Preventable readmissions and physician notification

Abstract

Preventable hospital readmissions burden our health system with excessive costs. The key to reducing readmissions is appropriate follow-up care for patients upon discharge. Many patients today do not receive necessary follow-up care for the simple reason that their primary care and specialist physicians are not made aware of the hospitalization. A simple and scalable solution is needed to provide automatic notifications to physicians when their patients are admitted to and discharged from hospitals. Such systems, based on national standards for universal adoption, are emerging in several forms, making headway in reducing preventable hospital readmissions.