The Leapfrog Group is issuing a call to action for individuals and organizations to join with us in urging the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to rescind their proposed removal of a critical patient safety measure.
Specifically, Leapfrog is strongly recommending that CMS not remove the “Death Among Surgical Inpatients with Serious Treatable Complications” measure, also known as Patient Safety Indicator 4 (PSI-4), from the Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR) Program for the following key reasons:
- PSI-4 is a powerful and important patient 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 IQR and is publicly reported.
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