This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Six procedural strategies may help reduce hospital readmissions for HF
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Researchers have identified six steps that hospital teams can follow to help prevent HF readmissions in the 30 days after discharge. The odds of another hospital stay further decrease if all six steps are followed.
According to the findings in a new report, following all six recommendations could reduce HF readmissions by as much as 2%.
“A million people are hospitalized with HF each year and about 250,000 will be back in the hospital within a month,” researcher Elizabeth H. Bradley, PhD, professor of public health at Yale University and faculty director of the Global Health Leadership Institute, said in a press release. “If we could keep even 2% of them from coming back to the hospital, that could equal a savings of more than $100 million a year.”
The research team analyzed data from two Internet-based surveys of hospitals using ideas from national quality initiatives to reduce readmission to identify strategies associated with lower readmission rates for patients with HF. The surveys (n=599, 91% response rate) were given between November 2010 and May 2011.
In analyzing the data, the team constructed a multivariable linear regression model, weighted by hospital volume, to determine strategies independently associated with 30-day readmission rates for HF patients, adjusted for hospital teaching status, geographic location and number of staffed beds.
The six strategies associated with lower hospital risk-standardized 30-day readmission rates were:
- Partnering with community physicians and physician groups to address readmission reduction (0.33% lower risk-standardized 30-day readmission rate; P=.017).
- Partnering with other area hospitals to address readmission reduction (0.34% lower risk-standardized 30-day readmission rate; P=.02).
- Having nurses responsible for medication reconciliation (0.18% lower risk-standardized 30-day readmission rate; P=.002).
- Booking follow-up appointments before patients are discharged (0.19% lower risk-standardized 30-day readmission rate; P=.037).
- Implementing a system that sends discharge information to each patient’s primary physician (0.21% lower risk-standardized 30-day readmission rate; P=.004).
- Assigning staff to contact patients about test results received after discharge (0.26% lower risk-standardized 30-day readmission rate; P=.049).
Hospitals that executed more of the six strategies had significantly lower risk-standardized 30-day readmission rates. The researchers calculated a reduction of 0.34% for each additional strategy (P<.001).
Disclosure: The study was funded by The Commonwealth Fund and the Center for Cardiovascular Outcomes Research at Yale University. Some of the study researchers report financial ties with Eli Lilly, Medtronic and United Health Care; see the full study for details.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts