Event Reporting compared to comparable size hospitals in the UHC database. Thus, the goal is for the GHS overall Inpatient Event Reporting Rate to be at or above 40.18 reports per 1000 patient days for each of our facilities. No benchmark has been established for outpatient event rate as published comparison data is not available. GHS Results – Current results are for the forth quarter of CY 2012.
Frequency – There has been a slight decrease in patient event rate during the current quarter. Event reporting was not included in organizational goals for FY2013, which might contribute to inconstancy of reporting events beginning October, 2012. As a system, GHS continues to be below the UHC 75th percentile of 40.18 per 1000 patient days. The baseline event reporting rate in 2010 was 11.9. The rate for December, 2012 was 26.6, a slight improvement over prior month. The volume of event reporting hit a high of 32.9 in 1QTR 12 but has declined 11% since that time to a current rate in 4QTR12 of 29.25.
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Severity – For the quarter reported, the rate of events with moderate to severe injury remained a small percent of the total reports and is in line with prior months. Inpatient events with harm in 4QTR12 remained at 2.3 per 1000 patient days, basically unchanged from prior quarter. Type – Event type allows reporting of patient and visitor events, as well as unsafe conditions. The most common event types reported include:
1) Laboratory test (25% -‐ essentially unchanged from the prior quarter) 2) Falls dipped slightly from the prior quarter, constituting 13% of total events. It appears
that fall frequency remains fairly steady. The GHS fall rate of 4.0 for 4QTR 2012 shows a downward trend for the year.
3) Medication related events were down 8% from the prior quarter, constituting 13% of all event types.
4) Complications of Care (unanticipated, nonsurgical) increased 14% this quarter. 6) Staff have been working arduously to educate front line reporters to select the
appropriate event category when reporting. This has reduced the percentage of “other” event report type selection which fell 13% this quarter.
Of critical note is that the relative proportions of types of events may not be reliable. There is a significant bias on the part of staff relative to past training to report some types of events and not others. For example, staff are well trained that patient falls always need to be reported. This is in contrast to other types of events which staff may not be as inclined to report.
Falls – The Fall rate has remained fairly consistent over the past five quarters. The goal for falls has been set at 3.18 / 1000 patient days and is based on the UHC benchmark data for falls. The fall rate for North Greenville (2.2) has been below the goal for three consecutive quarters. Hillcrest (2.4) fell below that goal in the most recent two quarters. Greer dipped below the goal in 4QTR12 with 2.9. All other facilities are above the goal rate of 3.18. The fall rate for the current quarter for Greenville Memorial is 3.3. Marshall Pickens and The Cottages at Brushy Creek increased this quarter to 4.9. Patewood (9.7) and Roger C. Peace (7.5) have the highest fall rates.
In an effort to improve performance, the Falls Prevention Program underwent a significant change in 2011-‐2012. Initiatives over the past 12 months include:
• Complete revision of Fall Prevention Policy; • A new Fall Risk Assessment and the Morse Fall Scale was implemented with
interventions based on scoring; • Implementation of post Fall Huddles to discuss the causes of the fall and interventions
needed to prevent another fall.
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The Falls Committee continues to work with Marketing on a system-‐wide marking initiative for Falls prevention. That team is working with various units / facilities to provide more intensive interventions and staff engagement, as well.
A lar is Guardrai ls® Suite Alaris Guardrails® Suite Background -‐ Alaris infusion pumps for medications are equipped with Guardrails® Suite which notifies practitioners when an infusion amount is programmed outside clinical best practices for drug delivery. One quality measure is usage of the Guardrails® technology or the percentage of infusions that take advantage of hospital defined clinical best practices for drug delivery. Goal -‐ GHS has elected a goal of usage of Guardrails technology in 70% of infusions. Results -‐ During the current period (October, 2012) Guardrails usage was 74%, which is a decrease from 75% in the previous period. To improve usage, Pharmacy continues to evaluate profiles for medications or devices not regularly using the technology. Nursing also continues education on the equipment. Alaris Guardrails Suite Overrides Background -‐ Another measure is the percent of times staff override the alerts of the Guardrails® Suite. When a pump is programmed for a specific medication to infuse at a certain rate, and the rate falls outside clinical best practices, the pump signals an audible alarm. The nurse can elect to cancel the infusion, reprogram the infusion, or override the alert and start the pump. Goal – GHS has not specified a goal for Guardrails Suite® overrides. Results -‐ During October, 2012, overrides increased 68%, with 129 overrides per 1,000 Guardrails Infusion Starts compared to 61 in the prior month. There has been a steady increase in trendline for “Good Catches” from Guardrails Suite® usage over the past 6 months . The number of severe harm averted through use of Alaris Good Catches was 25 in the month of October, 2012.
