As a healthcare provider, your two primary goals are to improve the health of patients and to provide education so patients do not continuously revisit healthcare facilities for the same issues. In fact, the government has set guidelines to help judge readmission rates and offer incentives and penalties for those that meet or do not meet readmission rate goals. For example, the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP)—part of the Affordable Care Act—currently penalizes hospitals by one percent for excess readmissions of patients with heart attacks, heart failure or pneumonia.
A patient that is well informed:
Is more likely to cooperate
Is more likely to be invested in his or her treatment
Is more trusting of information shared
May feel more involved and accountable for his or her healthcare decisions
Becomes part of the team when they understand the investigation processes and the reasons they are occurring
Successfully improving the health of the patient requires a team effort, with each member fulfilling his or her individual responsibilities.
Activity: As a member of your patient’s care team, complete the following activity:
One team member makes a copy / downloads the Role Responsibilities document.
Individually, make notes on the document regarding your responsibilities to the patient and your responsibilities to the other members of your patient’s care team.
In your group, each team member will share their responsibilities with the rest of the patient’s care team.
Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program: Requires Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to reduce payments hospitals with excess readmissions, effective for discharges beginning on October 1, 2012.
(“Readmissions Reduction Program.” Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 04 Aug. 2014. Web. 10 July 2015.)