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NATIONAL HARBOR, MD. – A project aimed at improving the transition of care from hospitals to outpatient facilities significantly reduced 30-day readmission rates in a group of Illinois hospitals.
Hospitals that adopted the Project BOOST protocol also improved several quality measures of their discharge process, Dr. Jing Li said at the annual meeting of the Society of Hospital Medicine.
Project BOOST (Better Outcomes by Optimizing Safe Transitions) is a patient-centered, multicomponent intervention designed to enhance the hospital discharge transition. Integration of BOOST tools into the discharge process at a hospital is facilitated by physician-mentored implementation that provides expertise in care transitions, quality improvement, and outside support for internal change.
In 2011, a statewide survey determined that Illinois hospitals fell into the bottom quartile for 30-day readmission rates of Medicare beneficiaries when compared with other U.S. hospitals. In response to that report, BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois, the Illinois Hospital Association, and Northwestern University, Chicago, entered into the Project BOOST program to enhance care for patients at hospitals all across the state, said Dr. Li, director of Project BOOST at the university.
The pilot cohort in Illinois consisted of 14 hospitals, all of which received mentored implementation with coaching, monthly teleconferences, and regular data collection. Dr. Li presented results for six of these, because the other eight lacked adequate means of data collection during that first wave.
Of the six hospitals, five were community, nonteaching facilities; the other was also a community hospital, but it had a teaching component. Four of the facilities were urban, one suburban, and one rural. The mean bed size was 343, but that ranged from 255 to 501.
The midyear implementation survey showed 79% of BOOST teams implemented comprehensive patient readmission risk assessment; 57% implemented the discharge checklist; 79% started to use teach-back for patient and family education; 79% established mechanisms to ensure information was available to subacute providers at the time of discharge; and all hospitals conducted follow-up phone calls to more than 60% of their discharged patients.
The six hospitals for which BOOST and comparison unit data were available experienced a 25% relative reduction in 30-day readmission rates (from 16% to 12%), with a significant downward trend over time. Over the same period, the 30-day readmission rate in comparison units remained flat.
The program is now being implemented in 22 more facilities across the state, Dr. Li said.
The project is being funded by BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois. Dr. Li had no financial disclosures.
NATIONAL HARBOR, MD. – A project aimed at improving the transition of care from hospitals to outpatient facilities significantly reduced 30-day readmission rates in a group of Illinois hospitals.
Hospitals that adopted the Project BOOST protocol also improved several quality measures of their discharge process, Dr. Jing Li said at the annual meeting of the Society of Hospital Medicine.
Project BOOST (Better Outcomes by Optimizing Safe Transitions) is a patient-centered, multicomponent intervention designed to enhance the hospital discharge transition. Integration of BOOST tools into the discharge process at a hospital is facilitated by physician-mentored implementation that provides expertise in care transitions, quality improvement, and outside support for internal change.
In 2011, a statewide survey determined that Illinois hospitals fell into the bottom quartile for 30-day readmission rates of Medicare beneficiaries when compared with other U.S. hospitals. In response to that report, BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois, the Illinois Hospital Association, and Northwestern University, Chicago, entered into the Project BOOST program to enhance care for patients at hospitals all across the state, said Dr. Li, director of Project BOOST at the university.
The pilot cohort in Illinois consisted of 14 hospitals, all of which received mentored implementation with coaching, monthly teleconferences, and regular data collection. Dr. Li presented results for six of these, because the other eight lacked adequate means of data collection during that first wave.
Of the six hospitals, five were community, nonteaching facilities; the other was also a community hospital, but it had a teaching component. Four of the facilities were urban, one suburban, and one rural. The mean bed size was 343, but that ranged from 255 to 501.
The midyear implementation survey showed 79% of BOOST teams implemented comprehensive patient readmission risk assessment; 57% implemented the discharge checklist; 79% started to use teach-back for patient and family education; 79% established mechanisms to ensure information was available to subacute providers at the time of discharge; and all hospitals conducted follow-up phone calls to more than 60% of their discharged patients.
The six hospitals for which BOOST and comparison unit data were available experienced a 25% relative reduction in 30-day readmission rates (from 16% to 12%), with a significant downward trend over time. Over the same period, the 30-day readmission rate in comparison units remained flat.
The program is now being implemented in 22 more facilities across the state, Dr. Li said.
The project is being funded by BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois. Dr. Li had no financial disclosures.
NATIONAL HARBOR, MD. – A project aimed at improving the transition of care from hospitals to outpatient facilities significantly reduced 30-day readmission rates in a group of Illinois hospitals.
Hospitals that adopted the Project BOOST protocol also improved several quality measures of their discharge process, Dr. Jing Li said at the annual meeting of the Society of Hospital Medicine.
Project BOOST (Better Outcomes by Optimizing Safe Transitions) is a patient-centered, multicomponent intervention designed to enhance the hospital discharge transition. Integration of BOOST tools into the discharge process at a hospital is facilitated by physician-mentored implementation that provides expertise in care transitions, quality improvement, and outside support for internal change.
In 2011, a statewide survey determined that Illinois hospitals fell into the bottom quartile for 30-day readmission rates of Medicare beneficiaries when compared with other U.S. hospitals. In response to that report, BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois, the Illinois Hospital Association, and Northwestern University, Chicago, entered into the Project BOOST program to enhance care for patients at hospitals all across the state, said Dr. Li, director of Project BOOST at the university.
The pilot cohort in Illinois consisted of 14 hospitals, all of which received mentored implementation with coaching, monthly teleconferences, and regular data collection. Dr. Li presented results for six of these, because the other eight lacked adequate means of data collection during that first wave.
Of the six hospitals, five were community, nonteaching facilities; the other was also a community hospital, but it had a teaching component. Four of the facilities were urban, one suburban, and one rural. The mean bed size was 343, but that ranged from 255 to 501.
The midyear implementation survey showed 79% of BOOST teams implemented comprehensive patient readmission risk assessment; 57% implemented the discharge checklist; 79% started to use teach-back for patient and family education; 79% established mechanisms to ensure information was available to subacute providers at the time of discharge; and all hospitals conducted follow-up phone calls to more than 60% of their discharged patients.
The six hospitals for which BOOST and comparison unit data were available experienced a 25% relative reduction in 30-day readmission rates (from 16% to 12%), with a significant downward trend over time. Over the same period, the 30-day readmission rate in comparison units remained flat.
The program is now being implemented in 22 more facilities across the state, Dr. Li said.
The project is being funded by BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois. Dr. Li had no financial disclosures.
AT HOSPITAL MEDICINE 13
