Implementing guidelines as well as audit and feedback interventions can improve hospitals' communication during patient care transitions between healthcare settings, according to a study published in the Journal of Hospital Administration.
Healthcentric Advisors, the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization for New England, collaborated with Rhode Island providers and stakeholders to develop communitywide standards for hospitals and safe transitions best practice measures for hospitals. They then implemented a hospital quality improvement intervention.
Researchers analyzed hospital-reported data on four best practice measures and Medicare claims data for the second quarter of 2011 until the first quarter of 2013.
The study found that aggregate performance for the four best practice measures increased significantly and the readmission rate decreased by 18.4 percent, from 14.12 to 11.52 per 1,000 eligible fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries.
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