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A Cadillac on westbound I-70 lost control, hit a bridge rail and then hit a semi about 7:18 a.m. Jan. 7 in Kansas City, Kan.
The accident happened near the Indian Springs exit on I-70, according to a Kansas Turnpike Authority trooper’s report.
The driver of the Cadillac, a 39-year-old man from Kansas City, Mo., was injured and taken to a hospital, according to the report.
The driver of the semi, a 48-year-old man from Lawson, Mo., was not injured, the report stated.
by Andy Marso, KHI News Service
Topeka — A spokeswoman for the Kansas City area’s largest hospital system defended its record on patient safety following an announcement last month that more than half its facilities are among those to be penalized by the federal government for hospital acquired ailments.
A total of 721 hospitals nationwide will lose 1 percent of their Medicare reimbursements in fiscal year 2015 because they scored poorly in federal metrics that measure the prevalence of conditions like urinary tract infections, central line infections and other complications patients acquire while in the hospital.
The metrics, and the accompanying penalties, were created by the Affordable Care Act as an attempt to improve patient care.
Five of HCA Midwest Health’s nine Kansas City area facilities are among those getting docked, but company spokeswoman Christine Hamele cautioned against using the new federal metrics “as the only mechanism to monitor quality.”
The hospital acquired conditions program “does not fully recognize hospitals for quality improvement and actually penalizes hospitals who are often caring for the most critical and vulnerable patients,” Hamele, the company’s assistant vice president for public relations and community affairs, said via email.
Hamele said HCA Midwest has been recognized for quality of care by several private sector organizations, including the Joint Commission, the country’s largest hospital accreditation service. Other groups to honor HCA Midwest include the American Heart Association, the National Accredited Chest Pain Centers, the March of Dimes and The Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit that scores hospitals on patient safety.
The new federal metrics score hospitals on a 10-point scale, with 10 indicating higher incidences of hospital acquired conditions.
Among HCA Midwest’s hospitals, Overland Park Regional Medical Center scored a 9.025 — the highest of any hospital in Kansas. Centerpoint Medical Center in Independence had the third highest score among Missouri hospitals, at 8.65. Menorah Medical Center in Overland Park (8.375), Research Medical Center in Kansas City, Mo., (8.025), and Lee’s Summit Medical Center (7.9) also face the Medicare penalty. Belton Regional Medical Center (3) will not and HCA Midwest’s other three facilities — Research Medical Center Brookside, Research Psychiatric Center and Lafayette Regional Health Center — were not scored.
HCA Midwest officials declined to say how the Medicare penalties would affect the company financially.
In Wyandotte County, the University of Kansas Hospital was listed as receiving a penalty with a 7.4 score, while Providence Medical Center will not receive a penalty, with a 3.6 score.
Hamele’s comments about the limitations of the federal metrics echoed those of officials from academic medical centers, which were hit particularly hard by the penalties. Some complained that the federal metrics penalized hospitals that treat the most fragile patients or are most diligent about reporting their hospital acquired conditions.
Shalan Stroud, a critical care clinical nurse specialist who leads Shawnee Mission Medical Center’s initiative to reduce such conditions, said underreporting was not a factor in her facility acquiring a score of 2 — the lowest in the Kansas City metro area.
“We report everything,” Stroud said. “We report more than even what we have to report because we want to know how we’re doing.”
Stroud said Shawnee Mission Medical Center has been working with the Kansas Health Care Collaborative, a nonprofit dedicated to improving patient care, as well as the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Healthcare Safety Network on programs to help curb hospital acquired ailments.
Stroud said the hospital’s parent company, Adventist Health System, has given financial backing to help make the programs a success. Of the 49 Adventist hospitals nationwide that were part of the federal HAC scoring, 10 were penalized.
“They are very focused on helping in any way they can and providing us the resources we need to be able to prevent (hospital acquired conditions),” Stroud said.
The KHI News Service is an editorially independent initiative of the Kansas Health Institute. It is supported in part by a variety of underwriters. The News Service is committed to timely, objective and in-depth coverage of health issues and the policy-making environment. All News Service stories and photos may be republished at no cost with proper attribution, including a link back to KHI.org when a story is reposted online. More about the News Service at khi.org/newsservice or contact us at 785-233-5443.
