May 27th, 2010
Reports the Philadelphia Inquirer:
Patients who return to the hospital within a month of being discharged represent one of the most persistent and costly, yet preventable, problems in American health care.
But few solutions have been implemented on a widespread scale. Until now.
On Wednesday, more than 200 area hospital administrators, doctors, nurses, and others met with national experts at the Union League in Center City to learn about strategies to reduce hospital readmissions in the five-county Philadelphia area.
One approach is to use nurses to proactively treat the highest-risk patients – older people with multiple chronic illnesses – who cost the most money.
Another idea was to use a computer-animation program nicknamed “Louise” to prepare patients and their families for the return home. And yet a third was to use “transition coaches” to help patients better manage their own care after a hospitalization.
“We have a lot of interesting innovative practices to share . . . and hopefully that can really accelerate the pace of change in addressing this problem,” said Kate Flynn, president of the regional Health Care Improvement Foundation, which is leading the local effort in partnership with Independence Blue Cross.
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