Primary Care-Based Efforts To Reduce Readmissions Environmental Scan

primary-care-based-efforts.pdf

Full Report

Primary Care-Based Efforts To Reduce Readmissions Environmental Scan
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AHRQ Report Examines Primary Care-Based Efforts to Reduce Hospital Readmissions

A new AHRQ environmental scan identifies key components that should be included in primary care-based efforts to reduce hospital readmissions. Researchers examined current evidence on reducing readmissions from the primary care perspective, with a focus on evidence from successful practices. Research from AHRQ’s Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) indicates high rates of readmissions in the Medicare and adult Medicaid population associated with prescribing errors and misdiagnoses of conditions in the hospital and ambulatory care settings.  Many efforts to reduce readmissions have focused on the hospital setting and the use of evidence based programs such as AHRQ’s Re-Engineered Discharge (RED) toolkit. Investigators found that the most effective interventions involved care coordination, medication management, postdischarge telephone outreach, and patient education. Access the report.