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Sporting Kansas City has announced its 2015 Major League Soccer schedule.
According to the club, there will be 34 regular season games. Single-game tickets for the first 10 regular season home matches will go on sale to the public on Feb. 2. Current 2015 season ticket members will have a pre-sale opportunity.
Sporting Kansas City will kick off the team’s 20th season on Sunday, March 8, against the New York Red Bulls at Sporting Park in a match-up of the top two goal scorers from the 2014 MLS season.
All-Stars Dom Dwyer and Bradley Wright-Phillips will go head-to-head on FOX Sports 1 in Sporting Kansas City’s first of 10 nationally-televised matches during the 2015 regular season.
FOX Sports 1, ESPN2 and UniMas – each of which will televise MLS matches through 2022 as part of new eight-year agreements — will collectively air seven regular season matches live from Sporting Park in 2015, along with a pair of 2013 MLS Cup rematches at Real Salt Lake and the club’s first-ever match against Orlando City SC at the Citrus Bowl (Sept. 13).
FOX Sports 1 and ESPN2 will simulcast MLS matches on their Spanish-language networks (ESPN Deportes, FOX Deportes) and their authenticated digital offerings (WatchESPN, FOX Sports GO). UniMas broadcasts will be available in Spanish and English both on television and live streamed on the Univision Deportes app.
Every Sporting Kansas City regular season MLS match will again be shown live in 2015. KMCI-TV (38 the Spot), a member of the SKCTV Network, will serve as the team’s local broadcast partner and will carry all regular season matches not nationally televised on FOX Sports 1 or ESPN2. KCMI’s plans include pre-game and post-game coverage, as well as select Sporting Kansas City programming to air on sister station KSHB-TV.
Sporting Kansas City re-joins the Western Conference in 2015, due to the addition of expansion sides Orlando City SC and New York City FC, and will play each of the 10 Eastern Conference foes once over the course of the upcoming campaign. The remaining 24 regular season matches are spent within the West, as follows:
Two games versus: LA Galaxy, San Jose Earthquakes, Vancouver Whitecaps.
Three games versus: Seattle Sounders, Houston Dynamo, Colorado Rapids, FC Dallas, Portland Timbers, Real Salt Lake.
Sporting Kansas City begins the 2015 campaign with 16 games in the season’s opening 15 weeks before the team’s first bye on June 13. Additional weekends off from MLS action for Sporting KC in 2015 are July 4, Sept. 5 (FIFA date) and Oct. 10 (FIFA date).
The first half of Sporting Kansas City’s 2015 regular season schedule is highlighted by a stretch of five straight games against teams that appeared in the 2014 MLS Cup Playoffs (Seattle twice, as well as New England, FC Dallas and Real Salt Lake).
Sporting KC heads to Yankee Stadium for the club’s inaugural match against David Villa and New York City FC on March 28, then is home on April 5 (Easter Sunday) for the club’s 600th all-time regular season game (and 300th regular season home game in team history).
State-of-the-art Sporting Park, which opened in June 2011, will then play host to its 100th Sporting Kansas City match on May 16 (80 MLS, 10 USOC, 5 CCL, 5 Friendlies).
2015 home opponents: New York Red Bulls, Portland Timbers, Philadelphia Union, Real Salt Lake, Chicago Fire, Colorado Rapids (x2), New England Revolution, FC Dallas (x2), Seattle Sounders (x2), Montreal Impact, Houston Dynamo, Vancouver Whitecaps, San Jose Earthquakes, LA Galaxy.
2015 road opponents: FC Dallas, New York City FC, LA Galaxy, Houston Dynamo (x2), D.C. United, Seattle Sounders, Real Salt Lake (x2), Vancouver Whitecaps, Toronto FC, Columbus Crew SC, Colorado Rapids, Portland Timbers (x2), Orlando City SC, San Jose Earthquakes.
