Hospitals trying to reduce readmissions, with IHI help, WSJ says

Hospital readmissions cause needless harm to patients and drive up healthcare costs, two outcomes that can be avoided by better follow-up care when a patient is discharged, according to the Cambridge-based Institute for Healthcare Improvement in a story in today's Wall Street Journal.

Pat Rutherford, an IHI vice president, told the Journal that there are about 5 million readmissions a year in U.S. hospitals, a third occurring within 90 days of discharge. But transitional-care programs that follow patients at home could prevent as many as 46 percent of readmissions, she said.

These are some of the IHI strategies, according to the Journal story: identifying patients at risk for return, scheduling follow-up doctor's appointments before patients are discharged, sending nurses to patients' homes within a few days of discharge, monitoring patients at home, and educating patients and families on how to adhere to medication schedules and self-care regimens.