CT hospitals among worst in Medicare performance payments

CT’s hospitals are the lowest among all 50 states in earning Medicare quality payments starting this month – only hospitals in DC performed worse. Medicare’s value-based purchasing program will tie a portion of hospitals’ payments to the quality of care they deliver. Only 4 of CT’s 29 acute care hospitals will receive a quality bonus;…

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No CT hospitals make top quality list

The national experts who are responsible for accrediting US hospitals, the Joint Commission, has just released their list of 620 hospitals, Top Performers on Key Quality Measures. The 620 hospitals were recognized for providing “evidence-based clinical processes that are shown to be the best treatments for certain conditions, including heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, surgical…

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LHP takeover of Waterbury hospitals may be off

News outlets are reporting that LHP Hospital Group, the for-profit Texas company planning to purchase both Waterbury and St. Mary’s Hospitals, has sent a letter threatening to pull out of the deal unless the three sides came to agreement by last Friday. The plan was to merge the two hospitals in a new facility. One…

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Four CT hospitals earn highest Medicare readmission penalty

Starting in October, Medicare will begin reducing reimbursements to Griffin Hospital, St. Raphael’s, Masonic Home and Hospital, and Midstate Medical Center by 1% because of high patient readmission rates. Eight CT hospitals – Hartford, Hebrew Home and Hospital, Manchester, Middlesex, Rockville, Sharon, Backus and Windham hospitals – will have no deductions to their Medicare payments…

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48% of CT Medicaid highest prescribing physicians get drug company perks

According to the CT Health I-Team, the highest prescribing doctors in CT for many medications receive large payments for speaking fees and travel from the companies that manufacture those same medications. Forty of the 108 physicians in CT’s Medicaid program with the highest psychotropic and pain medication prescribing rates get perks from the companies that…

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Twelve CT hospitals rate just a “C” on patient safety

Over 400 people die every day in a US hospital due to a preventable error, according to the Hospital Safety Score website. The site gives twelve CT hospitals a “C” or average rating on patient safety including Waterbury, Stamford, Bridgeport, Charlotte Hungerford, New Milford, St. Mary’s, Milford, Yale-New Haven, Backus, Manchester Memorial, and John Dempsey…

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CT hospital info scarce on new rating site

The Leapfrog Group, a national leader in improving the quality and value of health care, has released a new web tool comparing hospitals on patient safety performance. Unfortunately, only two CT hospitals responded to the Leapfrog survey – Sharon and Backus Hospitals. Both did very well in two areas including managing serious errors; both needed…

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AG will not block YNHH-St. Raph’s purchase

The CT Attorney General’s office has concluded their analysis of anti-trust implications of Yale-New Haven Hospital’s proposal to purchase The Hospital of St. Raphael and will not seek to block the sale. The sale would leave New Haven with only one hospital raising concerns about higher prices for services, less care and higher medical debt…

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Hospital errors rising, state investigations dropping

An analysis by the CT Health I-Team of DPH hospital adverse event reports finds that the number of errors has risen steadily over the last five years. The same investigation finds that DPH investigations of serious medical errors in hospitals have been rare and the numbers are dropping. Of 17 patients who reportedly died or…

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