Manager Peter Vermes has led Sporting KC to the most road wins (28) of any MLS team since 2011 and will be tasked with two trips to Houston, Portland and Real Salt Lake in 2015 while twice welcoming Colorado, Dallas and Seattle to Sporting Park. The club’s list of away fixtures also feature two fan-friendly road trips for local supporters with Saturday night matches scheduled in Dallas (March 14) and Colorado (Aug. 29).
Sporting Kansas City will embark on a four-game road trip from Aug. 22 through Sept. 13 that sees the team finish the 2015 regular season with seven of their final 10 matches away from home, including a first-ever match at the San Jose Earthquakes brand new Avaya Stadium on Oct. 16 in the regular season road finale.
The three home matches during that stretch all come against Western Conference teams that reached the postseason in 2014, including the penultimate home match of the regular season against Supporters’ Shield holders Seattle Sounders FC (Sept. 27) and the “Decision Day” finale against reigning MLS Cup champions LA Galaxy (Oct. 25).
Sporting Kansas City will also participate in the 2015 edition of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, a single-elimination domestic tournament that the team won in 2004 and 2012. Prior to the 2015 season, Sporting Kansas City will travel to Tucson, Arizona for the team’s pre-season preparations (Jan. 25 thru Feb. 10 and Feb. 15 through March 1).
For information on group ticket packages and partial season ticket packages for the 2015 season, call 888-4KC-GOAL.
– Story from Sporting KC
Sporting Kansas City 2015 MLS regular season schedule
Date Opponent Time Television
Sun., March 8 vs. New York Red Bulls 6pm FS1/FOX Deportes
Sat., March 14 at FC Dallas 7:30pm SKCTV
Sat., March 21 vs. Portland Timbers 7:30pm SKCTV
Sat., March 28 at New York City FC TBD SKCTV
Sun., April 5 vs. Philadelphia Union 6pm FS1/FOX Deportes
Sat., April 11 vs. Real Salt Lake 7:30pm SKCTV
Sat., April 18 at LA Galaxy 9:30pm SKCTV
Sat., April 25 at Houston Dynamo 7:30pm SKCTV
Sun., May 3 vs. Chicago Fire 4pm ESPN2/ESPN Deportes
Sat., May 9 at D.C. United 6pm SKCTV
Sat., May 16 vs. Colorado Rapids 7:30pm SKCTV
Wed., May 20 vs. New England Revolution 7pm ESPN2/ESPN Deportes
Sat., May 23 at Seattle Sounders TBD SKCTV
Fri., May 29 vs. FC Dallas 8pm UniMas/KMCI-TV
Sat., June 6 vs. Seattle Sounders 7:30pm SKCTV
Sun., June 21 at Real Salt Lake 9pm FS1/FOX Deportes
Sat., June 27 vs. Colorado Rapids 7:30pm SKCTV
Sun., July 12 at Vancouver Whitecaps TBD SKCTV
Sat., July 18 vs. Montreal Impact 7:30pm SKCTV
Fri., July 24 at Real Salt Lake 10pm UniMas/KMCI-TV
Sat., Aug. 1 vs. Houston Dynamo 7:30pm SKCTV
Sat., Aug. 8 at Toronto FC TBD SKCTV
Sat., Aug. 15 vs. Vancouver Whitecaps 7:30pm SKCTV
Wed., Aug. 19 vs. San Jose Earthquakes 7:30pm SKCTV
Sat., Aug. 22 at Columbus Crew SC 6:30pm SKCTV
Sat., Aug. 29 at Colorado Rapids 8pm SKCTV
Wed., Sept. 9 at Portland Timbers 9:30pm SKCTV
Sun., Sept. 13 at Orlando City SC 6pm FS1/FOX Deportes
Fri., Sept. 18 vs. FC Dallas 6pm UniMas/KMCI-TV
Wed., Sept. 23 at Houston Dynamo 7:30pm SKCTV
Sun., Sept. 27 vs. Seattle Sounders 4pm ESPN2/ESPN Deportes
Sat., Oct. 3 at Portland Timbers 9:30pm SKCTV
Fri., Oct. 16 at San Jose Earthquakes 10pm SKCTV
Sun., Oct. 25 vs. LA Galaxy 6pm SKCTV
*Subject to change; times listed as TBD will be announced at a later date