Acute care hospitals must join safety network by July or risk losing CMS funds

By Ashleigh Hollowell / February 12th, 2024

Acute care hospitals have until July 1 to join the National Healthcare Safety Network. Membership with the network will now be required for acute care hospitals to receive federal funding from CMS. 

Beginning in July, The Joint Commission will now also evaluate acute care hospitals based on deidentified data from five key areas outlined by the CDC's National Healthcare Safety Network, including measurements for the outcomes of: catheter-associated urinary tract infections, facilitywide inpatient hospital-onset Clostridium difficile infections, central line-associated bloodstream infections, surgical site infections after colon, abdominal, and hysterectomy procedures, and facilitywide inpatient hospital-onset methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections.

Membership within the network will allow assessors from The Joint Commission to more easily, and safely, access a data source "to evaluate patient safety and clinical quality performance."