The use of electronic health record systems to target care for high-risk heart-failure patients can help reduce readmission rates, according to a study published this week in BMJ Quality & Safety, Modern Healthcare‘s “Vital Signs” reports.
Study Methodology
The study was conducted by the Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and the Mayo Clinic (Ross Johnson, “Vital Signs,” Modern Healthcare, 8/1).
Researchers used an EHR-based software platform to stratify the risk levels of 1,747 adult patients at Parkland Health and Hospital System (Gold, FierceHealthIT, 8/1). Over a two-year period, they evaluated patients that were diagnosed with:
- Heart failure;
- Myocardial infarction; or
- Pneumonia (Modern Healthcare, 8/1).
Study Findings
The researchers found that the EHR-enabled strategy reduced monthly post-intervention readmission rates by 26.2% for 11 of the 12 months in the study when compared with pre-intervention rates. They stated that an EHR-based program that allowed providers to target “scare care transition resources” toward high-risk patients significantly reduced the risk-adjusted odds of readmission (FierceHealthIT, 8/1). Source
