News in brief - Oct 3, 2011

Readmission rate could mislead as quality indicator, hospitals say

Using a hospital's readmission rate to judge its quality and exact financial penalties could be misleading to patients and unfair, according to a September American Hospital Assn. report (www.aha.org/research/reports/tw/11sep-tw-readmissions.pdf).

Starting in October 2012, hospitals could see their Medicare pay cut by up to 1% if they have higher than expected 30-day readmission rates for patients with heart attack, heart failure or pneumonia. The cut could be as high as 3% starting in 2014.

But the AHA's report said the standards the government plans to use for risk adjustment leave out factors known to be associated with higher rates of readmission, such as race, ethnicity, limited English proficiency and Medicaid coverage. And not all readmissions are created equal, the report said. Many readmissions are planned, and others are for conditions unrelated to the initial hospitalization and would be difficult for physicians and hospitals to prevent.

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Flu vaccinations for health workers prevent outbreaks, study finds

When more than half of physicians and other health professionals working in a nursing home are immunized against influenza, the odds of a flu outbreak in the facility drop 87%, said a study in the October Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21931249).

The examination of 75 New Mexico nursing homes from 2006 to 2008 found that those with health worker vaccination rates between 51% and 75% were nearly 90% less likely to see an outbreak of influenza among patients. About 64% of health professionals received flu shots during the 2010-11 flu season, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The immunization rate was 84% among physicians and dentists, who were grouped together in the CDC's statistics.

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