Key Points:
- The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) new Patient Safety Structural Measure is intended to improve hospital safety by focusing on structural elements that support a culture of safety.
- PSSM reporting begins in calendar year (CY) 2025.
- The Hospital Quality Institute’s (HQI’s) program HQI Cares: Implementing BETA HEART® helps hospitals meet this new requirement.
The PSSM — inaugurated Aug. 1, 2024, as part of the CMS fiscal year 2025 hospital inpatient prospective payment system final rule — asks hospitals to attest to the use of 25 proven strategies and practices that support systemic and cultural improvements in safety. Included in the measure is the implementation of a communication and resolution program, such as CANDOR, consisting of the following elements:
- Harm event identification
- Open and ongoing communication with patients and families about the harm event
- Event investigation, prevention, and learning
- Care for the caregiver
- Financial and non-financial reconciliation
- Patient-family engagement and ongoing support
Mandatory reporting starts with CY 2025 — and beginning in 2027, CMS will reduce payments to hospitals that have not submitted this data.
Hospitals unsure of where to begin with reporting PSSM data may want to consider HQI Cares: Implementing BETA HEART® — a program that provides a proven path to meeting most of the CMS-specified measure elements.
HQI Cares: Implementing BETA HEART® guides hospitals to build a true culture of safety. In such a culture, providers and staff feel empowered to report errors, harm incidents, and near misses without fear of reprimand or punishment; reporting and communication about patient harm is proactive, empathic, and transparent; event reviews focus on system redesign instead of individual mistakes; and patients, families, and staff are reliably supported all along the way.
To discuss how HQI Cares can help your hospital, contact HQI President Robert Imhoff at rimhoff@hqinstitute.org.