Preventing Never Events In Hospitals
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008Hospitals are geared for caring for its patients. To make sure that everyone gets the level of treatment that is necessary for them, you will find that there are hospitals that provide for generally everyone and every medical problem. Then there are also ones that are configured for certain types of patients. So, understanding the different medical care hospitals provide will be valuable information if you are ever in need of some hospital care.
However, there are some clinical problems that should not occur to patients in hospitals. Those problems are also known as Never Events. Infections acquired in hospitals/facilities, pressure ulcers, patient falls and patient elopement and wandering are highly visible Never Events because of cost, newsworthiness, and quality implications. These costs are larger than most realize to the extent they can change some profitable facilities into a deficit operation rapidly. Start from October 2008, they will no longer be reimbursed by CMS (Medicare) or many other carriers and payers. So it would be better for patients to invest on a wide selection of infection control products, fall management alarms and accessories, wander alarms, pressure-reducing cushions, and skin-protection products. Investments in preventing Never Events can pay off multiple times by reducing the cost of non-reimbursable additional care. Knowing that you are well protected from those clinical problems will help your healing process.