Partnerships with Hospitals Require Consistent Discharge Processes

January 4, 2013 | Aging Services Risk Management

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​Postacute care, home care, and continuing care can play a key role in reducing hospital readmissions by improving the patient's transition to a residential care setting, suggests an article in the November/December 2012 LeadingAge. Care coordination in such an arrangement is essential. "When the quality of nursing home care or home health agencies does not meet a patient's needs . . . these factors drive rates of both admission and readmission. Inadequate care after discharge is often a result of a lack of care coordination (e.g., the hospital may fail to share a list of the medications prescribed to a patient upon discharge)," the article quotes Mark Aspenson and Sunil Hazaray of Avery Telehealth as saying. Therefore, say the article's authors, hospital initiatives include identification of trends regarding readmissions and what care organizations readmitted patients come from; improvement of transfer forms, procedures, and communication to ensure consistent care delivery; and collaboration among hospitals and postacute care providers during the review of adverse events and complicated cases.

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