Acute Care/ Hospitalization: Studies suggest ways to improve the hospital discharge process to reduce post-discharge adverse events and rehospitalizations.
Consecutive Medicare stays involving inpatient and skilled nursing facilities
August 7, 2019Unintended medication discrepancies at the times of hospital admission
August 7, 2019Acute Care/ Hospitalization: Studies suggest ways to improve the hospital discharge process to reduce post-discharge adverse events and rehospitalizations.
After patients are discharged from U.S. hospitals, 13 percent require rehospitalization and one in five patients suffers an adverse event. Many of these problems are due to inadequate postdischarge followup of patients’ unresolved medical problems. More patients with unresolved problems would receive outpatient workups if their primary care doctors received the hospital doctors’ discharge summary recommendations, concludes a study supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (HS14020). A second AHRQ-supported study (HS14289 and HS15905) describes 11 factors that could be modified during the hospital discharge process to reduce posthospital adverse events and rehospitalizations. Both studies are briefly discussed here.
