Discharge Planning Advisor Archives – December 1, 2010
December 1, 2010
View Issues
-
Health care providers need to think outside the box to reduce readmissions
Health care systems that lack quality improvement projects to reduce their readmission rates or fail to discuss utilization issues with private payers, third-party administrators (TPAs), and others already are stuck in 20th-century thinking and habits, experts say. -
Use evidence-based tools to improve discharge
One strategy hospitals can employ to improve their readmission rate is to use evidence-based tools and processes at discharge. -
Consortium hopes to reduce readmissions
As health care reform has directed national focus to finding ways to improve public health and cut medical costs, leading hospitals, providers, and others are seeking ways to improve care transitions. -
DP can seem confusing, scary to patients
Health care professionals working in the area of hospital discharge planning might find that the most effective way to understand how patients perceive their communication is to go through the process themselves. -
Best practice strategies can improve DP
There are multiple small ways and steps hospitals can take to improve their patients' discharge instructions and care. -
Good data come from internal discharge system
Once a health care system decides to improve its discharge planning process, the difficult next step is collecting information about what doesn't work and how to improve flawed processes. -
If discharge barriers arise, consider these solutions
A hospital's discharge process could be well-organized and include best practices. But what happens when patients are kept in an acute care bed, because the usual care transition options will not work?