According to new research in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, following a six-step procedure can help keep heart failure patients out of the hospital. Hospitals can:
1. Partner with physicians to approach readmissions issues.
2. Collaborate with other hospitals to form a cross-institutional readmissions plan.
3. Assign nurses to supervise medication coordination.
4. Schedule follow-up appointments with patients pre-discharge.
5. Create system for sending discharge information to a patient's primary care physician.
6. Apprise patients of test results received after discharge.
The study was conducted with data from nearly 600 hospital surveys from two nationwide heart failure readmissions reduction programs.
Hospitals that used all six steps in tandem saw the biggest benefits, with readmissions reductions as high as 2 percent.
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