Almost 30 Percent Of Rehab Facility Patients Harmed By Inadequate Care
Nearly 30 percent of Medicare patients at inpatient rehabilitation hospitals suffer care-related harm, according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (OIG).
Care-related harm includes hospital-acquired infections, pressure ulcers and medication errors.
Inpatient rehab facilities, which provide three hours of therapy a day, now have a higher rate of patient harm than skilled nursing facilities, where one in five patients experience care-related harm or other adverse events, according to a 2014 OIG report.
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The latest OIG report found that 46 percent of rehab facilities’ adverse events were likely preventable, compared to 59 percent in skilled nursing facilities.
Doctors believe many of these preventable errors were the result of inadequate patient monitoring, substandard treatment or a failure to even provide treatment.
Care-related harm costs Medicare a minimum of $7.7 million each month, because nearly 25 percent of these patients are transferred from rehab hospitals to acute care hospitals.
The OIG report states there is a great need to reduce care-related harm across healthcare facilities, as the rate of care-related harm is similar between rehab hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and acute care hospitals.
This report comes after the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association released recommendations for stroke patients to receive follow-up care as inpatients in rehab facilities, rather than skilled nursing facilities.
For the study, OIG evaluated over 400 Medicare beneficiaries who received care at rehab hospitals and were discharged in March 2012.
