Dataset Information

Sepsis quality in safety-net hospitals: An analysis of Medicare's SEP-1 performance measure.

ABSTRACT: Purpose:Newly enacted policies at the state and federal level in the United States require acute care hospitals to engage in sepsis quality improvement. However, responding to these policies requires considerable resources and may disproportionately burden safety-net hospitals. To better understand this issue, we analyzed the relationship between hospital safety-net status and performance on Medicare's SEP-1 quality measure.

Materials and methods:We linked multiple publicly-available datasets with information on SEP-1 performance, structural hospital characteristics, hospital financial case mix, and health system affiliation. We analyzed the relationship between hospital safety-net status and SEP-1 performance, as well as whether hospital characteristics moderated that relationship.

Results:We analyzed data from 2827 hospitals, defining safety-net hospitals using financial case mix data. The 703 safety-net hospitals performed worse on Medicare's SEP-1 quality measure (adjusted difference 2.3% compliance, 95% CI -4.0%--0.6%). This association was most evident in hospitals not affiliated with health systems, in which the difference between safety-net and non-safety-net hospitals was 6.8% compliance (95% CI -10.4%--3.3%).

Conclusions:Existing sepsis policies may harm safety-net hospitals and widen health disparities. Our findings suggest that strategies to promote collaboration among hospitals may be an avenue for sepsis performance improvement in safety-net hospitals.

SUBMITTER: Barbash IJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6901718 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Sepsis quality in safety-net hospitals: An analysis of Medicare's SEP-1 performance measure.

Barbash Ian J IJ Kahn Jeremy M JM

Journal of critical care 20190805

<h4>Purpose</h4>Newly enacted policies at the state and federal level in the United States require acute care hospitals to engage in sepsis quality improvement. However, responding to these policies requires considerable resources and may disproportionately burden safety-net hospitals. To better understand this issue, we analyzed the relationship between hospital safety-net status and performance on Medicare's SEP-1 quality measure.<h4>Materials and methods</h4>We linked multiple publicly-availa ...[more]

PMID: 31400737

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Project description:ImportanceAlthough readmission rates are declining under Medicare's Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP), concerns remain that the HRRP will harm quality at safety-net hospitals because they are penalized more often. Disparities between white and black patients might widen because more black patients receive care at safety-net hospitals. Disparities may be particularly worse for clinical conditions not targeted by the HRRP because hospitals might reallocate resources toward targeted conditions (acute myocardial infarction, pneumonia, and heart failure) at the expense of nontargeted conditions.ObjectiveTo examine disparities in readmission rates between white and black patients discharged from safety-net or non-safety-net hospitals after the HRRP began, evaluating discharges for any clinical condition and the subsets of targeted and nontargeted conditions.Design, setting, and participantsCohort study conducting quasi-experimental analyses of patient hospital discharges for any clinical condition among fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries from 2007 to 2015 after controlling for patient and hospital characteristics. Changes in disparities were measured within safety-net and non-safety-net hospitals after the HRRP penalties were enforced and compared with prior trends. These analyses were then stratified by targeted and nontargeted conditions. Analyses were conducted from October 1, 2017, through August 31, 2018.Main outcomes and measuresTrends in 30-day readmission rates among white and black patients by quarter and differences in trends across periods.ResultsThe study sample included 58 237 056 patient discharges (black patients, 9.8%; female, 57.7%; mean age [SD] age, 78.8 [7.9] years; nontargeted conditions, 50 372 806 [86.5%]). Within safety-net hospitals, disparities in readmission rates for all clinical conditions widened between black and white patients by 0.04 percentage point per quarter in the HRRP penalty period (95% CI, 0.01 to 0.07; P = .01). This widening was driven by nontargeted conditions (0.05 percentage point per quarter [95% CI, 0.01 to 0.08]; P = .006), whereas disparities for the HRRP-targeted conditions did not change (with an increase of 0.01 percentage point per quarter [95% CI, -0.07 to 0.10]; P = .74). Within non-safety-net hospitals, racial disparities remained stable in the HRRP penalty period across all conditions, whether the conditions were HRRP-targeted or nontargeted.Conclusions and relevanceFindings from this study suggest that disparities are widening within safety-net hospitals, specifically for non-HRRP-targeted conditions. Although increases in racial disparities for nontargeted conditions were modest, they represent 6 times more discharges in our cohort than targeted conditions.

