Newswise — NEW YORK (June 26, 2013) -- Personal contact with patients before and after their hospital discharge resulted in significantly lower readmission rates, according to a study conducted by the Bronx Collaborative, a group of hospitals and health insurers in the Bronx, N.Y. The results were presented today at the annual meeting of the Case Management Society of America in New Orleans, where the study received the Society’s annual Research Award. The study was also presented as a poster at the AcademyHealth annual meeting in Baltimore earlier this week.
Among 500 patients who received two or more “interventions,” in a special program to manage the transition between hospital and home, only 17.6 percent were readmitted to the hospital within 60 days of discharge versus 26.3 percent among a comparison group of 190 patients who received the current standard of care, the data showed. Another 85 patients who received only one intervention for a variety of reasons had a higher readmission rate, raising to 22.8 percent the overall 60-day readmission rate for patients in the intervention group.
Interventions included intensive pre-discharge education, the scheduling of a post-discharge follow-up appointment with the patient’s personal physician, and post-discharge telephone calls to review medications, identify concerns and verify the completion of the follow-up physician visit.
In addition to receiving at least two interventions, the follow-up physician visit within 14 days of discharge appeared to be a key factor in preventing a readmission, according to the research analysis.
“These results underscore the value of personal contact with patients before and after their discharge from the hospital and follow-up appointments with their personal physicians to help prevent problems that frequently contribute to readmissions,” said Anne Meara, R.N., M.B.A., associate vice president, Network Care Management, CMO, Montefiore Care Management, who led the Collaborative’s project design team. “The program was designed to reflect the key concepts of accountable care – improving outcomes and patient satisfaction while lowering costs. We met those goals, and identified opportunities that could possibly be applied successfully at other hospitals.”
About the Bronx Collaborative and the studyThe Bronx Collaborative includes three non-profit hospital systems -- Bronx Lebanon Hospital Center, St. Barnabas Hospital and Montefiore Medical Center – and two payer organizations, EmblemHealth and Healthfirst, who came together to address health care issues in the Bronx, one of the most ethnically diverse and economically-deprived counties in the country, with a disproportionate disease burden. Together they developed a uniform Care Transitions Program (CTP) with the aim of reducing readmissions within 60 days following a discharge from the Collaborative’s hospitals. The program was supported by a grant from the New York State Health Foundation and the New York Community Trust. The hospital systems contributed in-kind services and the health plans agreed to pay a fee for each patient who received at least two of the interventions in the program’s protocol.
The CTP was made available to Medicare, Medicaid and commercial members of the two health plans. Patients were selected using a predictive model that identified those most at-risk for a readmission based on their diagnoses and the number of readmissions within the preceding 12 months. All participants were Bronx residents age 50 and older and had a working telephone.
Four interventions by nurse care transitions managers were offered to study participants beginning while hospitalized and continuing for 60 days after discharge, including:
• A pre-discharge educational session with a detailed booklet of discharge instructions, a medication record and a list of symptoms that could indicate a change in the patient’s condition; • A post-discharge call within 48-72 hours of discharge to identify patient or caregiver concerns, review symptoms and medications and verify that a physician office visit was scheduled for within 14 days of discharge; • A call at 7-14 days post-discharge to confirm that the office visit was made and to answer any questions from the patient or his or her caregiver; • Calls between 15-60 days post-discharge to check if there were questions and to follow up on open issues.
A care transitions analyst at each hospital scheduled follow-up physician visits for all patients in the program and also entered data in a special program developed for the CTP by the Bronx Regional Health Information Organization. A program pharmacist reviewed medication records and worked with patients who were having problems complying with the prescribed regimen.
In addition to Ms. Meara, the project design team included Janet Kasoff, Ed.D., B.S.N., CMO, Montefiore Care Management; Jitendra Barmecha, M.D., St. Barnabas Hospital; Isaac Dapkins, M.D., Bronx Lebanon Hospital Center; Joseph Zeitlin, M.D., EmblemHealth; Susan Beane, M.D., Healthfirst.
About Montefiore Medical Center As the University Hospital for Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Montefiore is a premier academic medical center nationally renowned for its clinical excellence, scientific discovery and commitment to its community. Recognized among the top hospitals nationally and regionally by U.S. News & World Report, Montefiore provides compassionate, patient- and family-centered care and educates the healthcare professionals of tomorrow. The Children's Hospital at Montefiore is consistently named in U.S. News' "America's Best Children's Hospitals," and is second among those in the New York metro area. With four hospitals, 1,491 beds and 90,000 annual admissions, Montefiore is an integrated health system seamlessly linked by advanced technology. State-of-the-art primary and specialty care is provided through a network of more than 130 locations across the region, including the largest school health program in the nation and a home health program. Montefiore's partnership with Einstein advances clinical and translational research to accelerate the pace at which new discoveries become the treatments and therapies that benefit patients. The medical center derives its inspiration for excellence from its patients and community, and continues to be on the frontlines of developing innovative approaches to care. For more information please visit www.montefiore.org and www.montekids.org. Follow us on Twitter; like us on Facebook; view us on YouTube.
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