The value of gathering information on body mass on patients or clients is the focus of a new podcast in the recently launched series titled Extracting Hidden Gems from Simple Clinical Measures: The Why, How, and Then What?

Excess body mass or obesity has been identified as a critical health issue in the United States and around the world. Learn what data physical therapists should gather and what to do with it, and find additional resources on body mass index, in this prerecorded podcast that discusses the anthropometric characteristic of body mass.     

The Extracting Hidden Gems from Simple Clinical Measures series can be found on APTA's recently enhanced vital signs and other patient screenings webpage. This quality-focused web resource provides information on why and when vital signs and other patient information should be gathered. 

New research shows that age, race, employment status, living situation, and education and income levels are just some of the factors that may play a role in hospital readmissions. However, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is not taking these causes into account in its readmissions reduction program, which started penalizing hospitals October 1 for excessive readmissions, says an article by Reuters News.   

In the study, published in Journal of General Internal Medicine, researchers analyzed data from 20 studies on pneumonia and 52 on heart failure.

For pneumonia patients, among the factors linked to the risk of being readmitted to the hospital were being older and not white. Having a low level of education, low income, and being unemployed also were tied to a higher risk of going back into the hospital.

For heart failure patients, the risk of being readmitted to a hospital was associated with being elderly, African American, or Hispanic.

The researchers cannot say for certain that the risk factors identified are what cause a patient to be readmitted to the hospital. But they note in their report that this kind of information could be used by physicians, case managers, and discharge planners "to flag patients at high risk of readmission because of certain nonmedical vulnerabilities," says Reuters. 

Visit APTA's hospital readmissions webpage for information about how physical therapists can help reduce readmissions by providing recommendations for the most appropriate level of care to the health care team prior to and during care transitions.

APTA Board of Director member Dianne Jewell, PT, DPT, PhD, CCS, recently was appointed to the National Quality Forum's (NQF) Ad-hoc Planned Readmissions Committee. NQF readmissions panels have primarily been staffed with physicians, which makes Jewell's appointment particularly significant for the physical therapy profession.

An ad hoc review may be conducted on an endorsed measure at any time if 1 or more of the following criteria are met:

• the evidence supporting the measure has changed
• implementation of the measure results in unintended consequences, and/or
•  material changes have been made to the measure.

  Ad hoc reviews can be requested at any time by any party, as long as there is adequate evidence to justify the review.

NQF will conduct an ad hoc review requested by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for the endorsed measures: 1551, hospital-level 30-day all-cause risk-standardized readmission rate following elective primary total hip arthroplasty and total knee arthroplasty; 0330, hospital 30-day all-cause risk-standardized readmission rate following heart failure hospitalization for patients 18 and older; and 0505, hospital 30-day all-cause risk-standardized readmission rate following acute myocardial infarction hospitalization.

This review is being completed due to material changes to a currently endorsed measure (eg, expansion of a measure to a different population or setting). This is intended as a focused review of the planned readmission algorithms that have been incorporated into each of the condition/procedure specific readmission measures.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has updated its clinician guidance webpage to reflect the most current information based on the investigating into the multistate fungal meningitis outbreak among patients who received contaminated steroid injections.

The page contains updates to FAQs, case definitions, and information on diagnostic testing. Three interim treatment guidance documents also have been updated.

CDC urges clinicians to contact patients who have received medicines associated with 3 lots of preservative-free methylprednisolone acetate from the New England Compounding Center that were recalled on September 26. The potentially contaminated injections were given starting May 21.