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 Got Teach-Back? - Increase Patient Engagement By Using Teach-Back
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By Larry Garrett, PhD, MPH, RN, HealthInsight Project Coordinator
In October 2012, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) began penalizing hospitals for excessive readmissions within 30 days of discharge for heart failure, pneumonia, myocardial infarction, and overall readmission rate. To put this into perspective, nationally, 1 in 5 Medicare beneficiaries experience a hospital readmission within 30 days of discharge; 76% of these are attributed to problems with the transition of care. Medicare patients report greater dissatisfaction related to discharge than to any other aspect of hospital care. More importantly, avoidable hospital readmissions place a physical and emotional burden on patients and their families.
A proven intervention to help reduce unnecessary readmissions, and assure successful transitions is an educational method known as "Teach-Back." Teach-Back is used to measure how well healthcare providers explain medical issues to patients. Its use is known to increase patient engagement and health literacy as patients reiterate instructions to providers, ensuring effective communication and subsequent understanding. HealthInsight is offering free Teach-Back training or "train the trainer" seminars to interested health service organizations. Teach-Back trainings are currently being conducted at health care facilities along the Wasatch Front.
Sign up for Teach-Back Seminars for Your Staff
For information about participating, or to have a Teach-Back session in your facility, please call Larry Garrett or Janet Tennison at HealthInsight, 801-892-0155.
To read more about Teach-Back and its use, please click here.
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Getting a Post-Discharge Appointment in
7 Days |
Next Steps in Care, a campaign of the United Hospital Fund, provides easy to use guides to help family caregivers and health care professionals work closely together to plan and implement safe and smooth transitions for chronically and seriously ill patients. In its recent newsletter, Next Steps in Care highlighted the release of a new family caregiver guide "Getting a Post-Discharge Appointment in 7 Days", which offers advice about how to get that all-important follow-up appointment. This guide, like all of Next Steps in Care's family caregiver guides, is available in English, Spanish, Chinese, and Russian. These may be very helpful to download and share with patients and their families in any health care setting. |
"Shining Stars Across the Nation" Webinar Series |
"Shining Stars Across the Nation"-we will hear from local communities that have been successful in improving healthcare through reducing hospital readmissions. We will feature communities from different initiatives- those communities that are led by the Quality Improvement Organization (QIO), those that are part of Aligning Forces For Quality, those that have received state funding, Robert Wood Johnson Grant awardees, Community-Based Care Transitions Program awardees, Beacon communities, Accountable Care Organizations and more.
These calls are open to all QIOs, healthcare providers, partners, Health and Human Services, and consumers, please share this flyer freely amongst them. These sessions will run on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of each month at 3pm ET.
To kick off this series, we will showcase an IHI STAAR community from Michigan on January 10th. This webinar series will feature success stories from local communities across the nation who have made a difference in improving healthcare through reducing readmissions. (See side-bar for details.)
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| Hospitals Offer Wide Array Of Services To Keep Patients From Needing To Return |
By Jordan Rau, KHN Staff Writer
"In the past, the only thing a patient was sure to get after a hospital stay was a bill. But as Medicare cracks down on high readmission rates, hospitals are dispatching nurses, transportation, culturally specific diet tips, free medications and even bathroom scales to patients deemed at risk of relapsing.
Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, N.J., has nurses visit high-risk patients at their home within two days of leaving the hospital. Read more by visiting the Kaiser Health News website." |
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Comprehensive Medication Management in the Patient Centered Medical Home - Is it Critical for Success? |
By Terry A. McInnis, MD, MPH, Medical Director, Health Policy and Advocacy, GlaxoSmithKline and Co-Chair, Center for Public Payer Implementation, PCPCC; and C. Edwin Webb, PharmD, MPH, Associate Executive Director, American College of Clinical Pharmacy.
"Over 75% of all healthcare costs are related to chronic disease. After lifestyle interventions, medications are the primary weapons used in modern medicine to prevent and control chronic disease. Now is an important time in health care. Medications hold the promise to significantly improve the health of all Americans by effectively preventing and controlling many diseases, but have fallen far short of this goal. Our current healthcare system has rewarded splintered, episodic care, crippled our primary care delivery system, and siloed medication use and its costs from that of medical care and its costs. Read more by reading the Medical Home News (April 2010, Volume 2, Number 4)." |
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About Our Work |
This information is provided by HealthInsight, a private, non-profit, community-based organization dedicated to improving health and health care. HealthInsight serves as the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization in Utah and leads an initiative to improve care coordination and reduce hospital readmissions across settings of care.
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Sincerely,
Larry Garrett, HealthInsight
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| Local Events | |
Reducing
Unnecessary Re-Hospitalizations &
Off-Label Anti-Psychotic Med Use in Nursing Homes
All-Day Seminar
Presented by
the Utah HealthCare Association and
HealthInsight
When?
Friday, February 1, 2013
Where?
South Towne
Exposition Center
9575 So. State Street
Salt Lake City, UT
Register
Visit UHCA Website
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Patient Centered Care in Action Event When? Thursday, March 7, 2013 8:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. This event will
feature an interactive morning plenary and three learning & action network sessions focused on patient centered care.
Session topics to include: - Improving patient care through Meaningful Use
- Best medication list practices to deliver the best care
- Patient engagement tools and techniques
Click here for more information |
| National Events | |
"Shining Stars
Across the Nation"
Webinar Series
Presented by
ICPC, the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization for Colorado
When?
2nd & 4th Thursdays
3-4 PM ET
Who?
QIOs, healthcare providers, partners, HHS, and consumers
Register
For information:
Call 866-639-0744
Visit Qualitynet Website
(Password:Community)
View PDF of schedule
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| Feedback |
Please let us know whether you found this month's edition useful, or if you have suggestions for the focus of future articles.
You may unsubscribe to this newsletter at any time by e-mailing me your request.
Please feel free to forward this publication using the "Share this" button at the top right corner. Each edition will also be archived on our website. |
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You are receiving this newsletter as a result of your participation in the Patient Centered Care in Action - Care Transitions Learning and Action Network, or simply for your involvement in care transitions in your setting. Each month, this briefing will include a variety of information on different topics, tools and resources, upcoming trainings or events and your improvement stories. |
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