The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has announced that 14 communities have been chosen for the Agency’s Care Transitions Project, which seeks to eliminate unnecessary hospital re-admissions.
“Our data show that nearly one in five patients who leave the hospital today will be re-admitted within the next month, and that more than three-quarters of these re-admissions are potentially preventable,” said CMS Acting Administrator Charlene Frizzera. “This situation can be changed by approaching healthcare quality from a community-wide perspective and focusing on how all of the members of an area’s healthcare team can better work together in the best interests of their shared patient population.”
The goal of the Care Transitions Project is to improve healthcare processes so that patients, caregivers and all providers have what they need to keep patients from returning to the hospital for ongoing care needs. By promoting seamless transitions from the hospital to home, skilled nursing care or home healthcare, this community-wide approach also seeks to yield sustainable and replicable strategies that achieve high-value healthcare for Medicare beneficiaries
“The Care Transitions Project is a new approach for CMS,” said Barry M. Straube, MD, chief medical officer for CMS and its Office of Clinical Standards and Quality director. “Rather than focusing on one global problem and trying to apply a one-size-fits-all solution across the country, Care Transitions experts will look in their own backyards to learn why hospital re-admissions occur locally and how patients transition between healthcare settings. Based on this community-level knowledge, Care Transitions teams will design customized solutions that address the underlying local drivers of re-admissions.”
Those selected to participate in the project are Providence, R.I.; the Upper Capital Region of New York; western Pennsylvania; southwestern New Jersey; Metro Atlanta East; Miami; Tuscaloosa, Ala.; Evansville, Ind.; the Greater Lansing, Mich. Area; Omaha, Neb.; Baton Rouge, La.; northwest Denver; Harlingen, Texas; and Whatcom County, Wash.
Each of the communities is led by a state Quality Improvement Organization (QIO). QIOs work as part of CMS’ quality program to help healthcare providers, consumers and stakeholder groups refine care delivery systems to make sure all Medicare beneficiaries get high-quality, high-value healthcare.
Each QIO is required to work with partners to implement hospital and community system-wide interventions, interventions that target specific diseases or conditions and interventions that target specific reasons for admission.
QIOs serving as Care Transitions leaders are Quality Partners of Rhode Island; IPRO Inc. in New York; Quality Insights of Pennsylvania; Healthcare Quality Strategies, Inc. in New Jersey; the Georgia Medical Care Foundation, Inc.; FMQAI in Florida; AQAF in Alabama; Healthcare Excel in Indiana; MPRO in Michigan; CIMRO of Nebraska; Louisiana Healthcare Review; the Colorado Foundation for Medical Care; the TMF Health Quality Institute in Texas; and Qualis Health in Washington.
The Care Transitions Project will continue through summer 2011.