Essay On Hospital Readmissions

If someone is going to work in the medical field especially in a hospital, then it is important to stay up to date with changes. CMS developed a challenge for all hospitals and that is hospital readmission prevention. No one is aware of the impact a readmission(s) can have on a hospital until they receive the penalty. As any future health care administrator, it is important to understand all aspects of changes made through the government. This topic sparked an interest due to the impact and decision making of senior management. Readmissions, patient satisfaction, and quality make up Value – based purchasing.
As senior management, it is vital to continue the conversation on the importance of readmissions and how a multidisciplinary hospital can join forces to provide the patient a safe
This program financially penalizes hospitals if they have exceeded the allowed readmission rate on patients that are >65 years old, straight Medicare A, and are final coded with one of the seven diagnoses.
Hospitals are focusing on ways to prevent readmissions by identifying patients while in hospital, post-acute, and evaluating readmissions and the effects on the hospital. This is a form of measure for hospital quality improvement, payment purposes, and public reporting. A goal of President Obama’s and Congress was the amount being spent of readmissions reported by Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). According to Stone and
Hoffman (2010), “17.6 % of hospital readmits were readmitted within 30 days, 11.3% readmitted within 15 days, and 6.2% readmitted within 7 days.” Elderly patients that were inpatient ended up costing Medicare around $129.1 billion dollars. With the rise in Medicare spending and the fear that inpatient hospital bills will total around $234.9 billion dollars’ actions from the government started. Heart failure has the highest readmission rate over any