Northern Montana Hospital ranked low in study, funding cut

Northern Montana Hospital scored the worst in the state for hospital-caused illnesses and injuries in a recent study and will be penalized as a result.

The Havre hospital is one of 721 in the nation that are being penalized for having too many hospital-induced ailments.

Dave Henry, president and CEO of Northern Montana Health Care, said that this penalty will amount to $14,000 a year.

“We give more than that every day in charity care,” Henry said, adding that the loss of money will make no difference at the hospital.

“However, we don’t take this lightly,” he said. “ … We are concerned about it, and we don’t want to be on that list in the future.”

Henry said the study is “tired,” and added that the data is from two or three years ago and does not take into account factors like lower socioeconomic statuses.

He said people should have no concern utilizing the services Northern Montana Hospital offers.

On a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being the worst possible score, Northern scored a nine in the serious complications score and a nine in its total hospital-acquired conditions score.

Bedsores, catheter-induced infections, blood clots and other errors were recorded in the study to produce a score for each hospital.

“Medicare is penalizing hospitals with high rates of potentially avoidable mistakes that can harm patients … ,” the study from Kaiser Health news reads.

Penalized hospitals will have their Medicare payments reduced by 1 percent over the fiscal year that runs from October 2014 to September 2015, the study reads.

Second place in the study goes to St. James Healthcare in Butte, which got a 7.675 in its total hospital-acquired infections score. St. James Healthcare, St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula and Northern Montana Hospital are the only three in the state being penalized by Medicare. Thirteen Montana hospitals were surveyed.

Great Falls scored just below the penalty mark, which is 7, at a hospital-acquired conditions score of 6.925.

According to a press release from the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction Program is based on a 2008 program that aims to “provide additional incentives to improve the quality of care delivered to patients, while at the same time providing value to taxpayers.”

The HACRP was begun in Oct. 1 of this year and is one of the newer efforts under the Affordable Care Act.