Infect ion Prevention
Background – GHS has a comprehensive Infection Prevention and Control Program which encompasses prevention and control practices, targeted ongoing infection surveillance, and process
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improvement to minimize infection risk. Targeted healthcare associated infections are also publicly reported in South Carolina and are displayed on the SC DHEC web-‐site. For FY 2013, top priorities include, Catheter associated urinary tract infection ( CAUTI), hand hygiene, central line associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI), ventilator-‐associated pneumonia (VAP), surgical site infections (SSI) and multi-‐drug resistant organisms (MDRO). CAUTI surveillance was expanded during 2012 and consistent reporting on this device related infection will be a component of board reports during this year. Physician led, collaborative teams are established to facilitate infection risk reduction for each of the priority areas. This report does not reflect all of the surveillance and work of the Infection prevention program, but focuses on the top priorities. GHS Goal – Strive to eliminate infections. Infection rate targets are established annually to promote continuous improvement. The benchmark is obtained from the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN), a national surveillance program sponsored by the CDC, in which GHS participates. There are no national benchmarks for hand hygiene and multi-‐drug resistant organisms. Targets were established for these infections based on internal data.
Hand Hygiene Background – Hand Hygiene remains the hallmark of infection prevention and has been a GHS organization wide goal for the past three years ( 2010–2012). Compliance rates around the country typically run around 30% to 70%. Most hospitals in the United States teach the hand hygiene method of “In and Out”. This involves the cleaning of hands prior to (entry to the room) and after (exit from the room) patient care. There are significant concerns that this strategy, while helpful, is not optimal. Significant opportunities to re-‐contaminate cleansed hands exist once the provider has entered the patient’s room. Consequently, GHS made a decision to use the much more stringent World Health Organization’s “Five Moments of Hand Hygiene” methodology that requires the provider to clean their hands before and after patient contact as well as before and after contact with objects within the patient’s room. We believe the 5 moments are more scientifically based and important as we have documented the known transmission of infection to patients from bacteria present in their environment in their room. Washing hands only on entry and exit from the room will not prevent these episodes of infection. There are no national benchmarks for hand hygiene compliance, but the literature suggests a critical target of 90%. Over the past three years, GHS has employed an organization-‐wide campaign “Germ Warfare, Join the Battle”. Using this campaign, GHS was able to reach and sustain the target of 90% hand hygiene compliance measured by direct observation 18 months ahead of schedule. Two dedicated nurses have provided direct observations for measurement with close attention made to their inter-‐rater reliability and validity. Numerous strategies have been used including the addition of more hand hygiene agent dispensers to promote hand hygiene by staff and visitors and training of staff
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based on surveillance and focus group findings. At the same time, GHS has been collaborating with DebMed, a hand hygiene company to develop an electronic method to monitor hand hygiene. The electronic methodology affords a means of 24/7 monitoring and with the appropriate denominator (average number of anticipated hand hygiene opportunities) can establish a good surrogate for a hand hygiene compliance rate). We are in the process of validating this electronic methodology and transitioning the organization to its use. Comments on observation methods. The classic method for hand hygiene monitoring is direct observation using “secret shoppers” unknown to the healthcare workers. Because these observers cannot necessarily observe care in the patient’s room, they usually are limited to measuring hand hygiene only when the healthcare worker enters and leaves the room. This is the methodology used by Novant when it was able to achieve a 90% compliance rate over 3 years. It also is the methodology we used to identify the baseline of 53.8% compliance in June to September 2009. A second method of direct observation is to have the observer introduce themselves to the healthcare worker and follow them into the room. We are currently using this direct observation method because the WHO “Five Moments of Hand Hygiene” method does not easily allow for direct observations by an unknown observer within patient care rooms. The down side to