How hospitals reengineer their discharge processes to reduce readmissions (April 2016)

Summary

The Re-Engineered Discharge (Project RED) programme is a nationally recognised best practice centered on delivering a patient-tailored hospital discharge plan demonstrated to reduce all-cause 30-day readmissions and improve safety during care transitions.

In this study, Mitchell et al. implemented the RED in 10 hospitals to study the implementation process.

Content

Key findings:

• Wide variability in the fidelity of the RED intervention.
• Engaged leadership and multidisciplinary implementation teams were keys to success.
• Common challenges included obtaining timely follow-up appointments, transmitting discharge summaries to outpatient clinicians, and leveraging information technology.
• Eight out of 10 hospitals reported improvement in 30-day readmission rates after RED implementation.

The authors concluded that a supportive hospital culture is essential for successful RED implementation. A flexible implementation strategy can be used to implement RED and reduce readmissions.