The initiative, referred to as ARC — “Avoid Readmissions Through Collaboration,” will help hospitals to adopt evidence-based models that are known to reduce readmissions with the goal of reducing avoidable admissions by 30 percent by Dec. 31, 2013.
Already, nearly 150 hospital, medical group, health plan and nursing home leaders from five San Francisco Bay-area counties have met and begun to discuss what will be required to more quickly lower readmission rates and to improve transitional care processes.
Local and regional initiatives to reduce readmission rates are growing across the country in response to healthcare reform. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act includes language that will reduce Medicare payments to hospitals with high readmission rates beginning in 2013. Ninety percent of Medicare readmissions within 30 days are unplanned and the total cost exceeds $17 billion annually, according to recent studies.
Successfully reducing unplanned readmissions and improving care transitions involves several guiding principles that ARC will emphasize: maintaining a patient-centered focus; “getting into the weeds” to better understand the complex discharge planning and transitional process; customizing existing transitional care models to fit a hospital’s own culture and systems; and reinforcing effective practices by hospital staff.
The three-year, $1 million initiative is funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, with additional support for the project launch from The California Health Care Foundation.
Learn more about the California Health Care Foundation.
Read more coverage on hospital readmissions:
– One-Quarter of Hospital Patients Readmitted Within Two Years
– More Than One-Third of California Inpatients Readmitted Within a Year
– Following up on Heart-Failure Patients Reduces Readmission Rate
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