Measures to avoid hospital readmission often don’t work

ANN ARBOR-Health care interventions designed to keep patients from having to be readmitted to the hospital are proving unsuccessful, a researcher from the University of Michigan School of Public Health and a colleague have found. Further, Ariel Linden, adjunct associate professor in the School of Public Health's Department of Health Management and Policy, noted that another study just released reached a similar conclusion, suggesting that those who administer Medicare may want to take a look at policies, a recent one in particular. At issue is a change in Medicare reimbursement policies that went into effect in 2013, which penalizes hospitals when patients are readmitted within 30 days for certain conditions by not paying hospitals for those readmissions. "After this change, hospitals began implementing interventions to fix this," Linden said. These included pre-discharge measures such as patient education, discharge planning, medication reconciliation and the scheduling of follow-up appointments in advance. Post-discharge interventions included follow-up phone calls by health professionals, the availability of a patient hotline, assistance to bridge the transition from hospital to home or a care setting, and help with behavioral changes (i.e., smoking cessation). For the study, additional interventions were put in place, including health coaching and symptom monitoring, the latter using an interactive voice response system.