Hospitals avoiding risky transplants to boost success rates
STAT News reports hospitals are increasingly reluctant to perform transplants involving extremely ill patients or less-than-perfect organs, fearing poor surgical outcomes could lead to reduced hospital ratings and Medicare funding.
The concerns are outlined in a study authored by Adel Bozorgzadeh, a transplant surgeon at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, Massachusetts. His findings blame CMS transplantation standards set in 2007 for an 86 percent increase in patients being knocked off transplant waiting lists.
“If you have young guy who has a 100 percent chance of dying, but only a 30 percent chance of dying with a transplant, you would say, ‘What the hell, give the guy a chance,’” Bozorgzadeh said. “But if I make an argument like that, I will be under pressure from all these other stakeholders who would penalize me.”
For more on why recent CMS changes to the standard aren’t calming fears from physicians or patients, click on the link below:
John joined TriMed in 2016, focusing on healthcare policy and regulation. After graduating from Columbia College Chicago, he worked at FM News Chicago and Rivet News Radio, and worked on the state government and politics beat for the Illinois Radio Network. Outside of work, you may find him adding to his never-ending graphic novel collection.