Study Finds Quality Reporting Should Consider DNR Impact on Mortality

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Fierce Healthcare writes: Failing to account for patients with do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders when calculating mortality for hospital quality measures could result in unfair penalties for some hospitals, according to a study published online in JAMA Internal Medicine. After accounting for patient DNR status of pneumonia patients and variations between hospitals, organizations with higher DNR rates had lower mortality, according to the study abstract. Only 52 percent of hospitals initially characterized as low-performing outliers because of their mortality numbers remained outliers after adjusting for DNR status, researchers said. The paper recommended developing ways to standardize and report DNR status in hospital discharge records as a step toward adjusting for DNR in quality measures.