Leapfrog is calling on CMS to do away with its proposal to remove a critical patient safety measure from its Inpatient Quality Reporting Program.
The safety measure at stake is "Death Among Surgical Inpatients with Serious Treatable Complications," also known as Patient Safety Indicator 4, or PSI-4.
Here are five reasons CMS should maintain the safety measure, as outlined by Leapfrog in a June 28 statement:
- PSI-4 is a powerful and important safety measure, and patient safety is one of the most significant death risks Medicare beneficiaries and the public will ever encounter.
- Leapfrog uses PSI-4 in its Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade and it's one of the highest priority measures for purchasers and consumers.
- Deaths counted in PSI-4 can be prevented by hospitals; deaths from all causes are not always the fault of the hospital.
- PSI-4 is a surgical measure. There are very few measures that are focused on surgical safety or surgical outcomes in general.
- Improvements to PSI-4 can occur while the current measure continues to be included in the [inpatient quality reporting] and is publicly reported.
More than 75 organizations and individuals signed Leapfrog's letter to CMS regarding the proposed removal of PSI-4.