Net Health’s Latest eBook Gives Insights into Improving HAPI Performance

Healthcare providers have gone above and beyond to care for patients with hospital-acquired pressure injuries (HAPIs) during COVID. Still, it remains a challenging area. Costs are high, treatment can be complex, and penalties can be devastating to large and smaller facilities alike.

Understanding the steps to take to tackle HAPIs begins with an exploration of five critical areas:

• Cost and impact on hospitals
• Factors contributing to HAPIs today
• Penalties from federal agencies and payers
• Existing and emerging technologies
• The Return on Investment (ROI) that is achievable with the right technologies and initiatives

Resources and Useful Information

In the latest eBook from Tissue Analytics and Net Health, How Your HAPI Management Program Can Make or Break Your Bottom LIne, you’ll gain valuable insights into key issues to better understand and improve your HAPI program. Topics covered range from exploring costs to optimizing the use of wound-care-centric technologies.

We also include essential resources to help you access the knowledge to improve your programs, including links from the National Pressure Injury Advisory Panel (NPIAP) and for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Plus, we’ll share data from Net Health data scientists looking at how COVID has affected wound care volumes across the country.

A Look at Penalties

No exploration of HAPIs is complete without diving into the impact of penalties.

Due to excess HAPI penalties, a typical 300-bed hospital could lose more than $10 million in unreimbursed costs. All U.S. hospitals with a total score in the bottom quartile face reduced payments by 1% of the total hospital claims to CMS. Nearly 80% of hospitals are hit with a HAPI penalty.¹

With the onset of value-based initiatives, hospitals also face reductions in reimbursement from payers. Additionally, low scores impact Quality and Star ratings and the standing of the facility within its community. 

But What Can We Do?

While it’s important to understand the issues, equally vital is learning how to transform and improve a wound care program. The evolution of existing technologies like specialty electronic health records (EHR) such as Net Health® Wound Care (formerly Wound Expert) and advanced digital imaging apps from Tissue Analytics are making a difference at facilities caring for wound care patients every day.

Hospitals using Tissue Analytics have seen a 40% increase in measurement accuracy and precision. What’s more, error rates are <4%, compared to 44% using hand and ruler measurements. 

HAPIs will remain a critical area for hospitals and health systems to address in 2022. Understanding the issues and knowing about the tools, resources, workflow strategies and partners available today can help facilities develop highly effective and efficient programs.  

Learn How to Get Happy About Your HAPI Management Program today. Download our free eBook here.

¹NA Vitale, DA Dzioba. Why investing in hospital-acquired pressure injury prevention technology makes financial sense. Healthcare Finance News. Feb. 2021.