A Central California Hospital
The Medicare Web site, HospitalCompare.org, now displays hospital-specific data on 30-Day Mortality Rates (deaths within 30 days of discharge from an acute care stay) for patients with principle diagnoses of Heart Failure, Acute Myocardial Infarction, and Pneumonia. Hospitals that find themselves in the “worse than expected” performance group can benefit from consultative assistance with Root Cause Analysis and a directed improvement plan.
Lumetra Healthcare Solutions gained considerable experience working with hospitals in the “worse than expected” group, during our 8th scope of work as a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) contractor. We were contacted more recently by a Central California Hospital requesting assistance to improve their 30-day mortality rates for patients with Pneumonia and patients with Heart Failure. Lumetra Healthcare Solutions went on site to perform a Root Cause Analysis and to design a customized action plan for improvement. This project pulled together a multidisciplinary team of hospital executives, directors, and physicians to explore all contributing factors specific to their organization.
Using that input, our consultant developed a multifaceted action plan, so that the facility could select, prioritize, and schedule implementation of various interventions that fit their organizational needs. This hospital has since demonstrated improvement in 30-day mortality rates and is no longer in the “worse than expected” category.