Project description:OBJECTIVES:Many septic patients receive care that fails the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' SEP-1 measure, but it is unclear whether this reflects meaningful lapses in care, differences in clinical characteristics, or excessive rigidity of the "all-or-nothing" measure. We compared outcomes in cases that passed versus failed SEP-1 during the first 2 years after the measure was implemented. DESIGN:Retrospective cohort study. SETTING:Seven U.S. hospitals. PATIENTS:Adult patients included in SEP-1 reporting between October 2015 and September 2017. INTERVENTIONS:None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS:Of 851 sepsis cases in the cohort, 281 (33%) passed SEP-1 and 570 (67%) failed. SEP-1 failures had higher rates of septic shock (20% vs 9%; p < 0.001), hospital-onset sepsis (11% vs 4%; p = 0.001), and vague presenting symptoms (46% vs 30%; p < 0.001). The most common reasons for failure were omission of 3- and 6-hour lactate measurements (228/570 failures, 40%). Only 86 of 570 failures (15.1%) had greater than 3-hour delays until broad-spectrum antibiotics. Cases that failed SEP-1 had higher in-hospital mortality rates (18.4% vs 11.0%; odds ratio, 1.82; 95% CI, 1.19-2.80; p = 0.006), but this association was no longer significant after adjusting for differences in clinical characteristics and severity of illness (adjusted odds ratio, 1.36; 95% CI, 0.85-2.18; p = 0.205). Delays of greater than 3 hours until antibiotics were significantly associated with death (adjusted odds ratio, 1.94; 95% CI, 1.04-3.62; p = 0.038), whereas failing SEP-1 for any other reason was not (adjusted odds ratio, 1.10; 95% CI, 0.70-1.72; p = 0.674). CONCLUSIONS:Crude mortality rates were higher in sepsis cases that failed versus passed SEP-1, but there was no difference after adjusting for clinical characteristics and severity of illness. Delays in antibiotic administration were associated with higher mortality but only accounted for a small fraction of SEP-1 failures. SEP-1 may not clearly differentiate between high- and low-quality care, and detailed risk adjustment is necessary to properly interpret associations between SEP-1 compliance and mortality.

Project description:ObjectivesSepsis and septic shock are important quality and patient safety metrics. This study examines incidence of Sepsis and/or septic shock (S/SS) after craniotomy for tumor resection, one of the most common neurosurgical operations.MethodsMulticenter, prospectively collected data from the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) database was used to identify patients undergoing craniotomy for tumor (CPT 61510, 61521, 61520, 61518, 61526, 61545, 61546, 61512, 61519, 61575) from 2012-2015. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to identify risk factors for S/SS.ResultsThere were 18,642 patients that underwent craniotomy for tumor resection. The rate of sepsis was 1.35% with a mortality rate of 11.16% and the rate of septic shock was 0.65% with a 33.06% mortality rate versus an overall mortality rate of 2.46% in the craniotomy for tumor cohort. The 30-day readmission rate was 50.54% with S/SS vs 10.26% in those without S/SS. Multiple factors were identified as statistically significant (p <0.05) for S/SS including ascites (OR = 33.0), ventilator dependence (OR = 4.5), SIRS (OR = 2.8), functional status (OR = 2.3), bleeding disorders (OR = 1.7), severe COPD (OR = 1.6), steroid use (OR = 1.6), operative time >310 minutes (OR = 1.5), hypertension requiring medication (OR = 1.5), ASA class ≥ 3 (OR = 1.4), male sex (OR = 1.4), BMI >35 (OR = 1.4) and infratentorial location.ConclusionsThe data indicate that sepsis and septic shock, although uncommon after craniotomy for tumor resection, carry a significant risk of 30-day unplanned reoperation (35.60%) and mortality (18.21%). The most significant risk factors are ventilator dependence, ascites, SIRS and poor functional status. By identifying the risk factors for S/SS, neurosurgeons can potentially improve outcomes. Further investigation should focus on the creation of a predictive score for S/SS with integration into the electronic health record for targeted protocol initiation in this unique neurosurgical patient population.

Dataset Information

Sepsis quality in safety-net hospitals: An analysis of Medicare's SEP-1 performance measure.

Publications

Sepsis quality in safety-net hospitals: An analysis of Medicare's SEP-1 performance measure.

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