Is Secret To Reducing Hospital Readmissions In The Data

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) have put hospitals on the course to reduce readmissions.  Surgical departments have been reviewing collected information to determine if valuable readmission reduction secrets can be spotted.

The surgical department would look at a period of time where patient's who received surgery, spent time on the med surg floor, went home and then readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of discharge.  What aspect of this process can be examined and adjusted to enhance recovery and reduce the need for rehospitalization.

The surgical department combed through 4 modes of  inpatient information collection  and recording.

1. Surgical patients chart (documents procedure and immediate post op)

2. Medical records information (documents med surg floor stay and discharge)

3. ACS NSQIP (American College of Surgeons National Quality Improvement Program) facilitates hospital to hospital comparison of standard information

5. CMS mandated business office reports (documents readmission frequency and billing)

The surgical department was looking for patient specifics that could translate to the reason for a readmission.  The current strategy is comparing the surgical diagnosis with the diagnosis stored in the medical records information and the diagnosis listed with the ACS NSQIP.  Are the diagnosis similar in all three storage sources, and how do they align with the readmission diagnosis. 

This provides the surgical department an opportunity to form space (collect more patient data) to record additional assessment information that can communicate a more granular value to the readmission specifics.   Simply when reviewing across similar surgical procedures for similar diagnosis with elevated readmission rates where is the variation.  What modification can enhance the quality of the process and reduce the need for rehospitalization. 

Expect the surgical departments of hospitals to continue to adjust their care delivery process after a period of comprehensive data review and some sharing of significant findings.   This is an ongoing way for evidence based data discoveries to modify delivery and reduce the need for rehospitalization. 

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