Hospitals in pursuit of excellence

Medications and Readmissions

Patients admitted to a hospital for one condition—congestive heart failure, for example—are typically readmitted for something completely different. University of Arkansas Medical Sciences Medical Center, in Little Rock, is working to reduce medication-related readmissions, which have accounted for about a quarter of its readmissions. UAMS Medical Center determined that the quality of a patient’s medication history correlated with the quality of discharge medication information. So the medical center has focused on increasing the percentage of complete and accurate medication admission histories for patients.  Improvements in the process include educating nurses and physicians about the medication documentation system, involving the pharmacy to help complete complex medication histories and to automatically generate consults for CHF patients admitted, and creating a medication reconciliation note within the progress notes. Medication history consults by the pharmacy have increased from none in June 2012 to a current monthly average of 31. In five of seven months since July 2012, the percentage of patients who had completed medication history consults with correct medication information given at discharge exceeded 89 percent. Except for December, this percentage for each month directly correlates with pharmacy-completed medication histories upon admission. An overall decrease in 30-day readmission rates for CHF patients may be associated with this consult service.

View the graph.

For more information, contact Niki Carver, PharmD, assistant director of pharmacy for medication safety, at nlcarver@uams.edu.