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JCAHO, QIOs, Medicare scrutinized in newspaper series

Patient Safety Monitor Alert, July 28, 2005

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Medicare's system of hospital oversight and cost control received tough scrutiny in a series published by the Washington Post. The three-part series, Published from July 24 to 26, questioned how Medicare controls costs and oversees quality improvement in the country's hospitals. With lax controls, hospitals that cause patient infections and other preventable problems receive Medicare funding for the extra procedures required. In effect, bad hospitals are rewarded, according to the Post.

The JCAHO was also taken to task in the piece, where the organization was criticized for being too lenient in its accreditation process. Quality improvement organizations (QIOs) were also criticized for their secrecy when dealing with patients and reluctance to support patient complaints with sanctions.

Officials from the JCAHO and the QIOs defended their records, saying the focus of their efforts is improvement in hospital systems, rather than punishing individual physicians or hospitals. By changing systems, they argued, hospitals will become safer for patients-and costs will decrease.

To read the first article in the series, click here. The other installments of the series and some graphics on the issue are listed on the Web page's sidebar.

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