this method is its complexity and the introduction of the Hawthorne Effect, i.e. compliance increases when the healthcare worker knows they are being observed. Thus, the two methods are both valid, but likely will deliver different compliance rates. A critical factor is to measure consistently. At GHS, we are engaged in a significant research study around hand hygiene compliance. The research being performed here centers around an electronic method to identify the number of times a healthcare worker uses hand gel or soap during a patient encounter. We have developed statistical models to identify the average number of opportunities a healthcare worker should clean their hands based on the WHO 5 moments of hand hygiene during a patient encounter. Thus, the combination of use of hand cleansing agent (numerator) divided by the expected opportunities for hand cleansing (denominator) provides us with an index to measure hand hygiene in real time and across many different units every shift. We are in the analysis phase of a validation study for the electronic monitoring system. The key take away is that none of the methods is capable of determining the actual compliance rate across the organization. Thus, the absolute compliance rate is not as important as the trend towards improvement. GHS Goal(s) – 1. Quarterly direct observation compliance rate(s) of 90% or greater. 2. Transition to electronic monitoring using validated methodology. 3. Initiate a unit based approach to identifying barriers to hand hygiene and take steps to improve compliance. GHS Results – Hand hygiene compliance rates by direct observation continue to remain above 90%. For the October to December 2012 quarter, the compliance rate is 93.7%. The data indicates that
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healthcare providers clean their hands for 4 of the 5 moments between 92.9% and 96.3% of the time. The opportunity for improvement is before aseptic / clean procedures at 82.5% and probably due to the misconception that hand hygiene is not required when gloves are worn. There continues to be gradual improvement in the areas of opportunity. Nursing staff (nurses and technicians) and therapy staff are more likely to clean hands than other healthcare provider groups. During 2012, we initiated the electronic form of hand hygiene monitoring on targeted units at GMH and on the North Greenville and Hillcrest campuses; unit-‐specific compliance indices are being assessed in beta-‐testing and unit managers are being educated on their meaning. As expected, the hand hygiene compliance indices via electronic monitoring are lower than compliance rates via direct observation given that staff’s behavior changes when being directly observed (e.g. Hawthorne Effect). As part of the hand hygiene validation study we have confirmed that actual hand hygiene compliance is roughly 20-‐30% lower than “direct-‐observation” compliance and that the electronic monitoring system provides the best estimate of actual compliance. The organization will continue to transition the majority of units to electronic monitoring over the next year and we will be publishing/ presenting our research nationally.
Surgical S ite Infections (SSIs)
Background – We track a number of surgical site infection rates which are required by South Carolina law to be publicly reported on the DHEC website. The data in this report is presented in terms of the Standardized Infection Ratio (SIR), which is a statistical ratio of the observed infection rate divided by the expected infection rate. The confidence intervals of each SIR must cross 1.0. SIRs above 1.0 demonstrate a worse than targeted infection rate, while those below 1.0 are better than targeted. NHSN has recently changed the methodology for risk adjustment of SSIs to include all procedure-‐level data collected on each patient (i.e., patient age, gender, duration of surgery, diabetes, trauma, etc.). The prior risk-‐adjustment method was based solely on the ASA (American Society of Anesthesiologists) physical status classification system (i.e., 1=normal healthy patient, …, 4=severely ill patient). This new methodology represents a significant improvement in risk-‐adjustment. NHSN used the data from 2006-‐2008 to derive the new risk adjustment models and then applied them to data from 2009 forward. Four surgical procedures are presented with the new method for determining expected numbers of infections -‐-‐ coronary bypass, abdominal hysterectomy, hip replacement and knee replacement. All other procedures have not yet been updated to the new methodology and use only the ASA classification. GHS Goal – We want to have a Standardized Infection Ratio (SIR) no different or less than 1.0 for each surgical procedure we monitor. This is indicated by the confidence interval crossing 1.0 (no different than expected) or lying completely below 1.0 (statistically better than expected). GHS Results – Data is reported for 2010, 2011 and 2012.
