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Which patients are you most likely to see again? It’s a particularly vexing question for hospitalists amid the heightened focus on lowering hospital readmissions, and one that several recent studies have sought to address.
One Journal of Hospital Medicine analysis of more than 10,300 admissions found that unplanned rehospitalizations within 30 days of discharge were far more likely for African-American patients and those on high-risk medications like narcotics and corticosteroids.1 Patients with such chronic conditions as cancer, renal failure, and congestive heart failure also were at increased risk.
A second, smaller study of 142 inpatients who had been hospitalized within the preceding six months found that chronic disease, depression, and being underweight or obese all predicted a higher risk of another readmission within the next six months.2
And a third report in the Journal of Urban Health examined more than 36,000 Medicare patients admitted to urban public hospitals to assess which were most likely to return within the following year. Chronic medical conditions, substance abuse, and homelessness all contributed to increased odds.3
Most efforts aimed at reducing rehospitalizations, such as SHM’s Project BOOST, include a risk assessment that can point to potential trouble spots for individual patients. For certain populations, research has highlighted socioeconomic and racial disparities in access to healthcare that likely lead to unnecessary hospitalizations. But it’s one thing to identify the factors associated with higher rates, and quite another to actively manage them, especially when many crop up well beyond a hospital’s walls. Anxiety over these contributing factors is steadily building in anticipation of Medicare penalties for excessively high readmission rates set to begin in 2012.
“Whenever there is a program that has financial incentives, people always get concerned that they have patients who are somehow different,” says Lakshmi Halasyamani, MD, SFHM, SHM board member and vice president for medical affairs at Saint Joseph Mercy Health System in Ann Arbor, Mich. “Inherent in that assumption is: more difficult to manage or sicker or more complicated.”
Stephen Jencks, MD, MPH, an independent healthcare safety and quality consultant based in Baltimore, says he’s heard the same complaint for three decades. “It’s what we call the 'Lake Wobegon effect': All of our patients are sicker than average.
“I think it’s just a really poor way to go about what is a very human sort of question,” he adds. “If Mrs. Jones is back in the hospital because she didn’t understand the discharge instructions, the question is not ‘Does my population have more literacy problems than somebody else’s population of patients?’ The question is ‘What can we do for Mrs. Jones so she can understand this stuff?’ ” (For help communicating with patients, check out SHM's on-demand webinar, "Implementing Teach Back as a System-Wide Patient Communication Strategy.")
Healthcare experts say it’s not difficult to find challenges unique to particular urban areas or populations. Florida Hospital Association President Bruce Rueben, MBA, says many Floridians speak English as a second language, making clear communication critical. The state also has one of the highest percentages of elderly residents and is in a funding crisis that has required providers to do more with less. But instead of worrying about exceptions or anomalies, Rueben says, focusing on the best overall readmission-reducing approaches will help ensure that all patients are being treated and discharged effectively.
What about dealing with specific conditions? Paul McGann, MD, deputy chief medical officer at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), says good evidence exists for the effectiveness of interventions aimed at diseases ranging from congestive heart failure and cancer to chronic obstructive lung disease, ulcers, and stroke. But data from Medicare’s Care Transitions Program, he says, suggest that even if all hospitals pursued the dozens of disease-specific interventions collectively implemented by the program’s participants, they still wouldn’t address more than about half of the causes of readmission. Based on that finding, he says, project leaders have insisted on an all-cause focus.
Dr. Halasyamani says it’s only natural to sometimes focus on the exception rather than the rule. “And we’ve all had those experiences where, boy, you feel like you’ve done everything you can and the patient still comes back,” she says. “But having said that, we also have opportunities where we haven’t done everything that we can and the patient comes back. So I think we need to focus on that first, rather than say, ‘Well, this isn’t fixable based on all of the patient-level issues.’”
Rachel George, MD, MBA, FHM, regional medical director and vice president of operations for West Cogent Healthcare Inc., says it all comes down to perspective. “Instead of looking at what’s the percentage that we can’t deal with,” she says, “let’s look at the patient population that we can affect.”
Bryn Nelson is a freelance medical writer based in Seattle.
References
1. Allaudeen N, Vidyarthi A, Maselli J, Auerbach A. Redefining readmission risk factors for general medicine patients. J Hosp Med. 2011;6(2):54-60.
2. Mudge AM, Kasper KM, Clair, A, et al. Recurrent readmissions in medical patients: a prospective study. J Hosp Med. 2011;6(2):61-67.
3. Raven, MC, Billings, JC, Goldfrank LR, Manheimer ED, Gourevitch MN. Medicaid patients at high risk for frequent hospital admission: real-time identification and remediable risks. J Urb Health. 2009;86(2):230-241.
