Hospitals in pursuit of excellence

Decreasing Readmissions by Improving the Discharge Process in a Psychiatric Hospital

St. Vincent's Hospital Westchester, division of Saint Joseph's Medical Center began this initiative to address unacceptably high adult 15-day readmission rates to this 3,000-discharges-peryear psychiatric hospital. A multidisciplinary team was convened with the initial (and narrow) charter to identify ways to decrease readmissions. However, it soon became clear to the team that readmission rates were actually an outcome of much larger processes and that, to effect real change, these larger processes needed to be examined and improved. Based on discussion, review of data, and literature review, the team decided that readmission rates could best be impacted by improving the quality of the various elements (or steps) related to the patient discharge process.