QA/PI Rules

QA/PI Rules

ED Quality News: New Hospital Patient Safety Requirements

1/30/03:

Under a final rule published in the January 24th Federal Register, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has amended the Medicare conditions of participation for hospitals to require mandatory Quality Assessment and Performance Improvement (QA/PI) programs.

These new mandatory program requirements are designed to identify patient safety issues and cut down on medical errors. Hospitals must establish, implement, maintain and evaluate their own hospital-wide QA/PI programs, focusing on maximizing quality of care outcomes. The programs must adequately reflect the complexity of their organization and include preventive measures to foster patient safety.

According to Tommy Thompson, Secretary of Health and Human Services, the new rule “serves as another step toward bringing improved patient safety, accountability and quality to the forefront of medical practices.” The rule is designed to fit into Thompson’s overall agenda of establishing and environment in which health care providers compete based on the quality of care they offer to patients.

Click here to view the entire text of the rule.