Which patients are you most likely to see again? It’s a particularly vexing question for hospitalists amid the heightened focus on lowering hospital readmissions, and one that several recent studies have sought to address.
One Journal of Hospital Medicine analysis of more than 10,300 admissions found that unplanned rehospitalizations within 30 days of discharge were far more likely for African-American patients and those on high-risk medications like narcotics and corticosteroids.1 Patients with such chronic conditions as cancer, renal failure, and congestive heart failure also were at increased risk.
A second, smaller study of 142 inpatients who had been hospitalized within the preceding six months found that chronic disease, depression, and being underweight or obese all predicted a higher risk of another readmission within the next six months.2
And a third report in the Journal of Urban Health examined more than 36,000 Medicare patients admitted to urban public hospitals to assess which were most likely to return within the following year. Chronic medical conditions, substance abuse, and homelessness all contributed to increased odds.3
Most efforts aimed at reducing rehospitalizations, such as SHM’s Project BOOST, include a risk assessment that can point to potential trouble spots for individual patients. For certain populations, research has highlighted socioeconomic and racial disparities in access to healthcare that likely lead to unnecessary hospitalizations. But it’s one thing to identify the factors associated with higher rates, and quite another to actively manage them, especially when many crop up well beyond a hospital’s walls. Anxiety over these contributing factors is steadily building in anticipation of Medicare penalties for excessively high readmission rates set to begin in 2012.
“Whenever there is a program that has financial incentives, people always get concerned that they have patients who are somehow different,” says Lakshmi Halasyamani, MD, SFHM, SHM board member and vice president for medical affairs at Saint Joseph Mercy Health System in Ann Arbor, Mich. “Inherent in that assumption is: more difficult to manage or sicker or more complicated.”
Stephen Jencks, MD, MPH, an independent healthcare safety and quality consultant based in Baltimore, says he’s heard the same complaint for three decades. “It’s what we call the 'Lake Wobegon effect': All of our patients are sicker than average.
“I think it’s just a really poor way to go about what is a very human sort of question,” he adds. “If Mrs. Jones is back in the hospital because she didn’t understand the discharge instructions, the question is not ‘Does my population have more literacy problems than somebody else’s population of patients?’ The question is ‘What can we do for Mrs. Jones so she can understand this stuff?’ ” (For help communicating with patients, check out SHM's on-demand webinar, "Implementing Teach Back as a System-Wide Patient Communication Strategy.")
Healthcare experts say it’s not difficult to find challenges unique to particular urban areas or populations. Florida Hospital Association President Bruce Rueben, MBA, says many Floridians speak English as a second language, making clear communication critical. The state also has one of the highest percentages of elderly residents and is in a funding crisis that has required providers to do more with less. But instead of worrying about exceptions or anomalies, Rueben says, focusing on the best overall readmission-reducing approaches will help ensure that all patients are being treated and discharged effectively.
What about dealing with specific conditions? Paul McGann, MD, deputy chief medical officer at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), says good evidence exists for the effectiveness of interventions aimed at diseases ranging from congestive heart failure and cancer to chronic obstructive lung disease, ulcers, and stroke. But data from Medicare’s Care Transitions Program, he says, suggest that even if all hospitals pursued the dozens of disease-specific interventions collectively implemented by the program’s participants, they still wouldn’t address more than about half of the causes of readmission. Based on that finding, he says, project leaders have insisted on an all-cause focus.
Dr. Halasyamani says it’s only natural to sometimes focus on the exception rather than the rule. “And we’ve all had those experiences where, boy, you feel like you’ve done everything you can and the patient still comes back,” she says. “But having said that, we also have opportunities where we haven’t done everything that we can and the patient comes back. So I think we need to focus on that first, rather than say, ‘Well, this isn’t fixable based on all of the patient-level issues.’”
Rachel George, MD, MBA, FHM, regional medical director and vice president of operations for West Cogent Healthcare Inc., says it all comes down to perspective. “Instead of looking at what’s the percentage that we can’t deal with,” she says, “let’s look at the patient population that we can affect.”
Bryn Nelson is a freelance medical writer based in Seattle.
References
1. Allaudeen N, Vidyarthi A, Maselli J, Auerbach A. Redefining readmission risk factors for general medicine patients. J Hosp Med. 2011;6(2):54-60.
2. Mudge AM, Kasper KM, Clair, A, et al. Recurrent readmissions in medical patients: a prospective study. J Hosp Med. 2011;6(2):61-67.
3. Raven, MC, Billings, JC, Goldfrank LR, Manheimer ED, Gourevitch MN. Medicaid patients at high risk for frequent hospital admission: real-time identification and remediable risks. J Urb Health. 2009;86(2):230-241.
