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Understanding Hospital Readmission Rates and the Need to Lower Them

Learn what causes a patient readmission and how your facility can prepare best to avoid them.

The healthcare sector’s focus has shifted towards value-based care as we transition from simply charging patients based on the number of treatments given and instead value those treatments based on their results.

But, what exactly constitutes positive “results” or “value”? Answering that question requires providers to keep track of certain metrics in order to better measure how well they’re helping patients. One such popular metric they’ve taken up is Hospital Readmission Rates.

What is a Hospital Readmission?

A “hospital readmission” is when a patient who has been discharged from an acute care hospital is admitted again to the same or a different facility within a certain time frame. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) specifies this time frame as 30 days after the patient’s initial (index) appointment.

They also specify the reason for readmission does not need to be related to the reason for the patient’s index admission, elaborating that any kind of readmission within the 30 day period can be influenced by poor quality of care received or improper discharge of a patient during that initial appointment.

Why are Hospital Readmissions Bad?

To start, hospital readmissions are incredibly costly for hospitals. Not only do they require staff to spend more time on a patient who otherwise could have been effectively cared for in their index admission, more resources and supplies will also need to be allocated to this patient to help them recuperate once more. The US National Library of Medicine was able to touch on this point in their study where they concluded that a decrease in hospital readmission rates was heavily linked with an increase in operating revenue.

Furthermore, as healthcare starts to move towards the healthcare consumerism model, patients will become more privy to metrics such as hospital readmission rates. As such, high readmission rates will start to turn away future patients who will soon have more agency in which providers they choose to receive treatment from.

How do You Reduce Hospital Readmission Rates?

Understand Which Patients are at Risk for Readmission

Addressing readmission rates starts with understanding which conditions and ailments are commonly sending patients back for care.

Facilities that understand the most common ailments their patient populations suffer from can start to bring in more specialists and tech geared towards caring for those conditions. If you haven’t already, consider a population health management program. If done correctly, these strategies can give you valuable insights into your patient population and help you address the gaps in your capabilities with new equipment, staff, or partners.

Educate Patients on How to Self-Treat After Discharge

While physicians can’t control how patients treat themselves, they can do their best to educate patients on how they can self-care after a visit. Topics to focus on when educating a patient should include:

-How their conditions are affecting their body.

-Why certain treatments/medicines/lifestyle changes are being administered.

-What kinds of positive results a patient can look forward to if they maintain their treatment plan.

Engaging a patient with their health in this way can motivate them to keep up with treatment plans and avoid rehospitalization and readmission.

Schedule Follow-Ups with Patients

If patients are regularly coming back with worsened symptoms within 30 days, you may need to implement a follow-up appointment policy. The goal of these policies is to eliminate reacting to flared up symptoms and instead get in front of conditions by making it mandatory for physicians to touch base with patients after a week or so.

Depending on the patient’s condition, follow-up appointments don’t always need to warrant in-person visits. Consider telehealth initiatives that allow your physicians to check up on patients through video calls or messaging.

Lowering Readmission Rates and Improving Care go Hand in Hand

The upside of addressing readmission rates go beyond simply saving money and bringing in more patients. By addressing these recurring visits, you’re drawing in those benefits while simultaneously improving your patients’ quality of life. For more information on the tech you can implement today that can set you on the path to attaining these benefits, contact an expert from Cybernet today.

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