Researchers examined the effectiveness of the Greater New Haven Coalition for Safe Transitions and Readmission Reductions at preventing high-risk discharge patients from returning to the hospital in a new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
The coalition created a readmission-reducing intervention that included personalized transitional care, education, medication reconciliation, follow-up telephone calls and linking patients to community resources.
The authors of the study measured the 30-day unplanned same-hospital readmission rates at an urban academic medical center for a baseline period — spanning from May 1, 2011, to April 30, 2012 — and the intervention period — from Oct. 1, 2012, to May 31, 2014.
Based on data collected from more than 10,600 discharged Medicare fee-for-service patients, the odds of readmission decreased significantly more among the intervention group than among the control population.
"This large-scale readmission reduction program reduced readmissions by 9.3 percent among the full population targeted by the CMS despite being delivered only to high-risk patients. However, it did not achieve the goal reduction set by the CMS," concluded the study. The CMS goal was 20 percent.
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