HHS' Office of Inspector General is focusing on five specific aspects of hospital quality of care and safety in fiscal year 2015, one of which is new, according to its FY 2015 Work Plan.
"Access of care, quality of care and drug safety — those are the pillars we're focusing on," Christi Grimm, chief of staff for the inspector general's office, told KSHB in an interview.
The Work Plan is issued annually and "summarizes new and ongoing reviews and activities that OIG plans to pursue with respect to HHS programs and operations during the current fiscal year and beyond," according to the OIG.
In respect to quality of care, "Planned work will examine settings in which OIG has identified gaps in program safeguards intended to ensure medical necessity, patient safety and quality of care," the Work Plan states. The following are the five areas of scrutiny the OIG listed for quality of care and safety in its FY 2015 Work Plan.
1. Participation in projects with quality improvement organizations. The OIG will look into how hospitals participate in quality improvement projects with Quality Improvement Organizations and how much those projects in hospitals overlap with projects offered by other entities.
2. Oversight of pharmaceutical compounding. Most hospitals compound some pharmaceuticals onsite, and Medicare oversees the safety of those drugs through the accreditation and certification process. In FY 2015, the OIG will "determine the extent to which Medicare's oversight of Medicare-participating acute care hospitals addresses recommended practices for pharmaceutical compounding oversight."
3. Oversight of hospital privileging. The OIG will determine how hospitals assess candidates for their medical staffs before assigning credentials, as robust privileging programs contribute to improved patient safety.
4. Inpatient rehabilitation facilities — Adverse events in post-acute care for Medicare beneficiaries. The OIG will look into how often adverse and temporary harm events happen to Medicare beneficiaries who receive post-acute care in inpatient rehabilitation facilities and estimate the associated costs to Medicare.
5. Long-term-care hospitals — Adverse events in post-acute care for Medicare patients. This focus is new for the OIG for fiscal 2015. The OIG will estimate how often adverse and temporary harm events happen to Medicare patients who are cared for in LTCHs and estimate their cost to Medicare.