This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on Web of Science (1)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Topic Collections  • Aging/ Geriatrics  • Venous Thromboembolism  • Cardiovascular System  • Quality of Care  • Quality of Care, Other  • Surgery  • Surgical Interventions  • Orthopedic Surgery  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Weighing Risks and Benefits

Michael B. Streiff, MD; Elliott R. Haut, MD

JAMA. 2009;301(10):1063-1065.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

In August 2008, the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) added deep venous thrombosis and pulmonary embolism after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and total hip arthroplasty (THA) to the list of never events.¹ If a patient experiences deep venous thrombosis or pulmonary embolism following one of these procedures, a portion of the payment made by CMS to hospitals is to be withheld. On the surface this decision seems to be a win-win for hospitals, clinicians, and patients. Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a common cause of preventable harm,² yet many hospitalized patients fail to receive adequate VTE prophylaxis.³ Accordingly, the strategy of using financial incentives to encourage better performance should result in fewer thrombotic events and consequently less morbidity and mortality related to VTE and its treatment.

The US health care system should reward high-quality care. However, the premise that . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Author Affiliations: Departments of Medicine (Dr Streiff), Pathology (Dr Streiff), and Surgery (Dr Haut), Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?