USA: New ‘structural’ patient safety measure for hospitals

Most US hospitals will soon be required to report whether they follow 25 best practices to ensure patient safety, to deflate preventable harms that swelled during the pandemic.

Unlike outcomes metrics like infections or falls, CMS’s new Patient Safety Structural Measure, which takes effect 1 October, assesses whether hospitals take a range of steps such as:

• Addressing safety topics at governing board meetings.
• Tracking safety disparities.
• Maintaining a communication and resolution programme.

That holistic approach marks “a shift to leading indicators from lagging indicators,” Tejal Gandhi, M.D., M.P.H., chief safety and transformation officer for Press Ganey Associates, a consulting firm that works on patient safety and satisfaction issues, said via email. She added: “This is pushing organizations to have the foundational structures and processes in place that will drive the outcomes.”

For journalists and other members of the public, the measure promises to shed some light on hospital operations. The first scores will be reported in the fall of 2026.

“These best practices aren’t new, but patients don’t know which ones are and which ones are not in place in the hospitals we use,” Beth Daley Ullem, co-founder of the advocacy group Patients for Patient Safety US (PFPS US), said in a news release. She added that at this point, “CMS, the Joint Commission, and state licensing bodies do not know either.” 

Read full story

Source: Association of Health Care Journalists