Joint Commission CEO: Current quality improvements won’t get hospitals to zero harm

In a presentation at the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) Congress, Joint Commission president and CEO Mark Chassin, MD, MPP, MPH, made the case that creating a high-reliability organization with zero incidents of patient harm shouldn’t be seen as an abstract, aspirational goal.

The failure to pass funding for reinsurance and cost-sharing reduction subsidies for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges and the potential for pharmaceutical-backed changes to the 340B drug discount program are just some of the major issues on the American Hospital Association’s radar this year, according to executive vice president of government affairs Tom Nickels.

Accountable care organizations (ACOs) were supposed to result in savings for Medicare, but an analysis from Avalere said ACOs in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) have instead increased federal spending—an evaluation a national group of ACOs called “rather simplistic," ignoring positive impacts they've made on quality.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced his office has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Sacramento-based Sutter Health, alleging the system used its dominance in Northern California to unlawfully raise prices for services and then used the profits reaped from these practices to grow even larger.

Blockchain has been touted—to the point of being called overhyped—as the technological breakthrough healthcare organizations need to more easily secure and store patient data. Five companies are now launching a pilot program to see if blockchain can live up to its promises by applying the technology to the common problem of inaccurate provider directories.