News Photo by Julie Goldberg The entrance to the MidMichigan Medical Center-Alpena is seen on Wednesday.

ALPENA–MidMichigan Medical Center-Alpena is among 800 hospitals nationwide being penalized by by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services because of an increase in the rates of infections and patient injuries occurring at the hospital during the past year.

A report posted on March 1 by Kaiser Health News listed the Alpena hospital as one of 24 medical centers in Michigan that will receive a decrease in Medicare funding based on their rates of hospital-acquired conditions, which the Kaiser website defines as potentially avoidable mistakes that can harm patients.

A spokesperson for the hospital did not return messages seeking comment on Wednesday.

Complications such as infections from catheters or intravenous lines, blood clots, bedsores, hip fractures, and falls are monitored by the Hospital Acquired Conditions Reduction Program, created by the Affordable Care Act five years ago. Each year, the medical centers that fall into the top 25 percent of rates of hospital-acquired conditions are penalized with a reduction in Medicaid funding.

This is the first time the Alpena hospital has been included on the list.

MidMichigan will lose 1 percent of its Medicaid funding for patients discharged between last October and this September, as a result of the sanctions, according to Kaiser. It wasn’t immediately clear exactly how much the Alpena hospital might lose.

Hospitals that are scrupulous about testing for and reporting infections may be at a disadvantage under the HAC regulations, according to the Kaiser website. Finding more infections, which is a good thing for patients, may mean statistics are skewed to put the highest-performing hospitals into the highest percentage of hospital-acquired conditions.

The list of penalized hospitals contains some of the most prestigious teaching hospitals in the country, according to Kaiser.

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693 or jriddle@thealpenanews.com.