The American Health Care Association announced Wednesday that it will employ a new, proprietary methodology for calculating case-mix adjusted hospitalization metrics for its members in its national Quality Initiative.
The hospital readmission measure uses Minimum Data Set data and unique analytics to calculate case-mix adjusted hospital readmission rates. Starting Oct. 1, hospitals will be penalized monetarily by the federal government if their readmission rates are too high. As a result, nursing homes that keep readmission rates down will be more highly valued than ever as provider partners.
The OnPoint-30TM rehospitalization metric produced by PointRight Inc. provides timely, risk-adjusted information, says David Gifford, MD, MPH, senior vice president of quality and regulatory affairs at AHCA.
“These analyses help skilled nursing centers focus on improving care for their residents. They also help centers demonstrate their value to hospitals, insurers and physician groups,” Gifford said.
The AHCA Quality Initiative was launched earlier this year. It sets specific, measurable targets for improving the quality of care in skilled nursing centers over the next three years. Reducing the 30-day hospital-readmission rate after a skilled nursing facility stay by 15% by March 2015 is one of them.
