Situation

With impending reimbursement policy changes, the VP of Clinical Operations for a regional hospital needed to respond quickly to a high rate of patient readmissions.

Team Engagement Strategy

A team of nurses and patient support staff were brought together to tackle the problem using Rapid Action, an “all in one” team engagement toolkit for accelerating results.

Rapid Action Project Charter

How can we design and implement a program to call all patients at home within 24 to 72 hours after discharge to check on their care and concerns and to anticipate and solve problems without the need for patient readmission to the hospital?

Sample of Solutions Implemented

1. Consolidated planning and tracking for all post-discharge patient calls.
2. Developed standard discharge call scripts modeled on best practices and tailored to differing patient situations.
3. Designed visual “decision trees” to guide action during and after the call based on patient responses to standard questions.
4. Implemented a tracking system to monitor performance trends, identify opportunities for improvement, and recognize employees for outstanding performance.