Page 1 - How the US Health Care System Can Reduce Avoidable Read missions

MARCH 2013
Reform in Action: Brief

How the U.S. Health Care System Can

Reduce Avoidable Readmissions

Insights from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Aligning Forces for Quality

In 2010, the Robert Wood Patients discharged from U.S. hospitals return far too often. Almost one in five elderly patients
Johnson Foundation (RWJF)
launched the Hospital released from a hospital is back within 30 days, and more than one in three are back within 90
1
Quality Network, a learning days. Although some readmissions are part of a patient’s treatment plan, many are avoidable.
network of 120 hospitals They are the result of a fragmented system of care that too often leaves discharged patients
to develop and exchange
quality improvement tools, confused about how to care for themselves at home, unable to follow instructions they didn’t
strategies, and lessons understand, not taking medications properly or getting the necessary follow-up care, and
learned on three core focus
areas: improving language ultimately leading them to return to the hospital. These unnecessary readmissions negatively
services, increasing affect patients’ health, place a burden on their families and caregivers, and cost our country
throughput, and reducing billions of dollars.
avoidable readmissions.
The initiative was part of
Aligning Forces for Quality
(AF4Q), RWJF’s signature Facing the Readmissions Crisis in America
effort to lift the overall quality
of health care in 16 targeted The issue of preventable readmissions has recently come to the forefront in our health care system
communities. Lessons due to the Medicare penalties imposed on hospitals with excessive rehospitalizations. Under the
from AF4Q and its Hospital
Quality Network demonstrate Affordable Care Act, more than 2,000 hospitals faced penalties in October 2012 because of high
how health care providers readmission rates for heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia, and these penalties will become more
can work together and severe over time.
2
with patients to help them
transition out of the hospital.
RWJF has supported a wide range of programs to improve care transitions and reduce avoidable
readmissions. Most recently, hospitals participating in the AF4Q Hospital Quality Network
developed and implemented replicable quality improvement strategies for reducing avoidable
readmissions for heart failure patients, resulting in approximately 500 avoided readmissions over an
18-month period.

RWJF’S PERSPECTIVE This brief highlights how the local alliances that lead the AF4Q effort in each community and
Hear from John Lumpkin, hospitals participating in the Hospital Quality Network are trying new approaches to help patients
MD, MPH, senior vice
president and director of get the care they need without returning to the hospital. They are starting conversations in their local
the Health Care Group at communities, targeting patients at high risk for being readmitted, spurring changes within hospitals
the Robert Wood Johnson to streamline processes, and improving coordination between hospitals and outpatient care facilities
Foundation, on steps
patients and caregivers can to help patients receive continuous care.
take to improve transitions
from hospital to home.
Additional Resources from RWJF:
The Revolving Door: A Report on U.S. Hospital Readmissions
Interactive Map: The Revolving Door Syndrome
10 Things You Should Know About Care Transitions
Reducing Avoidable Readmissions Through Better Care Transitions
Aligning Forces for Quality Hospital Quality Network: What Did the Collaborative Accomplish?
Health Policy Brief: Improving Care Transitions

1