Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois and the Illinois Hospital Association are partnering on a new initiative to significantly reduce readmission rates at Illinois hospitals by 2014, according to a release by the hospital association.
So far, 201 Illinois hospitals have pledged to reduce readmissions, with the goal of raising the state's performance from the bottom quartile to an upper quartile. In 2009, Illinois ranked 44th among states for Medicare 30-day readmissions as a percentage of admissions, with a rate of 20.3 percent, according to the Commonwealth Fund State Scorecard.
The new initiative, Preventing Readmissions through Effective Partnerships, or PREP, will involve experts from the Division of Hospital Medicine at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and the Society of Hospital Medicine.
Participating hospitals will redesign hospital discharge processes, improve transitions of care, develop palliative care programs, reduce readmissions from infections and measure reductions in readmissions with standardized metrics.
A key component will be patient education, including assessing patients' unique needs before discharge, making sure they have the necessary information for a smooth transition and applying standardized discharge pathways for medications, follow-up, pending tests, self-management instructions and goal-setting.
Illinois hospitals logged more than 50,000 readmissions in 2009, with patients spending an average of five extra days in the hospital. Raising Illinois hospitals' readmission rate to the current national average would save $150 million in the first year.
Read the Illinois Hospital Association release on readmissions.
Read more coverage on hospitals' efforts to reduce readmissions:
- Lessons From the Group Practice Demonstration for ACOs: Q&A with University of Michigan's Dr. Caroline Blaum
- New Payment Plan to Target Readmissions at Maryland Hospitals
- Helping Providers Get Ready for ACOs, Medical Homes: Q&A with Tim O'Rourke of Humana
So far, 201 Illinois hospitals have pledged to reduce readmissions, with the goal of raising the state's performance from the bottom quartile to an upper quartile. In 2009, Illinois ranked 44th among states for Medicare 30-day readmissions as a percentage of admissions, with a rate of 20.3 percent, according to the Commonwealth Fund State Scorecard.
The new initiative, Preventing Readmissions through Effective Partnerships, or PREP, will involve experts from the Division of Hospital Medicine at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and the Society of Hospital Medicine.
Participating hospitals will redesign hospital discharge processes, improve transitions of care, develop palliative care programs, reduce readmissions from infections and measure reductions in readmissions with standardized metrics.
A key component will be patient education, including assessing patients' unique needs before discharge, making sure they have the necessary information for a smooth transition and applying standardized discharge pathways for medications, follow-up, pending tests, self-management instructions and goal-setting.
Illinois hospitals logged more than 50,000 readmissions in 2009, with patients spending an average of five extra days in the hospital. Raising Illinois hospitals' readmission rate to the current national average would save $150 million in the first year.
Read the Illinois Hospital Association release on readmissions.
Read more coverage on hospitals' efforts to reduce readmissions:
- Lessons From the Group Practice Demonstration for ACOs: Q&A with University of Michigan's Dr. Caroline Blaum
- New Payment Plan to Target Readmissions at Maryland Hospitals
- Helping Providers Get Ready for ACOs, Medical Homes: Q&A with Tim O'Rourke of Humana