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In 2012, the overall surgical site infection SIR across all facilities is statistically better than expected at 0.65. Four surgery types, coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), small bowel resection, colon resection and Caesarian section all also have SIRs that are statistically better than expected. One surgery type, hip replacement had a SIR that is statistically worse than expected. The campus that is most associated with this higher than expected SIR is the GMH campus. While PMH hip SIR is no different than expected, this campus has seen a concerning increase in orthopedic SSIs ( hip and knee replacements). Both campuses (GMH and PMH) have conducted investigations, which have resulted in changes to reduce hip and in the case of PMH, also knee infection risks. Areas of focus include, but are not limited to , surgical skin preparation, DVT prophylaxis (to reduce wound hematoma development, a risk factor for SSI), and the OR environment. All other surgery types have SIRS that were not statistically different from the expected number of infections. These surgery types were bariatric surgery, abdominal hysterectomy, ventral hernia repair and knee replacement.
Central L ine-‐Associated Bloodstream Infections (CLABSI) Background – Historically, CLABSI rates at GMH and NG LTACH have been significantly higher than the NHSN mean on many units. During the past five years, the CLABSI Elimination team under the leadership of Dr. Bill Curran has focused on the implementation of evidence-‐based interventions including a central line insertion check-‐list and more recently a maintenance bundle. GHS Goal(s ) – We have historically set our goals at the NHSN mean. This goal was surpassed during 2011 and thus the target has been increased to top quartile. Ultimately, the goal is to eliminate all CLABSI infections. The NHSN mean for the Adult CLABSI is 1.23/1000 central line days and the top quartile is 0.22/1000 central line days. Pediatric ICU (PICU) pooled mean is 2.2/1000 central line days and the top quartile is 0/1000 central line days. Pediatric Medical/ Surgical unit pooled mean is 1.50/1000 central line days and the top quartile is 0/1000 central line days. GHS Results – The data in this report is presented as quarterly CLABSI rates for GHS wide adult care, GMH ICU and Non-‐ICU, North Greenville and PICU areas. The collaborative efforts of the ICU, Non-‐ICU and North Greenville LTACH CLABSI Elimination teams led to a continued reduction in the GHS Adult CLABSI rate to 0.32/1000 central line days during the fourth quarter of 2012. This rate is less than the NHSN pooled mean of 1.2 /1000 central line days and very close to the top quartile rate of 0.22/1000 central line days. During 2012, it is estimated that we prevented 127 adult CLABSIs from our baseline in 2009. This projects to an estimated 13 to 25 lives saved and an estimated cost avoidance of approximately 5 million dollars ($40,000/case) in 2012. The work of the CLABSI teams was recognized during the October 2012 LDR meeting with a Quality Pillar award. The GMH adult CLABSI rate continues to decline as reflected by a 2012 fourth quarter rate of 0.38/1000 which is the lowest it has ever been. The 2012 Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) CLABSI rate is 1.5/ 1000 central line days which is less than the NHSN mean. Pediatric Medical/ Surgical units experienced
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a 2012 CLABSI rate of 2.1/1000 central line days which is higher than the NHSN mean and no different from the previous year. North Greenville experienced a 2012 CLABSI rate of 0.40/1000 central line days which is significantly lower than the 2011 CLABSI rate of 1.42/1000 central line days. During 2012 Greer, Patewood and Hillcrest have not experienced a CLABSI.