Which patients are you most likely to see again? It’s a particularly vexing question for hospitalists amid the heightened focus on lowering hospital readmissions, and one that several recent studies have sought to address.
One Journal of Hospital Medicine analysis of more than 10,300 admissions found that unplanned rehospitalizations within 30 days of discharge were far more likely for African-American patients and those on high-risk medications like narcotics and corticosteroids.1 Patients with such chronic conditions as cancer, renal failure, and congestive heart failure also were at increased risk.
A second, smaller study of 142 inpatients who had been hospitalized within the preceding six months found that chronic disease, depression, and being underweight or obese all predicted a higher risk of another readmission within the next six months.2
And a third report in the Journal of Urban Health examined more than 36,000 Medicare patients admitted to urban public hospitals to assess which were most likely to return within the following year. Chronic medical conditions, substance abuse, and homelessness all contributed to increased odds.3
Most efforts aimed at reducing rehospitalizations, such as SHM’s Project BOOST, include a risk assessment that can point to potential trouble spots for individual patients. For certain populations, research has highlighted socioeconomic and racial disparities in access to healthcare that likely lead to unnecessary hospitalizations. But it’s one thing to identify the factors associated with higher rates, and quite another to actively manage them, especially when many crop up well beyond a hospital’s walls. Anxiety over these contributing factors is steadily building in anticipation of Medicare penalties for excessively high readmission rates set to begin in 2012.
“Whenever there is a program that has financial incentives, people always get concerned that they have patients who are somehow different,” says Lakshmi Halasyamani, MD, SFHM, SHM board member and vice president for medical affairs at Saint Joseph Mercy Health System in Ann Arbor, Mich. “Inherent in that assumption is: more difficult to manage or sicker or more complicated.”
Stephen Jencks, MD, MPH, an independent healthcare safety and quality consultant based in Baltimore, says he’s heard the same complaint for three decades. “It’s what we call the 'Lake Wobegon effect': All of our patients are sicker than average.
“I think it’s just a really poor way to go about what is a very human sort of question,” he adds. “If Mrs. Jones is back in the hospital because she didn’t understand the discharge instructions, the question is not ‘Does my population have more literacy problems than somebody else’s population of patients?’ The question is ‘What can we do for Mrs. Jones so she can understand this stuff?’ ” (For help communicating with patients, check out SHM's on-demand webinar, "Implementing Teach Back as a System-Wide Patient Communication Strategy.")
Healthcare experts say it’s not difficult to find challenges unique to particular urban areas or populations. Florida Hospital Association President Bruce Rueben, MBA, says many Floridians speak English as a second language, making clear communication critical. The state also has one of the highest percentages of elderly residents and is in a funding crisis that has required providers to do more with less. But instead of worrying about exceptions or anomalies, Rueben says, focusing on the best overall readmission-reducing approaches will help ensure that all patients are being treated and discharged effectively.
What about dealing with specific conditions? Paul McGann, MD, deputy chief medical officer at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), says good evidence exists for the effectiveness of interventions aimed at diseases ranging from congestive heart failure and cancer to chronic obstructive lung disease, ulcers, and stroke. But data from Medicare’s Care Transitions Program, he says, suggest that even if all hospitals pursued the dozens of disease-specific interventions collectively implemented by the program’s participants, they still wouldn’t address more than about half of the causes of readmission. Based on that finding, he says, project leaders have insisted on an all-cause focus.
Dr. Halasyamani says it’s only natural to sometimes focus on the exception rather than the rule. “And we’ve all had those experiences where, boy, you feel like you’ve done everything you can and the patient still comes back,” she says. “But having said that, we also have opportunities where we haven’t done everything that we can and the patient comes back. So I think we need to focus on that first, rather than say, ‘Well, this isn’t fixable based on all of the patient-level issues.’”
Rachel George, MD, MBA, FHM, regional medical director and vice president of operations for West Cogent Healthcare Inc., says it all comes down to perspective. “Instead of looking at what’s the percentage that we can’t deal with,” she says, “let’s look at the patient population that we can affect.”
Bryn Nelson is a freelance medical writer based in Seattle.
References
1. Allaudeen N, Vidyarthi A, Maselli J, Auerbach A. Redefining readmission risk factors for general medicine patients. J Hosp Med. 2011;6(2):54-60.
2. Mudge AM, Kasper KM, Clair, A, et al. Recurrent readmissions in medical patients: a prospective study. J Hosp Med. 2011;6(2):61-67.
3. Raven, MC, Billings, JC, Goldfrank LR, Manheimer ED, Gourevitch MN. Medicaid patients at high risk for frequent hospital admission: real-time identification and remediable risks. J Urb Health. 2009;86(2):230-241.
