Table 3.

Hospital Use of Strategies to Reduce Readmissions (N=571)

	N (%)
Hospital has partnered with community physicians or physician groups to reduce readmission rates
Yes	297 (52.0%)
No	274 (48.0%)
Hospital has partnered with other local hospitals to reduce readmission rates
Yes	147 (25.7%)
No	424 (74.3%)
Frequency with which nurses are responsible for conducting medication reconciliation at discharge
Never	64 (11.2%)
Sometimes	62 (10.9%)
Usually	53 (9.3%)
Always	392 (68.7%)
Frequency with which patients leave the hospital with an outpatient follow-up appointment already arranged
Never	21 (3.7%)
Sometimes	246 (43.1%)
Usually	250 (43.8%)
Always	54 (9.5%)
Proportion of patients for whom a paper or electronic discharge summary sent directly to the patient's primary MD
None	43 (7.5%)
Some	163 (28.6%)
Most	213 (37.3%)
All	152 (26.6%)
Someone within the hospital is assigned to follow up on test results that return after the patient is discharged
Yes	206 (36.1%)
No	365 (63.9%)
Frequency with which outpatient and inpatient prescription records linked electronically
Never	344 (60.3%)
Sometimes	104 (18.2%)
Usually	68 (11.9%)
Always	55 (9.6%)
All patients or their caregivers receive written emergency plan upon discharge
Yes	326 (57.1%)
No	245 (42.9%)
Reliable process is in place to ensure outpatient physicians are alerted to the patient's discharge within 48 hours of discharge
Yes	231 (40.5%)
No	340 (59.5%)
Hospital regularly calls patients after discharge to either follow up on post-discharge needs or to provide additional education
Yes	357 (62.5%)
No	214 (37.5%)