Venti lator-‐Associated Pneumonia (VAP) now Venti lator-‐Associated Event ( VAE)
Background –The VAP Process Improvement Team led by Dr. Armin Meyer, modified the oral hygiene procedure to include the use of Chlorhexidine Gluconate (CHG). The expanded use of the CASS tube (continuous aspiration of subglottic secretions), head of bed elevation focus and extensive education has led to significant VAP rate improvement. The data presented is in terms of actual infections per 1000 ventilator days. During 2012, the CDC modified the adult VAP definition to facilitate a more standardized methodology that could be interpreted across hospitals. This revision has led to a definition that is now called a Ventilator Associated Event (VAE). GHS transitioned to the adult VAE definition during October 2012. This definition change will be noted on the graphics and the number of cases can be impacted by the change in definition. Pediatrics will continue to use the existing VAP definition. Pediatrics has a quality team that reviews and analyzes data. GHS Goal – The 2013 GHS goal is to strive for top quartile performance in preventing VAEs. As the surveillance definition has changed, the year will also be about establishing a baseline with the new VAE definition for adults. The PICU has a VAP goal of zero. GHS Results – GMH and NG LTACH VAP/ VAE rates are presented by 2011 calendar year followed by 2012 quarterly rates. GHS-‐wide, the adult VAP/ VAE rate for 2012 is 1.17/1000 ventilator days which is significantly lower than the 2011 VAP rate of 2.07/1000 ventilator days. 92 VAP have been prevented in 2012 relative to our baseline in 2007, projecting to an estimate of 18-‐28 lives saved and a cost savings of $3.68 million. The 2012 GMH ICU VAP/ VAE rate was 1.2/1000 ventilator days which is significantly lower than the previous years rate of 2.3/1000 ventilators days. The PICU has gone 1,366 days without a VAP. (From May 5, 2009 to December 31, 2012). Greer Memorial, Hillcrest Memorial and Patewood Memorial have a VAP rate of 0. North Greenville Long term Acute Care VAP rate has steadily declined over the past several years and this trend continued during 2012. The VAP/ VAE rate for 2012 was 0.89/1000 ventilator days and is
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lower than the 2011 VAP rate of 1.32/1000 ventilator days. The NHSN mean for this patient population is o.6/ 1000 ventilator days.
Catheter-‐ associated Urinary tract Infections (CAUTI)
Background – Approximately 40% of healthcare associated infections are Catheter Associated Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTI) and the infection is considered a hospital acquired condition by the CMS. GHS has chosen to aggressively address these infections with the goal to reduce CAUTI incidence. Historically, the GMH campus has not conducted CAUTI surveillance facility-‐wide. Key to prevention is to identify the volume of infections in order to identify areas of opportunity. During 2011 on the GMH campus, CAUTI surveillance was conducted in the ICU. With the addition of an infection preventionist during the first quarter of 2012, surveillance was spread to all nursing units in April, 2012. Thus, the GMH campus is still in the process of collecting baseline data which takes a year. It is clear from the data already collected, that CAUTI is an area of opportunity for the organization. North Greenville, Greer, Patewood and Hillcrest have been conducting facility wide CAUTI for a longer period of time. GHS Goal – The goal is to strive to reduce CAUTI rates to the top quartile benchmark. The 2013 interim goal will be to reduce CAUTI rates to the NHSN pooled mean of 2.4/1000 Foley days for ICUs and 1.5/1000 Foley days for non-‐ICUs. Results – GMH and North Greenville CAUT I data is presented by quarterly rates. GMH Non-‐ICU is presented by monthly rates as there is limited data. Greer, Patewood and Hillcrest data is presented by annual rates. GMH ICU experienced a 2011 CAUTI rate of 3.94 / 1000 Foley days which is above the NHSN pooled mean of 2.4 /1000 Foley days. During 2012, the ICU CAUTI rate increased to 5.83/1000 Foley days. Of note , the NTICU, which was involved in the 6 sigma project saw a downward decline in CAUTI during the end of the year as a result of performance improvement efforts. GMH Non-‐ICU surveillance has been conducted for nine months, April –December , 2012. The quarterly CAUTI rates during this time are significantly above the NHSN pooled mean of 1.5. The GMH PICU CAUTI rate was 3.8/1000 Foley days for 2012, which is higher than the NHSN mean of 2.2/1000 Foley days. Greer and Patewood experienced 2012 CAUTI rates below the NHSN mean Hillcrest experienced a 2011 CAUTI rate of 8.26/1000 Foley days and a CAUTI rate of 2.05/1000 Foley days during 2012. The reduction in CAUTI at Hillcrest is a result of a focus on catheter maintenance. North Greenville has been addressing CAUTI since mid-‐2011. The facility initiated a performance improvement team and became involved in the SCHA CAUTI prevention initiative. They focused on getting catheters out and on the maintenance of the devices while they are needed. Their CAUTI rate in 2011 was 5.76/1000 Foley days. The CAUTI rate for 2012 is 4.24/1000 Foley days and reflects a reduction from the previous year , which remains above the mean of 2.53.
