Better Outcomes for Older adults through Safe Transitions Implementation Guide to Improve Care Transitions Supported Through a Grant from The John A. Hartford Foundation Hospitalists. Transforming Healthcare. Revolutionizing Patient Care. The Project BOOST Team Mark V. Williams, MD, FHM Eric Howell, MD, SFHM Principal Investigator Co-Investigator Advisory Board Co-Chair Director of the Hospitalist Division Professor & Chief, Division of Hospital Medicine Director, Hospital Care Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center Chicago, IL Baltimore, MD Tina Budnitz, MPH Kathleen Kerr BOOST Project Director Senior Advisor Senior Advisor to the CEO Society of Hospital Medicine Society of Hospital Medicine San Francisco, CA Atlanta, GA Gregory Maynard, MD, SFHM Eric A. Coleman, MD, MPH Co-Investigator Advisory Board Chair Clinical Professor of Medicine Associate Professor Chief, Division of Hospital Medicine Division of Health Care Policy & Research UCSD Medical Center University of Colorado at Denver, Health Sciences Center San Diego, CA Denver, CO Lauren Valentino Victoria E. Forth, MA Project Manager Project Coordinator Society of Hospital Medicine Division of Hospital Medicine Philadelphia, PA Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Arpana R. Vidyarthi, MD Chicago, IL Co-Investigator Assistant Professor of Medicine Jeffrey L. Greenwald, MD, SFHM Director of Quality, Division of Hospital Medicine Co-Investigator Director of Quality and Safety Programs, GME Director, Hospital Medicine Unit University of California San Francisco Massachusetts General Hospital San Francisco, CA Boston, MA Joy Wittnebert Lakshmi Halasyamani, MD, SFHM Senior Project Manager Co-Investigator Society of Hospital Medicine Associate Chair, Department of Medicine Philadelphia, PA St Joseph Mercy Medical Center Ann Arbor, MI i PROJECT BOOST IMPLEMENTATION GUIDE The Project BOOST Advisory Board Eric Coleman, MD, MPH William Lyons, MD Advisory Board Chair American Geriatrics Society Associate Professor Section of Geriatrics Division of Health Care Policy & Research Nebraska Medical Center University of Colorado at Denver, Health Sciences Center Lorraine C. Mion, PhD, RN, FAAN Barbara Berkman, DSW, PhD Director of Nursing Research & Geriatric Nursing Helen Rehr/Ruth Fizdale Professor of Health & Mental Health Nursing Business Office Columbia University School of Social Work Hamman 4 MetroHealth Medical Center Tom Bookwalter, PharmD Assaf Morag, MD American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Senior Platform Enabling Manager UCSF Hospitalist Group Intel Corporation - Digital Health Daniel S. Budnitz, MD, MPH, CDR Janet Nagamine, RN, MD, FHM USPHS Kaiser Permanente/Safe and Reliable Healthcare Division of Health Care Quality and Promotion Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Mary D Naylor, PhD, FAAN, RN University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing Rebecca Burkholder, JD Vice President of Health Policy Gail Povar, MD, MPH National Consumers League Clinical Professor of Medicine The George Washington School of Medicine and Health Gavin Hougham, PhD Sciences Senior Program Officer Cameron Medical Group The John A. Hartford Foundation Deborah Queenan, MSW Stephen F. Jencks, MD Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Jean Range Allan M. Korn, MD, FACP Executive Director, Business Development Senior Vice President, Clinical Affairs & Chief Medical Officer The Joint Commission BlueCross BlueShield Association Patricia Rutherford, RN, MS Seth Landefeld, MD, FACP Institute for Healthcare Improvement American Geriatrics Society UCSF Hospitalist Group Eric Warm, MD Society of General Internal Medicine Cheryl Lattimer, RN University of Cincinnati Executive Director Case Management Society of America Larry Wellikson, MD, SFHM Chief Executive Officer Carol Levine Society of Hospital Medicine Director, Families and Health Care Project United Hospital Fund Mark Williams, MD, FHM Principal Investigator Robert Palmer, MD, MPH Professor of Medicine Vice-Chair for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Chief, Division of Hospital Medicine Department of Medicine Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine University of Pittsburgh Daniel B. Wolfson, MHSA Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer ABIM Foundation ii Better Outcomes for Older adults through Safe Transitions Hospital discharge is often a stressful and hazardous venture for discharge process significantly impacts patient satisfaction, older adults. Discontinuity and fragmentation of care yields potentially impacts health outcomes and lacks a consistent, tangible risks of harm to the patient. Recent research coordinated and safe approach. documents that up to 49% of patients experience at least one