ORLANDO – Under the Affordable Care Act, hospitals are financially penalized for having higher than average readmission rates for certain conditions. Since the law’s 2010 enactment, hospital leaders have been working to reduce readmission rates.
At the World Congress Leadership Summit on Hospital Readmissions, Josh Luke, Ph.D., said that communication and technology are key elements of reducing readmissions, but implementing effective protocols is also site specific.
To collect best practices in hospitals across the nation, Dr. Luke, who was the meeting’s chair, has created the National Readmission Prevention Collaborative website. Accessing the information is free, and Dr. Luke encouraged others to submit their success stories.
Dr. Luke is the vice president of post acute services at Torrance (Calif.) Memorial Medical Center, and he shared his thoughts and ideas on reducing readmissions during a video interview at the meeting.
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