subject: Bethesda Hospitals Look To Join The Effort In Reducing Re-admissions [print this page] The federal government and health care insurers are looking for ways to reduce preventable re-admissions, which stands at an all time high clocked at 4.4 million by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Louise the virtual nurse is ready to take over the job of ensuring patients refrain from reentering hospital once they are discharged. Louise will appear on a computer screen and guide the patient through the transition from hospital to home. Patients will be assigned a Home with Meds packet along with medical instructions offered by Louise. In the meantime, patients will continue to be monitored on the phone by real-life nurses.
Preventable re-admissions cost as much as $30 billion in healthcare spending. Medicare will address this issue and allocate $500 million to hospitals and organizations willing to partner on a pilot project looking to reduce preventable hospital re-admissions. The project known as RED was first developed by researchers at Boston University. RED played a major role in helping slash down the cost on preventable readmission by 30%. Now hospitals are also being funded by the government to help reduce preventable readmission.
Re-admissions occur most of the time as a result of poor communication between the hospital staff members and patients. Staff members in hospitals work around the clock and tend to rush from one patient to another. In such instances, medical instructions conveyed to a patient may not be sufficient. Patients may not follow through with these specific instructions such as hospital follow ups, medication time and other appointments related to the condition. These errors lead to patients being readmitted to the hospital.
In Project RED, a discharge nurse will be assigned to every patient. The nurse will take on the responsibility of explaining the diagnosis to the patient, offer medical instructions and arrange any follow-up hospital visits. The patient is told to explain these instructions in their own words to ensure proper communication procedures have been followed. The nurse will follow up within two days of the patient being discharged, usually with a phone call to talk through unresolved issues. The patient's general physician will also receive instruction booklets on the condition of the patient.
Boston Medical University did another study on preventable readmission and developed Louise, a virtual nurse who offers medical instructions to patients upon their discharge. This method also allows patients to fully comprehend the importance of hospital to home transition and how to handle post-discharge instructions once they've come home. Louise allows patients to repeatedly review the information in case something doesn't make sense. Other causes of readmission include drug side effects and not attending follow-up appointments. All these measures taken by the hospital will greatly reduce preventable re-admissions.
Project RED can be downloaded from the program website. Joint Commission Resources, the nonprofit organization will assist 250 hospitals with funding they have received to take on Project RED. Engineered Care, a company from San Francisco, has attained the rights to Project RED from Boston University and will sell the program software to hospitals, along with the virtual Louise feature.
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