Archive for June, 2010

Yet Another Study on Readmission Rates for Heart Failure Patients

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

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. Read the rest of this entry →

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Emergency Department Visits Drive Up Readmission Rates Far Higher than Originally Presumed

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

Another article caught my attention last week. It was an article in HealthLeaders  on a report issued as part of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ) Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, which covered 12 states including Arizona, California, Florida, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah.

The key finding of the report was that the problem of readmissions and use of emergency room resources is more problematic than originally presumed.

According to the AHRQ report, “most readmission studies only report information on patients who have multiple hospital inpatient stays,” and in so doing exclude patients who seek care in the emergency department (ED). Once the researchers included ED visits, the rate of multiple visits jumped by more than one-third—from an average of 1.5 to 2.1 acute care hospital visits per patient. Read the rest of this entry →

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