Profitability is Associated with Reporting Patient Safety Events

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Profitability is Associated with Reporting Patient Safety Events

PA PSRS Patient Saf Advis 2007 Sep;4(3):85.

There is a small, but significant relationship between the number of reports per licensed bed that an acute care hospital made last year and its operating margin as reported by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4). Among 168 acute care hospitals for which there was sufficient information to make comparisons, 3.7% of the variation in the operating margin could be accounted for by the number of reports per licensed bed. Although the correlation was small (r=0.18), it was highly significant statistically (probability less than 0.02 that it was random variation).

Hospitals with negative operating margins, according to the PHC4 report “Financial Analysis 2006, Volume One,”¹ were found by PA-PSRS analysts to have submitted an average of 3.42 reports per licensed bed to PA-PSRS. Hospitals with positive operative margins submitted an average of 5.24 reports per licensed bed. Even within the hospitals with positive operating margins, those above the median operating margin for profitable hospitals of 3.33% submitted more reports per licensed bed than those below (see Table).

Table. Relationship between Hospital Operating
Margins and PA-PSRS Reporting

For a theoretical 200-bed hospital, the average difference in reporting calculates to be 684 reports during the year for a hospital with a negative operating margin, 882 for a hospital with a moderate operating margin, and 1,217 for a hospital with a higher operating margin. The relationships between quality and profitability or quality and reporting remain untested.

Note

Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council. Financial analysis 2006, volume one: general acute hospitals [online]. 2007 Jun [cited 2007 Jul 16]. Available from Internet: http://www.phc4.org/reports/fin/06/docs/fin2006report_volumeone.pdf.

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Profitability is Associated with Reporting Patient Safety Events
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	THE PENNSYLVANIA PATIENT SAFETY AUTHORITY AND ITS CONTRACTORS
	The Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority is an independent state agency created by Act 13 of 2002, the Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error (“Mcare”) Act. Consistent with Act 13, ECRI Institute, as contractor for the Authority, is issuing this publication to advise medical facilities of immediate changes that can be instituted to reduce Serious Events and Incidents. For more information about the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority, see the Authority’s Web site at www.patientsafetyauthority.org .
	ECRI Institute, a nonprofit organization, dedicates itself to bringing the discipline of applied scientific research in healthcare to uncover the best approaches to improving patient care. As pioneers in this science for more than 40 years, ECRI Institute marries experience and independence with the objectivity of evidence-based research. More than 5,000 healthcare organizations worldwide rely on ECRI Institute’s expertise in patient safety improvement, risk and quality management, and healthcare processes, devices, procedures and drug technology.
	The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated solely to medication error prevention and safe medication use. ISMP provides recommendations for the safe use of medications to the healthcare community including healthcare professionals, government agencies, accrediting organizations, and consumers. ISMP’s efforts are built on a nonpunitive approach and systems-based solutions.