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A Lean Six Sigma project is being conducted on the GMH and North Greenville campuses. Key indentified root causes include inconsistent compliance with existing policy for insertion and maintenance of Foley catheters. Examples of analysis conducted during the Lean Six Sigma process are depicted in some of the PowerPoint slides. An education plan was initiated and is being finalized during January 2013 which will address process and cultural issues. Two CAUTI performance improvement teams are to be established to facilitate the improvement process and will be led by Dr. Azim Surka (ICU) and Dr. Bill Kelly (non-‐ICU).
Mult i -‐Drug Resistant Organisms Background – Multi-‐drug resistant organisms are bacteria that have mutated over time to become resistant to most antibiotics. They primarily include Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA), Vancomycin Resistant Enterococcus (VRE), and Clostridium Difficile. Individuals can be colonized with the bacteria, meaning that the bacteria are present, but not causing an infection. The bacteria can also cause very serious, life-‐threatening infections. We are seeing more individuals come into the hospital already colonized with the bacteria. Generally, it is very difficult to get rid of this colonization. No national benchmarks for incidence of new infections are available. Throughout 2009, MRSA PCR (polymerase chain reaction) testing was implemented on the GMH campus, which allows us to rapidly determine patients who are colonized with the bacteria. All chronically ill adult patients admitted to GMH and NGH are currently being tested for MRSA. This screening facilitates the placement of patients with MRSA colonization into contact precautions to prevent transmission to other patients. Patients with a history of MRSA whose PCR screening was negative are taken out of precautions. The impact of Clostridium Difficile (CD) has been felt across the entire spectrum of healthcare and is now recognized as a pathogen capable of causing human suffering to a degree matching that of MRSA. It is for this reason that this infection is being monitoring at GHS. It should be noted that beginning January 2013, MRSA bacteremia and C. difficile will be reported to CDC NHSN and eventually to CMS. GHS Goal – Goals have been established based on GHS historical data for each facility as there are no national benchmarks.
MRSA – This report focuses on the GMH and NG healthcare associated (HA) MRSA infection rate whose goal is to strive to maintain a stable rate. Clostridium Difficile – GMH and North Greenville locations are the focus of this report. The goal is to establish a baseline rate with the C. difficile PCR test in use, which is more sensitive and will likely increase the rates. North Greenville’s target is 13.7/1000 patient days.
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Results MRSA: GMH MRSA healthcare associated infection (HAI) rate data is reported in an annual rate for 2011 and in quarterly rates for 2012. The MRSA healthcare associated infection rate for 2012 is 0.4/1000 patient days which is at the GMMC mean and suggests stabilization. During 2012, 8% of adult patients cultured for MRSA PCR on admission were positive. Patients colonized or infected with MRSA continue to be placed in contact precautions as a control measure. The 2012 North Greenville MRSA HAI rate was 0.73/1000 patient days and is slightly higher than the 2011 rate of 0.45/1000 patients days. All patients are placed in contact precautions due to the level of endeminicity of MDROs. C. Diff ic i le (CD): The GMH CD rate for 2012 was 6.7/10,000 patient days and cannot be compared to the previous year due to the implementation of a C. Difficile PCR which is more sensitive and will identify more cases. When looking at the 2012 quarterly CD rates, an increase is seen during the last two quarters of the year which are directly associated to the initiation of this better test. For this reason, a baseline with the C. difficile PCR is needed to establish an organization rate. North Greenville experienced an increase in their CD rate during 2011 to 16.76/10,000 pt days. A reduction of the CD infection rate (12.21/10,000 patient days ) occurred during 2012. Of key interest, is the reduction occurred with the implementation of the PCR test, which is more sensitive. In both facilities, environmental cleaning has been emphasized with hypochlorite and antibiotic utilization is being monitored. Combined MDRO: As part of our ongoing research related to hand hygiene, we have initiated analyses of a “combined MDRO” outcome. The combined MDRO data include MRSA infection, facility-‐acquired VRE and facility-‐acquired C. Difficile. In order to compare data over time, we have included only the 21 inpatient units at GMH that have had MDRO surveillance since 2009. We examined both the rates of combined MDRO per 1000 patient-‐ days and the rates of “clusters” per 100 unit-‐months. A cluster was defined as a unit monthly rate that was statistically higher than expected (i.e. greater than the upper limit of the 95% confidence interval for the unit’s annual rate). The combined MDRO rate has decreased from 2.38 per 1000 patients-‐days in 2009 to 1.86 in 2012 (Jan-‐Sept) and the combined MDRO clustering rate has decreased from 53.6 per 100 unit-‐months in 2009 to 34.9 in 2012; these differences were both statistically significant. In addition, linear trend testing indicates that both MDRO rates and clustering rates have decreased significantly over time. Future research will focus on potential correlation of these findings with increased hand hygiene compliance and other infection control initiatives.
