Today’s post comes to us from Harlan Krumholz, M.D., F.A.C.C., the Harold H. Hines, Jr., professor of medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine. Harlan is a well-known leader in advocating for improvements in cardiovascular quality. Not only did he lead ACC’s successful quality improvement program “D2B: An Alliance for Quality,” he currently serves as the co-chair of the Hospital to Home (H2H) steering committee. Outside of his work with the ACC, Harlan is also heavily involved in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ efforts to develop national measures for public reporting of hospital performance.

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Over the last several decades, the cardiology community has led our profession in generating new knowledge and seeing it applied for the benefit of our patients. Recently, we dramatically improved door-to-balloon times – moving in rapid progression from an era where only one-in-three patients were treated within the guideline-recommended 90-minute timeframe to now, where almost 90 percent of our patients are treated within that benchmark. Remarkable.

Another chance to lead lies before us. On Oct. 22, the ACC, in partnership with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, will launch a major quality improvement initiative called Hospital to Home (H2H)… this time focusing our quality efforts on readmission rates. Currently, about 20-25 percent of our patients hospitalized with an acute myocardial infarction (AMI) or heart failure are back in the hospital within 30 days. Many of these admissions are preventable through improvements in the transition from inpatient to outpatient status. Unfortunately, we have often neglected this vulnerable transition period for patients.

Gaps in Care
We have many obvious gaps in care – patients often leave without information about the hospitalization being transmitted to other caregivers in a timely way; without access to medications; without appointments being set; and without an emergency plan for if their condition suddenly worsens. Studies have shown since the 1990s that improving the handoff between the hospital and the “home” can lead to a reduction in readmissions by addressing these gaps. Our fragmented health care system places many barriers in front of health care providers in putting known methods into practice. To reduce readmission rates, we’ll need to make special efforts to focus on transitions and most importantly – to focus on the patient, specifically, making efforts to ensure that the patient is ready and knowledgeable enough to manage their care – and that the system is poised to provide the support they need.

H2H Goals – Just the Beginning
H2H will assist providers in overcoming the systemic barriers to improving readmission rates. The initiative is committed to reducing 30-day all-cause, risk-adjusted readmission rates for patients with a diagnosis of heart failure or AMI by 20 percent nationally by 2012. In HF, that would take the rate from about 25 percent to about 20 percent. This goal is ambitious – but we aspire to produce a substantial benefit for patients.

H2H will leverage other national initiatives contributing to a reduction in readmission rates and will harness the collective knowledge, creativity and energy of its key strategic partners -- Kaiser, the Veterans Administration, the American Hospital Association, The Joint Commission, PREMIER, HCA -- and others to reach this goal. In my opinion, the 20 percent reduction is just the beginning of what we can achieve through our collaborative efforts. The path is more challenging than ever because of our goal of actually affecting patient outcomes, but we are bringing together expertise, resources, tools and a mechanism for us to learn from each other to meet this goal.

For those of you who want to be part of this effort, you will not be alone. We already have more than 250 facilities (e.g., hospitals and medical practices) that have joined us. Teams will be anchored at hospitals but will stretch across the continuum of care. We will track progress and, ultimately, assess whether we decreased preventable readmissions through improved care. We want this effort to equip teams for success.

Join Us in Reducing Preventable Readmissions
For more information, visit: http://www.h2hquality.org/, or email hospital2home@acc.org. H2H officially launches Oct. 22 with a Webinar explaining the initiative in greater detail. To join the Webinar, please register in advance online. If you are unable to attend on Oct. 22, you will be able to access the Webinar archive through our Web site.

We want to again show the nation that the cardiovascular community knows how to get results for our patients. We hope you’ll join us for this exciting initiative.

* Dr. Krumholz's post is part of a monthly series of guest posts by ACC leadership. Check back next month to see which ACC leader is sharing his or her thoughts on health care reform!