You have just accepted a position as an Assistant Healthcare Administrator at a small to medium$-$sized hospital that is known for "high incidences of infections and other adverse events and serves a large BIPOC population. This is your chance to learn and shadow your "mentor." You are excited because you just graduated and are motivated to fix the issues in our healthcare system and start incorporating best practices. You are tasked with researching the past two years of HACRP penalties the hospital has received.

First, you speak with the Clinical Documentation Improvement $($CDI$)$ Professional to find out the protocol they have in place to review documentation and safety.

You compare the hospital with surrounding hospitals within $50$ miles through the CMS $($Center for Medicare and Medicaid$)$ website.

What you have discovered is that your hospital is the only one that has received a significant number of penalties in the last couple of years. This means that hospitals with the least resources and most need are penalized for having worse outcomes, leaving them with fewer resources to invest in quality improvement and a theoretical progressive decline in the outcomes that they experience. Cite: $($NLM$)$

Remember to use APA format for this discussion and cite your sources.

For your initial post, answer the following questions.

What is the difference between HAC Hospital$-$Acquired Conditions and the HACRP Hospital$-$Acquired Condition Reduction Program?

Do they overlap in any way? If yes, how?

What solutions will you have to protect patients in vulnerable medical organizations in order to ensure the disparities do not increase?

Do you agree with aligning a payment with quality of care? Explain in detail if you think paying$-$for$-$performance payment$-$ reduction could potentially worsen and have unintended consequences.