
Welcome to our first edition of “The Impact Hospital Readmissions have on Hospitals and Ways that the Rehabilitation Department Performance Contributes”. The purpose of this series is to present the way that Hospital Rehab Solutions can optimize your hospital’s rehabilitation department performance and why it is important to minimize hospital readmissions.
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A hospital’s rehabilitation department, through its clinical programs and its involvement in the discharge planning process, can play a significant role in reducing the overall readmission rate.
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) defines hospital readmission as “unplanned readmissions that happen within 30 days of discharge from the initial admission.” It’s estimated that the overall cost of unplanned readmissions is 15 to 20 billion dollars annually. In 2012, the US government passed legislation (under the Affordable Care Act’s Hospital Readmission and Reduction Program [HRRP]) applying financial penalties for excess readmissions of Medicare patients. Since then, readmission rates have declined.
As hospitals continue to operate in a value-based care delivery model, overall quality of care and financial performance are bound together. A hospital’s readmission rate will affect both the hospital’s reputation and its financial performance. In 2018, there was a 14% adult readmission rate within 30 days and the average readmission cost was $15,200 between all expected payers, which includes Medicare, Medicaid, Private, and Self-Pay. Improving the quality of care and having a successful discharge planning process will reduce unwanted costs by avoiding penalties for hospital readmissions. In addition, minimizing hospital readmissions and penalties will allow for spending on other facility necessities, like equipment and staffing.
To avoid financial penalties and excess costs caused by a high readmission rate, hospitals must make sure their rehab department’s clinical operations are optimized through clinical expertise and are an active participant in their discharge planning process. This optimization ensures quality care for patients during healing, which will prevent patients from being readmitted, but it can be difficult.
This is where Hospital Rehab Solutions (HRS) can help. Hospital Rehab Solutions is all about optimizing the performance of your hospital’s rehabilitation department and provides rehabilitation solutions.
Contact us today to set up a Comprehensive Rehab Assessment to determine how we can help you achieve your goals.
The next edition of this series will go further into the importance of reducing hospital readmission rates for the health of the patient and how HRS’ software, Insight, can help. Be sure to check back!