Yet Another Study on Readmission Rates for Heart Failure Patients
In the vein of my post last week, there is yet another new study that discusses hospital readmissions for heart failure patients: this one published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Over the past 15 years or so, hospitals have been discharging patients after shorter stays in order to cut costs. However, the JAMA study of Medicare heart-failure patients from 1993-2006, showed that more patients are returning to the hospital for additional care within a month of their initial treatment.
This is the very same problem I saw in my work as a cardiologist, which is why I founded Pharos Innovations to develop Tel-Assuranceâ in the first place. With “in the trenches” patient care experience rather than simply a technology or marketing vantage point, we understood the root causes of frequent readmissions. Namely, challenges with individuals modifying their behavior.
According to a WSJ article about the study, its findings “raise the possibility that the drive to reduce the length of time patients spend in hospitals—a key cost-containment strategy for both government and private insurers—may have backfired when it comes to reducing overall health expenditures related to heart-failure admissions.” This logic stands to reason if shorter lengths of stay mean less time to educate and train patients on key behavioral changes before discharge.
The study found that the average length of a hospital stay for heart failure declined 26% to 6.4 days in 2005-2006, from 8.6 days in 1993-1994. However, during that same period, readmissions within 30 days increased to 20.1% from 17.3%. The study also found that over the two decades, death rates during hospitalization fell for heart-failure patients, but then rose in the period following discharge.
Longer hospital stays are not necessarily the answer, but patient support and persistent follow-up care are. By helping patients become more involved in their own self-care after discharge from the hospital, Tel-Assurance has helped reduce readmissions by as much as 86%. Clearly, we can’t consider the treatment “job” completed when a patient is discharged.
The WSJ article goes on to quote Dr. Harlan Krumholz, a Yale University cardiologist and senior author of the study, as saying, “I don’t think the answer is that we have to go back to an eight-day length of stay, but to make six days work, we need to develop systems that allow this to occur safely.”
Indeed. The mission of Pharos Innovations is to improve the lives of individuals with chronic diseases by connecting patients with their care providers to help them stay healthier, and out of the hospital. Tel-Assurance is just such a system.
