week 4 disc 21

post most have 4 or more sentences .

you also have to have a high quality post from a content perspective. This means it also needs to do more than agree with or praise a class mate. If you agree with a classmate, explain why, give an example, share what you learned in the readings

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) deny Medicare reimbursement for eleven hospital-acquired conditions and ban hospitals from charging patients directly for these ?never events?- or incidents that should never happen. This affects reimbursement for hundreds of thousands of hospital stays, putting revenues at risk.

The CMS reimbursement policy offers nurses an opportunity to take a leadership role in preventing these avoidable incidents.

The ability of highly skilled nurses to reduce medical errors is being recognized, as more than half of all never events are nursing-sensitive, particularly pressure ulcers and patient falls. As nursing?s effect on patient outcomes becomes increasingly accepted, the CMS policy has established an indelible link between Medicare reimbursement and quality nursing care.

Now, nurses are likely to be viewed as an investment instead of a cost. The reason: When nursing staff increases, the quality of patient care improves and preventable incidents decrease.

Clearly, engaging nurses? capability to prevent never events is the smartest approach for nursing administrators who must also build a case for additional financial investment in nursing. Nurse leaders need to take a strategic approach to prevention in order to achieve a more effective and efficient outcome. By applying lessons learned in one care area to all nursing-sensitive conditions (rather than simply targeting specific strategies for each condition), nurse leaders are more likely to accomplish the desired result.

Strengthening nurse staffing makes a significant impact on eliminating Never Events and contributes positively to a hospital?s financial goals. Tools such as return on investment calculations and research based findings will lead strategic leaders to an inescapable conclusion: Increased numbers of competent nursing staff in the context of a culture of safety can prevent the devastating costs of adverse events (AACN, 2009).