Team Communication Reduces Readmissions

This paper describes the implementation and preliminary results of a program designed to reduce avoidable hospital readmissions while improving care transitions, quality of care, and the overall patient experience. COAST@Marin (Collaboration for Older Adult Safe Transitions) was introduced at Marin General Hospital (MGH) at the end of 2012, and includes elements of Project RED and the Care Transitions Intervention integrated with existing best practices at MGH. Carebook TM , a mobile care collaboration platform from CareInSync (www.careinsync.com), was chosen as the technology to support the implementation of these interventions, making care team communication more effective and efficient.

While the COAST@Marin program has been in operation for only two quarters as of this evaluation, the effort is already yielding results that suggest it is heading for success. Although it is too soon to expect statistical significance in the primary measures, there has been a trend toward lower 30-day readmission rates of patients over 64 years of age (down from 11.6% to 9.9%), shorter lengths of stay (down from 5.8 days on average to 5.2 days), and improvement in patient satisfaction, as shown in Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) scores.

Download the full white paper below to learn more.