No one wants to go to the hospital. What is worse, is having to be readmitted after you are supposedly healed up. With the latest healthcare reform, Medicare reimbursements are reduced to hospitals that have continuous readmissions.
Readmission can be costly to you, the system, and ultimately your health. When the problems are preventable, it only makes good sense to curb the readmissions. The way hospitals are going about reducing readmissions are listed below.
Communication: Understanding what the doctor requires should begin in the hospital. Doctors are now making sure that their patients fully understand what to expect once they are released from the hospital. This can include, but not be limited to: brochures and booklets, consultations with other professionals, and video information.
Home Healthcare Programs: After your release, your healthcare provider may send a home healthcare professional out to your home to evaluate your physical status, identify “hot spots” in your home for further injury, and possibly show you some simple exercises to help you on your road to recovery. It has been shown that this added care can stop you from going back into the hospital in the short term.
The Seven-Day Follow-up: Recent studies have shown that by following up with your physician one week after your discharge from the hospital greatly decreases your chance of readmission.
Using Technology in the Home: In recent years, hospitals have been making use of telemetry and monitoring devices in the home to help prevent readmission. This can include something as simple as a scale that transmits the patient’s weight to a nurse, to oxygen, blood sugar, and heart rate monitoring. This serves as an early warning system for people who are prone to be readmitted for high-risk illnesses.
Continuing Rehabilitation: A few weeks after a hospital stay, many facilities, like the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, will call to set a patient up to participate in a rehabilitation program. These programs can often last twelve weeks and help to build a patient’s strength and knowledge in their particular ailment. Examples of this can be a Cardiac Rehab for patients who have had a heart attack.
If you have any questions about some of the services available to your loved ones or would like to know more about how to decrease your chances of being readmitted into hospital care, please feel free to contact the Kabb Law Firm at 216-991-KABB (5222). Our patient-centered services help decrease hospital readmission rates.
