By Francie Fernald - December 28, 2011

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Hospital readmissions, long recognized as a problem by Medicare and studied by industry analysts, are now becoming a focus of the mainstream media. The catalyst: the looming payment penalties that kick in on Oct. 1, 2012, if a hospital’s Medicare 30-day readmission rate for heart attacks, heart failure and pneumonia exceed a certain threshold, and the scrutiny by Medicare auditors, including the HHS Office of Inspector General. Hospitals are scrambling to find ways to reduce readmissions to avoid the payment penalties. One of their targets for change is the discharge process. Hospitals have set up checklists so staff will not miss anything when preparing discharge summaries, established post-discharge clinics, post-discharge care teams or advocates to follow up with patients, and, according to a recent Washington Post article, even have created an avatar named Louise, who is wheeled to a patient’s bedside and spends 40 minutes with the patient explaining the discharge process and what the patient needs to do after discharge. According to the Post, these programs are getting results. Louise, who is part of a program called Project RED, has shown a 30% reduction in readmission rates in clinical trials. How concerned is your hospital about the looming payment reduction for readmissions and growing auditor scrutiny of this area? What is your hospital doing to address the problem? Is the compliance department coordinating with other departments and post-acute providers to get a handle on this problem?