Performance on patient safety measures linked to hospital financial performance

Editor's Note

Hospitals that perform better on measures to prevent postoperative complications also have better performance on measures of profitability, this study finds.

Improved patient safety performance was associated with higher net patient revenue for five of seven Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) measures, including starting and stopping preventive antibiotics and measures to reduce the rates of cardiac events and venous thromboembolism-related complications.

For example, hospitals that consistently started antibiotics within 1 hour before surgery were 17 times more likely to be in the highest category for net patient revenue and 20 times more likely to be in  the highest ranking for operating margin, compared with lower-performing hospitals.

This study is among the first to show a focused association between patient safety measures and hospital financial performance, the authors say.