Hospitals in pursuit of excellence

Closing the Gap

Educating staff. Connecting patients to primary care physicians upon discharge. Identifying patients at risk for readmission. Doing these things and more is helping Bronson Battle Creek in Battle Creek, MI, close the gap in health care inequity. In December 2009, Trinity, parent organization of the 218-bed hospital, began rolling out educational presentations to all the system's hospitals, including training staff how to ask patients about race, ethnicity and language preference. Barb Mulder, R.N., manager, utilization and case management, worked with Trinity to evaluate readmissions. Data pinpointed racial and ethnic groups with higher readmission rates and lower rates of accepting home health care after discharge. "We've become extremely focused on setting up follow-up appointments," notes Mulder. Staff connects patients to a primary care physician upon discharge, uses the teach-back method and helps low-income patients get discounted medications, says Patricia Adams, assistant vice president. Adams and Mulder credit the involvement of hospital CEO Denise Brooks-Williams as key. Contact Mulder at MulderB@trinity-health.org.