Hospitals in pursuit of excellence

Fine-tuning Follow-up Care Reduces Readmissions

Every day, hospitals are successfully meeting challenges and providing quality care in their communities. The patient population at Manchester (Ky.) Memorial Hospital is largely illiterate. Though the 63-bed community hospital ensures that all materials sent home with patients are written at a third- or fourth-grade level, some patients still struggle to read and understand instructions for medications and follow-up care. In addition, many patients lack transportation to get to appointments at their physician’s office or the hospital, crucial for adequate follow-up care and lab and diagnostic work. To respond to these challenges, Memorial Hospital gives patients a seven-day medication box at discharge, to organize their medications. A transitional care coordinator talks with the patient and family prior to discharge and also visits their home after discharge to discuss post-acute care instructions, medications and nutrition. The hospital operates a “Creation Health” transportation service to take patients, free of charge, to follow-up appointments at primary care clinics and the hospital. Erika Skula, president and CEO, says these and other services have helped reduce readmissions by 15.5 percent for Medicare patients for all diagnoses. Memorial Hospital is part of Adventist Health System.

For more information, contact Erika Skula, president and CEO, at Erika.Skula@ahss.org.