medical error (Moore, Wisnivesky et al. 2003), and 1 in A common result of a “failed” hospital discharge is 5 patients discharged from the hospital suffer an adverse subsequent rehospitalization. Reflecting the costs of such event (Forster, Murff et al. 2003; Forster, Clark et al. 2004). a failure, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission Importantly, more than half of these adverse events are (MedPAC) recommended to Congress in its June 2007 preventable or ameliorable. Inadequate communication report that hospitals should publicly disclose their own was identified as a major etiology for such adverse events. risk-adjusted readmission rates (Med-PAC June 2007) We should not be surprised that things do not necessarily and this information is now posted on the web at www. go smoothly after discharge from the hospital, especially hospitalcompare.hhs.gov. Research published in the given the lack of understanding by many patients of their New England Journal of Medicine found that one in five hospitalization diagnosis and treatment plans (Makaryus Medicare beneficiaries discharged from the hospital are and Friedman 2005). Additionally, many patients are readmitted within 30 days and this results in potentially discharged with test results pending (Roy, Poon et al. $17.4 billion in excess Medicare costs (Jencks, Williams, 2005), and we often fail to tie up loose ends such as Coleman. 2009). Not surprisingly, MedPAC suggested needed follow-up tests (Moore, McGinn et al. 2007). that “after a year or two, public disclosure could be Unfortunately, information transfer and communication complemented by a change in payment rates, so that deficits at the time of hospital discharge are common with hospitals with high risk-adjusted rates of readmission direct communication between physicians occurring less receive lower average per case payments”(MedPAC June than 20% of the time, and discharge summaries often lack 2007). President Obama signed the Patient Protection important information or are unavailable when patients and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 4872) into law on March present for post-hospitalization follow-up with their 30, 2010. This health reform legislation includes such primary physicians (Kripalani, LeFevre et al. 2007). The incentives to reduce hospital readmissions. Why Create BOOST? Based on the concerns outlined above and worrisome findings from research, we initiated project BOOST© (Better Outcomes for Older adults through Safe Transitions) to provide resources to optimize the hospital discharge process and mitigate and prevent known complications and errors that occur during transitions. In this workbook you will find expert and evidence-based interventions advocated by The Joint Commission, the National Quality Forum (NQF) and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). We believe that use of this proposed tool-kit will promote a safe and high quality hospital discharge as patients transition out of the hospital setting. Our implementation guide and toolkit embraces the recent movement toward “patient-centered care”(Stewart 2001) suggesting that patients play a more active role in their care, including engagement in medical decision making (Kravitz and Melnikow 2001). Complementing its ethical basis, expanded patient involvement in care yields improved health outcomes (Greenfield, Kaplan et al. 1985). The Society of Hospital Medicine and The John A. Hartford Foundation hope you will find this implementation guide and the included tools useful as you aim to improve the discharge process at your hospital. SHM is dedicated to the continuous improvement of the products and services that we offer. We encourage and welcome feedback via e-mail to [email protected] iii PROJECT BOOST IMPLEMENTATION GUIDE How to Use the Guide to Implement Project BOOST Congratulations on your commitment to improving the care of your patients! This guide is designed to facilitate the implementation, evaluation and maintenance of the BOOST toolkit and its adaptations. In addition to presenting BOOST interventions, the guide is filled with additional resources to manage, organize and document the efforts of your team. The interventions presented include using a teach back process during discharge education, identifying specific patient readmission risks to better tailor communications and providing outpatient providers and receiving sites with a discharge record. For high-risk patients, scheduling an outpatient follow-up visit and or conducting a 72-hour follow-up call with the patient and/or caregivers is also recommended. We recognize that each institution is unique in terms of their experience conducting quality improvement programs, available resources, and existing discharge procedures and processes.