Healthcare Roundup—CMS to investigate Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital over unreported medical errors

Feds to review Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital 

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will investigate Florida-based Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital after it was dinged by a state agency for failing to report two serious medical errors. 

CMS' review is likely to be more far-reaching than the state's investigation into the hospital. It was revealed in April that needles were left inside two pediatric patients since 2016. 

All Children's, which is in St. Petersburg, Florida, maintains that it has been "transparent" with errors. (Tampa Bay Times

House to give "right-to-try" bill a second look; Gottlieb warns it will make it harder for FDA to protect patients 

The U.S. House is set to vote a second time on "right-to-try" legislation, but Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D., said the policy would make it harder for the agency to protect patient safety. 

In March, the House passed a version of the bill which would offer a pathway for terminally ill patients to try treatments that are not approved by the FDA, but it stalled in the Senate. The new version of the bill was built with less FDA input, Gottlieb said.

"We'd have to do a little bit more...in guidance and perhaps in regulation" to achieve patient safety goals under the revamped bill, Gottlieb said. (STAT

Report: Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center heart transplant program outcomes measures decline

Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center performed some of the world's first heart transplants, but in recent years the hospital's transplant program has had some of the worst outcomes in the country. 

St. Luke's survival rates were 85% between 2014 and 2016, compared with about 91% nationally. CMS cited the hospital for these worse-than-expected figures and threatened in August to withhold Medicare reimbursements if outcomes did not improve. 

St. Luke's said it has addressed the problem, adding that if it lags behind in outcomes it's because the hospital treats sicker patients. (ProPublica