Safeguarding quality: building the business case to prevent nursing-sensitive hospital-acquired conditions

In the wake of recent changes by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to the Inpatient Prospective Payment System and a profoundly weakening economic climate, concern about preventable, hospital-acquired conditions (HACs) has captured the attention of healthcare executives nationwide. Despite the rapidly growing concern about reimbursement at risk, however, data suggest that the greatest financial opportunity for all HACs is to prevent them from happening in the first place. Based on analysis conducted by the Nursing Executive Center's Data and Analytics Group, the authors quantify reimbursement at risk due to HACs and calculate the cost-savings opportunity, building the business case for investment to prevent nursing-sensitive HACs.