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APPENDIX A GHS Qual ity Review of S ite-‐Specif ic 5-‐Year Cancer Survival Rates For Standard 4.7 Study of Patient Outcomes Presented and discussed at Cancer Care Committee Meeting. September 25, 2012 Presented by: Brian McKinley, MD Study Purpose: To compare site-‐specific 5-‐year survival data from the GHS Cancer Registry to the most recent data available from the National Cancer Database (NCDB). Methods: The study included “analytic” cases diagnosed with cancer in 2003, 2004 and 2005 (updated by NCDB August 2012). “Analytic” cancer cases are those who were diagnosed or received their first course of treatment at GHS. GHS survival rates were compared to rates from NCDB participating hospitals (n=1474 hospitals). Rates were formally compared for statistical significance using 95% confidence intervals. Estimates of the cumulative proportion of patients surviving at 5 years were calculated using the Kaplan-‐Meier product-‐limit method. Results -‐Comparison of Overal l Survival Rates: Overall “combined-‐stage” GHS 5-‐year survival rates were comparable to NCDB rates for all 11 cancer sites [See Figure 1] . GHS rates were slightly higher than NCDB rates for 9 of 11 cancer sites and slightly lower for 2 of the 11 sites; however, these differences were not statistically significant.
Recommendations: No fol low-‐up required. Review with each NCDB update.
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APPENDIX B DEFINITIONS FOR QUALITY & PATIENT SAFETY DASHBOARD
Measure Definit ion Source Reporting Frequency
CMS Al l Care Measures
Also known as the “perfect process” score, the ACM is a measure of the number of times patients received all the care they were eligible for. See attachment titled, “All Care Measures.”
Premier Quality Measure Tool
Quarterly
Value Based Purchasing
The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 directed the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to develop a Value Based Purchasing incentive program to begin to align Medicare payments with hospital quality performance. During the initial year of the VBP program 70% of the total performance score will be based on clinical measures and 30% will be based on patient satisfaction measures.
Premier Quality Measure Tool
Quarterly
Mortal ity Rate The rate is calculated by dividing the total number of inpatient deaths by the total number of inpatients. It is a severity-‐adjusted mortality rate that utilizes the 3M APR-‐DRG methodology. The benchmark is provided by Premier Clinical Advisor, a national repository of hospital and clinical data.
Premier Clinical Advisor
Quarterly
Readmission Rate The Readmission Rate is calculated by dividing the number of inpatients that are readmitted to the same facility within 30 days of discharge, regardless of the reason they were readmitted, by the total number of admissions. Consequently, the rate includes both avoidable and unavoidable readmissions. The readmissions are categorized according to the initial hospital admission specialty or service. The rates, risk adjustments and comparative benchmarks are calculated using Premier Clinical Advisor, a national repository of hospital and clinical data. Patients excluded from the calculations include patients readmitted from a skilled nursing facility, patients with a diagnosis of false labor and patients who are discharged and readmitted the same day.
Premier Clinical Advisor
Quarterly
Culture of Safety Survey
An overall measure of the culture of safety of the organization. The survey examines patient safety culture from the hospital staff perspective. Clinical staff, non-‐clinical support staff and medical staff participated in this survey. Responses were submitted on-‐line. GHS organizational results were benchmarked against the AHRQ 2008 Comparative Database results.
Organizational Survey
Annually
National Patient Safety Goals
A measure of promotion of specific improvements in Patient Safety, based on Joint Commission’s highlight of problematic areas in healthcare. Compliance is measured by audits of each element of performance. Recognizing that sound system design is intrinsic to the delivery of safe, high quality healthcare, the goals generally focus on system-‐wide solutions, wherever possible.
