Does Education Prior to Discharge affect 30 Day Readmission Rates for COPD?

Does Education Prior to Discharge affect 30 Day Readmission Rates for COPD?

Introduction

According to Medicare and other research studies, around thirty percent of all the patients who admit in hospital of United States readmit within the thirty days of discharge (www.bu.edu). Approximately fifteen billion a year is currently spend on rehospitalization by Medicare. However, this does not include those patients who readmit due to distress or dissatisfaction. Today rehospitalization has not only become costly but common as well. Hospitalization is essential in many of the cases. But this rehospitalization can be avoided; however, the failure of this indicates the failure of the system to establish patients stably and safely in a new setting of care (Boutwell & Hwu, 2009). If this issue is avoided, it will not only benefit the patients but also the healthcare providers, payers, and families of the patients. According to congressional report of 2007 by Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, the enormous 3 quarters of readmissions can be avoided with enhanced care (www.bu.edu). Research also indicates that hospitals, US Congress, and insurance companies have also taken the notice of this increasing number of readmissions (Boutwell & Hwu, 2009). According to the rules of new healthcare federal law the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) services will use thirty day cutoff to begin penalizing the hospitals which would have higher than expected rates of readmissions and can also deny the payment for chosen diagnoses that arise during this time period (www.bu.edu).

The causes behind rehospitalizations differ widely. In certain cases the condition of patients get worse unavoidably, sometimes the patients return to the hospital because of the error occurrence during their previous visit. AHRQ also indicates that one in every five patients readmitted because of a complication or adverse events like medication interaction, after getting discharge from the hospital (www.bu.edu). Thus, discharging patients from the hospital is a complex process, which requires certain essential measures in order to avoid the potential readmissions.

Discussion

Patient Education and Readmission

According to Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (2009), patients who clearly understands the instructions of their after-hospital care such as their medication treatment and follow-up appointment timings, have thirty percent less chance to readmit or visit the emergency than the patients who do not posses this understanding (www.bu.edu). Thus, educating the patients can resolve this 'readmitting' issue. Not more medical tests or procedures, but a simple communication technique can solve this problem. But unfortunately, most of the patients do not get this sound information (education) which increases the potential for readmissions. As the research of Brian Jack, who led the research team at Boston University Medical Center's Family Medicine Department, a wide range of patients do not receive sound education regarding the care measures they are supposed to take at home after being discharge (www.bu.edu). An year-long study at Columbia San Jose Medical Center of 109 heart failure patients in 1998 shows that patients who had participated in the low-cost education program about ...