An Overview of CMS Never Events
Over the past few years, hospitals have begun placing extra attention on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Never Events, stimulating new policies aimed at reducing their occurrence. But what are Never Events exactly, and why are they so important?
Never Events Explained
The term “Never Event” was introduced in 2001 by the National Quality Forum (NQF). A never event is generally defined as an incident that should “never happen” in a hospital. Never Events are preventable, and may have serious consequences for both the patient and the health care facility in which the incident occurs.
There are six categories of incidents that may qualify as Never Events:
- surgical events
- product or device events
- patient protection events
- care management events
- environmental events
- criminal events.
Examples of these events include:
• Surgery performed on the wrong patient
• Misuse of patient care devices that result in patient injury or death
• Infants discharged to the wrong person
• Patient death or injury resulting from a medication error
• Patient death or injury resulting from a fall while being care for in the facility
• Abduction of patient from facility
The High Cost of Never Events
Aside from the great emotional and physical pain caused by Never Events, there is also a very real financial cost. As of October 1, 2008, CMS has required Hospitals to disclose all Never Events. Also, CMS has stated that they will no longer reimburse hospitals for Never Events. Nor will hospitals be allowed to push such costs onto the patient.
Hospitals bear full accountability for the occurrence of Never Events, and, as such, are liable to the great financial burden created by these events. Because hospitals are no longer reimbursed for expenses incurred by Never Events, these events will cost hospitals billions of dollars annually if they continue to occur at historical rates. Clearly, hospitals must find new ways to prevent Never Events, to limit the huge liability of these events.
Limiting Patient Fall Never Events
New solutions have been developed to limit the occurrence of Never Events. Dalcon Alert! is a system that decreases the prevalence of Never Event injury due to patient falls. Dalcon Alert! alerts caregivers immediately to events surrounding a patient by connecting with patient monitoring devices such as IV pumps and bed fall pads.
See also the White Paper, “An Assessment of Falls in Patients’ Rooms and Methods of Prevention” which analyzes the severity of patient fall liability for hospitals; and methods of fall prevention.
