Healthcare News of Note: How many hospitals earned a Leapfrog Top Hospital Award in 2022?

• The Leapfrog Group said 115 facilities earned Top Hospital Awards and 12 earned Top ASC Awards.
• Around 1.3 million people with diabetes rationed insulin this past year because of the cost, according to recent study findings.
• Reducing burnout among nurses of color and those under age 35 is the goal of a three-year, $3.1 million grant partnership between the United Health Foundation and the American Nurses Foundation.

Over the past few weeks, I have found these industry news stories that should be of interest to healthcare finance professionals.    

1. 115 hospitals earn a Top Hospital Award from The Leapfrog Group

Top Hospital Awards for 2022 were earned by 115 hospitals from across the country and Top ASC Awards were earned by 12 ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), according to a Dec. 6 announcement by The Leapfrog Group.

• “Top Hospitals have better systems in place to prevent medication errors, higher quality on maternity care and lower infection rates, among other laudable qualities,” according to The Leapfrog Group.
• The Leapfrog Top ASC award “is based on excellence in upholding quality standards across several areas of patient care,” including staffing, hand hygiene, infection rates, practices for safer surgery and error prevention, according to the organization’s website.
• California, Florida, and North Carolina were the states with the most Top Hospitals, with ten or more hospitals in each state receiving the designation, according to the news release.

The top hospitals are recognized in four categories:

1. Top General Hospitals (32 recipients)
2. Top Rural Hospitals (13 recipients)
3. Top Teaching Hospitals (58 recipients)
4. Top Children’s Hospitals (12 recipients)

The top ASCs “represent six states and 10 specialties,” according to the release.

“Data from the annual Leapfrog Hospital Survey and Leapfrog ASC Survey were used to identify award winners,” states the release.

2. About 1.3 million insulin users nationwide ration the drug due to cost

Around 16.5% of people with diabetes rationed insulin this past year, according to findings of a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

“This translates to 1.3 million insulin users nationwide risking serious health consequences — even death — due to the high price of insulin,” wrote author Brenna Miller in a Lown Institute report that described the study findings.

According to Miller, researchers looked at “data from nearly 30,000 adults in every state” via a review of the 2021 National Health Interview Survey and found the following trends:

• Those with Type 1 diabetes were more likely to ration insulin, as were Black Americans and middle-income Americans.
• The rate of insulin rationing nearly doubled for individuals under the age of 65 when compared to their older counterparts.
• Nearly all of those rationing who were 65 or older were covered by Medicare.
• Nearly one-third of respondents without health insurance reported rationing.

What are insulin users doing to save money? According to the report: Everything from skipping insulin doses, taking less insulin than needed and delaying buying insulin.

How it affects the healthcare system is clear: “Lower compliance with insulin regimens is associated with higher A1C levels and with higher rates of hospital admissions for diabetes-related complications,” according to a study published in the February 2010 issue of Diabetes Care.

3. The focus of a new stress and burnout prevention program is on nurses of color and those under age 35

Reducing burnout among nurses of color and those under age 35 is the goal of a three-year, $3.1 million grant partnership between the United Health Foundation and the American Nurses Foundation.

In an article on the UnitedHealth Group website, Kate Judge, executive director of the American Nurses Foundation, said: “Burnout cannot just be addressed one nurse at a time. This new partnership addresses burnout at the systems level, especially for those most impacted including younger nurses and nurses of color.”

Announced Dec. 1, the Stress & Burnout Prevention pilot program “is designed to transform organizational culture, remove the stigma associated with seeking mental health support and offer nurses a new burnout prevention model to help them use mental health resources earlier and more effectively,” according to the article.

“The program is based on a framework originally developed for the military and since deployed in other demanding professions,” states the article. “It goes beyond identification of burnout to intervention by helping nurses speak about their stress/burnout using a common language, normalize talking about it, and provide support to their peers.”

The program will be piloted as a “train-the-trainer model” at four healthcare organizations representing 15,000 nurses, the article states.

HFMA bonus content

• Read “Reimagining the Patient-Clinician Relationship,” by Senior Editor Nick Hut. This is the fourth 2022 installment of HFMA’s Healthcare 2030 Series.
• Listen to the Voices in Healthcare Finance podcast episode, “A  ‘spicy’ lame duck session for the 117th Congress and other things to expect after midterm elections,” hosted by HFMA’s Erika Grotto.
• Read “Hospitals Work to Make the Supply Chain Green,” by Nick Hut, senior editor. It’s the cover story for the winter issue of hfm magazine.