Table 2.
Quality improvement resources and performance monitoring
| N (%)* | |
|---|---|
|
| |
| Hospital has reducing preventable readmissions as a written objective | |
| Strongly agree/agree | 483 (89.9%) |
| Not sure/disagree/strongly disagree | 54 (10.1%) |
|
| |
| Hospital has a reliable process in place to identify patients with heart failure at the time they are admitted. | 440 (82.2%) |
|
| |
| Hospital has quality improvement (QI) teams devoted to reducing preventable readmissions for patients with heart failure (HF) | |
| Yes | 467 (87.0%) |
| No | 70 (13.0%) |
| Members of QI teams focusing on readmission for patients with HF (select all that apply)a | |
| Nurses | 459 (98.3%) |
| Quality improvement/Quality management staff | 447 (95.7%) |
| Social workers and/or case managers | 418 (89.5%) |
| Physicians | 415 (88.9%) |
| Senior management of the hospital | 407 (87.2%) |
| Pharmacists | 306 (65.5%) |
| Advanced practice nurses or physician assistants | 271 (58.0%) |
| Hospital governing board members | 86 (18.4%) |
| Patient or family representatives | 56 (12.0%) |
| Hospital has quality improvement (QI) teams devoted to reducing preventable readmissions for patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) | |
| Yes | 287 (53.5%) |
| No | 250 (46.6%) |
| Members of QI teams focusing on readmission for patients with AMI (select all that apply)‡ | |
| Nurses | 275 (95.8%) |
| Quality improvement/Quality management staff | 269 (93.7%) |
| Physicians | 259 (90.2%) |
| Senior management of the hospital | 244 (85.0%) |
| Social workers and/or case managers | 225 (78.4%) |
| Pharmacists | 179 (62.4%) |
| Advanced practice nurses or physician assistants | 155 (54.0%) |
| Hospital governing board members | 62 (21.6%) |
| Patient or family representatives | 41 (14.3%) |
|
| |
| Hospital has a multidisciplinary team to manage the care of patients who are at high risk of readmission | 302 (56.5%) |
|
| |
| Hospital has partnered with the following to reduce readmission rates (select all that apply) | |
| Community home care agencies and/or skilled nursing facilities | 363 (67.9%) |
| Community physicians or physician groups | 263 (49.3%) |
| Other local hospitals | 125 (23.5%) |
| Hospital tracks the following for quality improvement efforts | |
| Timeliness of discharge summary | 374 (70.2%) |
| Proportion of discharge summaries that are sent to primary physician | 121 (22.7%) |
| Percent of patients discharged with follow-up appointment within 7 days | 171 (32.1%) |
| Accuracy of medication reconciliation | 390 (73.2%) |
| 30-day readmission rate | 504 (94.6%) |
| Early (<7 day) readmission rate | 297 (55.7%) |
| Proportion of patients readmitted to another hospital | 61 (11.4%) |
|
| |
| Has a designated person or group to review unplanned readmissions that occur within 30 days of the original discharge. | 339 (63.5%) |
|
| |
| Estimates risk of readmission in a formal way and uses it in clinical care during patient hospitalization | 119 (22.3%) |
*
Number missing by item ranged from 0 to 5
‡
Among hospitals reporting corresponding quality improvement teams