Home Health & Hospice Week
Fight Readmissions With Nutrition
If you’re trying to whittle down your hospital readmission rates, you may want to look to an overlooked area — nutrition. So indicates a new study published in the June 24 Journal of Enteral and Parenteral Nutrition. A study by researchers at Illinois health system and ACO Advocate Health Care, which followed more than 1,500 home health patients for 90 days, found that “when patients at risk for malnutrition received a comprehensive nutrition care program, including nutrition drinks, to aid in their recovery, [the] risk of being hospitalized was significantly reduced by 24 percent in the first 30 days, nearly 23 percent after 60 days, and 18 percent after 90 days,” according to a release. The study was funded by Abbott, which makes Ensure and other nutrition drinks. ‘”While the primary reason people come to home health isn’t because they’re malnourished or at risk, we have found that when we do pay attention to their nutrition care, it helps promote their strength and prevents them from going back to the hospital, which ultimately reduces healthcare costs,” lead study author Katie Riley, post-acute chief nursing officer for Advocate Aurora Health, says in the release. Researchers also found that “healthcare costs were reduced by more than $2.3 million or about $1,500 per patient at risk for malnutrition treated over the course of 90 days,” the release adds. See the study at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jpen.1606.
Home Health & Hospice Week
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Fight Readmissions With Nutrition
If you’re trying to whittle down your hospital readmission rates, you may want to look [...]
