“Never Events” Spur Medical Device Innovation

Article preview from Start-Up - October 17, 2013

Start-ups developing technologies to help hospitals avoid preventable medical errors known as “never events” are developing solutions to nosocomial infections, retained surgical objects, pressure ulcers, and medication errors.

“Never Events” Spur Medical Device Innovation

Article preview from Start-Up - October 17, 2013

Wherever you side in the contentious debate about the Affordable Care Act, there are aspects of it upon which everyone ought to agree. It uses financial incentives to encourage hospitals to adopt patient safety measures so they’ll avoid leaving surgical instruments in patients or operating on the wrong limb. It carries on the work done by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which in 2008 began a policy of not reimbursing for care related to certain events on a list of 29 “never events” created by the National Quality Forum, a list that has lengthened since 2008 and been carried over from Medicare to Medicaid patients. 

Never events are serious, largely preventable adverse events that cause harm to patients in a health care setting and increase the cost of care. The annual cost for the five major hospital acquired infections, for example, is $10 billion for an estimated 440,000 infections, according to findings published in JAMA Internal Medicine (by Eyal Zimlichman, MD, of Harvard Medical School, and colleagues on September 2, 2013). CMS and some private health insurance plans are implementing pay-for-performance measures that leave the hospital financially on the hook for the cost of treating medical errors and other health care-acquired conditions like infections or injuries from falls.

Preventable adverse events are also being publicly reported by as many as 16 states, and some, such as California are fining hospitals $50,000 and up for an occurrence of a never event. Never have the incentives been higher for hospitals to invest in improving patient safety and quality.

Continued...

To read this article in its entirety, purchase now, as a PDF and recieve it immediately via email. Or get it free when you subscribe to Start-Up.

About Start-Up

No publication reviews leading edge companies and technology better than Start-Up. Each issue of Start-Up profiles the most important new product companies, identifies the hottest technology areas, reviews funds flowing into private companies and investment trends, and reports on university tech transfer licensing. Industries covered: pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical equipment & devices, and in vitro diagnostics.

Plus:
To find out about more about more about Elsevier Business Intelligence's medical device publications and databases, multi-user access and/or advertising with Medical Devices Today, please contact Kristy Kennedy at (480) 985-9512