Observational and medical record
audits
Quarterly
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Event Reporting Rate (per 1000 patient days)
A measure of reporting of quality and patient safety events or incidents as well as near misses or “Good Catches.” Total Reported Event Rate is calculated by dividing the number of events reported by the number of patient days times 1000. The data includes 298 event types separated into patient, visitor, and unsafe conditions (unrelated to an individual). The inpatient event rate is benchmarked against event reporting rates for comparable organizations associated with University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC).
Event Reporting System
Quarterly
Patient Fal l Rate(per 1000 patient days)
A measure of quality and patient safety. Falls generally result, at least in part, from the patient condition and are most often caused by disease state, weakness, confusion and medications. The benchmark was established for comparable organizations associated with University HealthSystem Consortium(UHC).
NDNQI Quarterly
Medication Error Rate(per 1000 patient days)
A measure of quality and patient safety. The rate of error reflects variation in the systems or processes of physician ordering, transcription, pharmacy dispensing, and nursing administration of medications. The rate is calculated by dividing the number of events reported by the number of patient days times 1000. An error is defined as the wrong drug, dose, route, time, or patient. Although error is inherent in all human processes, the benchmark should reflect a goal as close to 0% as possible. There are no national standard benchmarks for medication error rates.
Event Reporting System
Quarterly
Reported Events with Harm (per 1000
patient days)
A measure of harm rate of reported events. The harm rate is calculated by dividing the number of events with harm by the number of patient days times 1000. All event types are included in this rate. Harm scores are grouped as “Near Miss” which includes an unsafe condition, or a near miss. A second grouping is events that “Reached the Patient” including those that involved no evident harm, emotional distress or inconvenience, and those requiring additional treatment. A third grouping is those “With Harm” including events with temporary harm to patients, permanent harm to patients, severe permanent harm, or death. Events with harm are benchmarked against comparable UHC participating organizations.
Event Reporting System
Quarterly
Hand Hygiene A measure of quality and patient safety. Hand hygiene in multiple studies has been shown to reduce the incidence of healthcare associated infections. Compliance is determined as the number of appropriate hand hygiene activities (i.e., washing hands or applying gel) over the total number of opportunities. Observations are conducted by dedicated and trained nursing staff.
Observational Data
Quarterly
Surgical S ite Infection(SSI)
An infection involving the surgical site post-‐operatively. SSIs can be superficial, deep, or within an organ space (e.g., a joint in knee surgery). Cellulitis of an incision is not considered an infection.
ICP Surveillance Monthly
Central L ine-‐Associated Bloodstream
An infection in the bloodstream that is associated with a central line (an intravascular catheter that terminates at or close to the heart or in one of the great vessels).
ICP Surveillance Monthly
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Infection(CLABSI) Venti lator-‐Associated
Pneumonia(VAP)
A diagnosis of pneumonia in a patient who is on a ventilator.
ICP Surveillance Monthly
Mult i-‐drug Resistant Organisms(MDROs)
Bacteria and other microorganisms that have developed resistance to antimicrobial drugs.
ICP Surveillance Monthly
Methici l l in Resistant Staph Aureus(MRSA)
A type of Staph that is resistant to certain antibiotics. MRSA frequently causes infections in the community as well as hospitals. To prevent transmission of MRSA in hospitals, patients who are colonized (the germ is living on the bodies, but isn’t causing infection) are placed on contact precautions as well as those patients who are infected with MRSA.
ICP Surveillance Monthly
Clostr idium Diff ic i le (C. Diff ic i le)
A spore-‐forming anaerobic (grows in environment without oxygen) bacteria. The most serious cause of antibiotic-‐associated diarrhea (AAD) and can lead to pseudomembranous colitis, a severe infection of the colon, often resulting from eradication of the normal gut flora by antibiotics. The C. Difficile bacteria, which naturally reside in the body, becomes overpopulated; the overpopulation is harmful because the bacterium releases toxins that can cause bloating, constipation, and diarrhea with abdominal pain, which may become severe.
ICP Surveillance Quarterly