Measure Up to HHS Standards

Section 3001, Hospital Value-Based Purchasing as found in The Patient Protection and Affordability Act of 2009 challenges healthcare facilities to improve efficiency in patient care to assist in the increase of Diagnosis Related Group (DRG) payments. Eligibility for payment incentive is based solely on the facility’s successful achievement of Health and Human Services (HHS) standards and favorable performance scores. Improving measures of quality and efficiency, and eliminating excessive costs provides a financial incentive that allows payers and providers to link economic incentives and operational quality outcomes. The underlying assumption is that “Pay for Performance” will improve, motivate, and enhance providers to pursue aggressively and ultimately achieve the quality performance targets thus decreasing the number of medical errors with less malpractice events.

The ability to effectively measure efficiency during specific patient procedures can greatly assist in pinpointing areas for improvement and result in higher percentages of incentive earnings. A Digital Timer System may be used in Emergency Rooms, Operating Rooms and Simulation Labs to effectively assess elapsed time during patient procedures. In the Count Up mode, the system displays elapsed time precisely to the second. By measuring time intervals during patient procedures, the system provides evaluation data to assist in assessing your efficiency in patient care.

Read up on more timekeeping product applications for healthcare facilities here.