Question

Readmission rates are another buzz word in the industry….focus on one place in your hospital that would benefit in reducing these rates and describe why you think this.

Answer 1

Transitional care can reduce the readmission rate in hospitals

Let us understand how .

Transitional care refers to a collection of services aimed at ensuring optimal communication and coordination of services to provide continuity of safe, timely, high-quality care during transitions. Optimal management of care transitions includes patient and family education, coordination and arrangement of care in the post-acute care setting, and aiding communication among healthcare professionals involved in the patient’s care transition.

Several transitional-care programs have gone through randomized controlled trials and been found to significantly lower readmission rates, with reductions up to 45%.

In a 2014 meta-analysis of 26 randomized controlled trials involving 7,932 subjects, one research group found 30-day readmissions were reduced only by high-intensity transitional care programs that included most of the activities listed inTransitional care principles. They found that a home visit within 3 days of hospital discharge, care coordination by an APRN or RN, and communication between the hospital team and primary care provider within 1 week of discharge were essential to transitional care programs that reduced 30-day readmissions.

Targeted care transition: Readmission risk factors and risk assessment

Patient factors that pose a risk for readmission include comorbid medical conditions, previous acute-care hospitalizations and ED visits, older age, lack of social support, poor access to healthcare services, substance abuse, poor health literacy, and functional limitations. Patients who lack strong family support also are at risk for readmission, and family members commonly have inadequate input into transitional care planning because they’re not included in discussions. Too often, only the patient receives self-management education, even though family caregivers provide the actual care. Also, weekend discharges can put patients at risk for readmission due to lack of available support services, such as pharmacies and durable medical equipment companies, during weekend hours.

Transitional care programs are resource-intensive and are most likely to be effective when they target individuals at highest readmission risk. In one study (Kansagara, et al), researchers conducted a systematic review of currently available tools used to predict a patient’s risk for readmission and evaluated 13 instruments with potential use in deciding which patients would benefit most from transitional care services. They found that although risk tools overall had poor predictive ability, high- and low-risk scores correlated with readmission rates in a clinically significant manner.

These data prove that how transitional care can reduce the readmission rate in the hospitals. The principle of transitional care is attached in this answer have a look on that