The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) classifies a readmission as an admission of a patient to any hospital within 30 days of being discharged. To measure organizations performance, CMS uses the observed to expected readmission ratio for six disease states acute myocardial infraction (AMI), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart failure, pneumonia, coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, and elective primary total hip arthroplasty and/or total knee arthroplasty (THA/TKA). CMS also mandated that by 2014, organizations migrate from paper charts to electronic health records (EHR). Electronic health records store and keep all patient data in an electronic database, replacing the traditional paper medical record. CMS also gave organizations that the EHR have a “meaningful use”. The purpose of this study is to determine if the electronic health record can be utilized to predefine and identify patients at high risk for readmissions. I will design a wireframe for utilizing the EHR to flag or identify potential patients. The data will be analyzed to determine if there is a relationship between specific disease states and readmissions. I will also analyze the results and compare it to external research to develop targeted interventions aimed at reducing readmission and improving the overall health of the defined population of patients. The objective of this proposal is to outline a methodology to utilize the EHR to identify the characteristics of patients at high risk for readmission. The proposed research will be retrospective-prospective and would compare patients from the two disease states that the organization currently has excess readmissions for CABG and AMI. The desired end result is to develop and descriptive clinical markers and demographics for patients at high risk for readmission. Research suggests that there are very few barriers to the success of this project and the relevant stakeholders pose no threat to the success of the proposed project.
The stakeholders for this project are the hospital and staff therein, patients, patient families, and CMS. The project research will occur with currently available resources and under the assumption that if the research is successful, the organization will utilize the data for targeted interventions. There is little to no risk involved in this potential project.
Take this simple quiz to determine if you are at high risk for readmission.
tamika.l.chambliss@live.mercer.edu
Tamika Chambliss
Dr.Feng Liu