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12 Ways to Reduce Hospital Readmissions
12. Listen to the Patient
Involve the emergency room, hospice or home health providers to make sure patients don't come to the emergency room for non-emergent end-of-life care issues. Providing patients and their family members with informed choices, opportunities for advance directives, and counseling in the emergency room setting may avert painful, unnecessary admissions. Look for this to be a major expansion of palliative care professionals inside the ED.
"There really needs to be a care plan that reflects the patient's wishes," Jencks says. "This is quite different from either a medical power of attorney or what is often called a living will because it lays out the goals of treatment.
"Cure? Palliation? Functional independence? Playing dominoes with friends? Hospice? This kind of plan has little relevance to persons without substantial chronic conditions, but it is totally relevant to a patient with one or more chronic conditions that have required hospitalization. With such a plan, one can often avoid readmissions that really do not serve the patient’s needs or values. What is, after all, worse than a readmission? Readmission of a patient who does not want to be readmitted," Jencks says.
See Also:
Readmissions Reduction Effort at Kaiser Involves Cameras
Revolving Door Of Readmissions and ED Visits More Extensive and Expensive
What a TV Show Can Teach Us About Readmissions
Facilities Get Creative to Reduce Hospital Readmissions
Cheryl Clark is a senior editor and California correspondent for HealthLeaders Media Online. She can be reached at cclark@healthleadersmedia.com. Follow Cheryl Clark on Twitter.
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Comments are moderated. Please be patient.
Janet Thurston MSN (1/21/2012 at 8:20 PM)
Everything written creates a safer, better experience for all patients. With this information now coming into realization, why is it so difficult to do? ie Pts go home with their meds understanding them, Dr follow up appts arranged. Pt questions answered. Why would a pt have to pay 100$ for a copy of their medical record? This is another shame. Dr to Dr / free Dr to Pt / fee
Todd Madden (1/4/2012 at 5:12 PM)
Computerized Physician Order Entry is another way to reduce a hospital error and thus reduce the chance of readmission. Unforatunately too few hospitals in the US use it.
Lorree Bell, R.N., HCS-D, COS-C (1/4/2011 at 4:44 PM)
You can reduce hospital readmissions by partnering with a good Home Health provider. They will reconcile the medications, assess for risk factors, and implement interventions to keep the patient out of the hospital. Particularly during the first 30 days when they are at the greatest risk.