FEWER READMISSIONS: Helping Patients Heal Sooner, Return Home Quicker and Stay Home After Treatment

The Collaborative on Reducing Hospital Readmissions

Goal
Understand readmission causes and adopt practices to significantly reduce the number of patients returning to the hospital after discharge, focusing on those most likely to be readmitted: patients experiencing heart failure, heart attack, pneumonia, hip replacement or cardiac bypass surgery. Readmission rates are a bellwether for successful coordination across the health care continuum—from hospitals to home to skilled nursing facility to the offices of primary care providers.

About
In 2008, Florida's hospitals became the first in the nation to publicly report readmissions data by hospital. Through that process, for the first time Florida's hospitals had access to actionable statewide readmissions data. Understanding avoidable readmissions drove the desire to work together to improve. In fact, data showed some patients may be readmitted to a different hospital for their follow-up care—further necessitating collaboration and underscoring the value of statewide data.