The Leapfrog Group is issuing a call to action for individuals and organizations to join with them 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.
Over 75 organizations and individuals signed on to their letters that were submitted to CMS.
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