RWJF Event: Transitioning Away from Readmissions

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation will convene a national conversation on Feb. 13th to highlight successful ways to improve care transitions and reduce avoidable hospital readmissions. The event is part of Care About Your Care, a national initiative to share promising ideas with patients and health care providers.

Nancy Snyderman, MD, chief medical editor for NBC News, will lead national experts and audience members in a discussion about bringing together patients, care providers, and community services to ensure better health care outcomes.

This live event, which will also be streamed online (at the website linked above), will feature:

· Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, MD - RWJF president & CEO
· Eric Coleman, MD - University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
· Mary Naylor, PhD, RN - University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
· Jonathan Blum, MA - Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

Representatives from care teams from across the nation who are working on innovative ways to improve care transitions

WHEN: Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013 from 12:30–2:00 p.m. ET

National Quality Forum Endorses Four New Sets of Measures

On Friday, August 10, the National Quality Forum (NQF) endorsed new measures in four new domains of care: cancer, patient safety, care coordination, and disparities.

The 22 cancer care measures are focused on conditions such as leukemia, prostate cancer, and multiple myeloma, but also on issues that affect care delivery – including radiation dose limits, hospice readmissions, and care planning.

Two new patient safety measures that are focused on complications were endorsed. The measures address venous thromboembolism prophylaxis and current medication documentation in medical records.

The 12 measures of care coordination touch on such critical areas of concern as reconciling patients’ medications, establishing advance care plans, and the timely availability of medical records (to other caregivers and patients themselves) when patients are discharged from hospitals and other in-patient facilities.

The 12 disparities measures are focused on healthcare disparities and culturally competent care for racial and ethnic minority populations.

NBCH is in the process of developing member education and strategy related to measures. If you have feedback on how NBCH can meet your coalition's needs in this area, please contact Colleen Bruce.

Alliance of Community Health Plans Report on Readmissions

As hospitals wrestle with ways to bring down readmission rates, a new Alliance of Community Health Plans report looks at five key steps that improve patients’ odds of being able to go home and stay there. Though the program is still in the early stages, some data suggest that ACHP members with care transition programs are bringing down readmission rates and reducing costs. Still, only a few AHCP plans found “concrete” cost savings from their programs so far.

 

The report discusses five practices that plans identified as key facilitators of their programs’ success, helping to break down silos of care, promote coordination among providers and engage patients to facilitate effective transitions from hospital to home:

• Using data to tailor care transition programs to patients’ needs
• Anticipating patients’ needs and involving them early in the transition process
• Engaging providers to become program partners
• Leveraging technology to improve care transitions
• Incorporating care transitions into broader quality initiatives