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:
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.