U.S. HOSPITALS, FACING NEW MEDICARE
PENALTIES, SHOW WIDE ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT AT REDUCING
READMISSION RATES
~ First Report on
Recent Trends in the Effectiveness of Care Coordination
for Medicare Patients Discharged from Hospitals Shows
Stagnant National Performance and Variations in Care
~
September 2011
(Lebanon, NH) – As scorekeeping
begins for new Medicare penalties for hospitals with
excessive numbers of patients returning shortly after
they are discharged, a new Dartmouth Atlas Project report
shows little progress over a five-year period in reducing
these hospital readmissions and improving care coordination
for Medicare patients. On the contrary, readmission
rates for some conditions have increased nationally
for many regions and at hospitals, including some of
America’s most elite academic medical centers.
In an examination of the records
of 10.7 million hospital discharges for Medicare patients,
researchers found striking variation in 30-day readmission
rates across regions and academic medical centers. Researchers
also found that a significant proportion of Medicare
patients do not see a primary care clinician within
two weeks of leaving the hospital and that facilities
and regions with general patterns of high use of hospitals
for medical conditions were frequently the same places
with high readmission rates.
As part of the Care
About Your Care initiative, the Dartmouth Atlas
Project and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have co-produced
a companion to the report with tips for patients when
they leave the hospital. A link to the full report,
After Hospitalization: A Dartmouth Atlas Report on Post-Acute
Care for Medicare Beneficiaries, and complete data tables
can be found at www.dartmouthatlas.org.
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