Home Health & Hospice Week

Your hard work in keeping patients from being readmitted to the hospital can benefit your patients, you, and the health care system overall. Multiple entities are launching programs to curb hospital readmissions. The value of home care in achieving reduced hospital readmission goals can improve your relationships with referral sources.

For example: The New Jersey Hospital Association's Institute for Quality and Patient Safety is launching a year-long collaborative partnership to reduce heart failure-related hospital readmissions, reports the Philadelphia Business Journal. More than 50 hospitals, nursing homes, home care providers, and hospice programs are participating.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is developing a program to reward hospitals for lowering readmission rates, reports The New York Times. And the new health care reform law will punish hospitals with high readmission rates, says The Boston Globe.

One contributing factor: Hospital stays are shorter now -- an average of 5.7 days in 1993 compared to 4.6 days in 2007, the Times notes. Length of stay isn't the only problem. "Discharge from the hospital is a critical point in a patient's recovery, particularly for older people with chronic conditions," the newspaper observes. "The process is supposed to be carefully planned, but instead it often is rushed and poorly coordinated, resulting in complications that send patients back to the emergency room."

Former Gentiva unit CareCentrix is helping insurer CIGNA deal with readmission problems. The East Hartford, Conn.-based company is rolling out its "Care Transitions Program" to CIGNA beneficiaries in Texas, CareCentrix says in a release. The program will attempt to curb rehospitalizations by taking steps such as helping patients manage their medications and facilitating their follow-up medical appointments, the company says.