Discussion While reducing readmissions will remain ongoing issues throughout the United States due to Medicare penalties, this literature review does not demonstrate one specific action that will help solve this problem. Kirkham et al. and Anderegg et al. both show evidence that engaging pharmacy into the practice model does demonstrate a positive correlation in helping decrease the rate of 30-day readmissions. Nursing staff is responsible to provide as much education and knowledge to help reduce readmissions. Providing follow up phone calls has mixed reviews as to benefits, but it is found that the closer to the discharge, the greater the benefit for the patient.
Cost implementations are high for administration to keep 30-day readmission …show more content…
It is felt that possibly a larger study should be done to include more than 6 to get a clearer understanding of the processes that may be absent during this review. Further limitations are that many of the studies did state that re-admissions could not be verified if they occurred at a different facility. It is difficult to account for an admission that may occur in a neighboring community or hospital. While the provision set forth by Medicare does not limit readmissions to only the primary hospital but includes all hospitalizations within 30 days of discharge, it is imperative to include all readmissions into the study. As these studies have shown, this proves to be a difficult component in the findings. The writer recommends that further studies should revolve around implementation of multidisciplinary teams (including pharmacy) to work together to reduce readmission rates. Placing a program together to work on all aspects; pharmacological, telephone call backs, education, nursing, follow up appointments, etc., to group together a transitional program for patients, particularly those 65 years and older. Therefore, since the ACE program does incorporate many of these fields, the writer recommends further research with the concepts of this
Cost implementations are high for administration to keep 30-day readmission …show more content…
It is felt that possibly a larger study should be done to include more than 6 to get a clearer understanding of the processes that may be absent during this review. Further limitations are that many of the studies did state that re-admissions could not be verified if they occurred at a different facility. It is difficult to account for an admission that may occur in a neighboring community or hospital. While the provision set forth by Medicare does not limit readmissions to only the primary hospital but includes all hospitalizations within 30 days of discharge, it is imperative to include all readmissions into the study. As these studies have shown, this proves to be a difficult component in the findings. The writer recommends that further studies should revolve around implementation of multidisciplinary teams (including pharmacy) to work together to reduce readmission rates. Placing a program together to work on all aspects; pharmacological, telephone call backs, education, nursing, follow up appointments, etc., to group together a transitional program for patients, particularly those 65 years and older. Therefore, since the ACE program does incorporate many of these fields, the writer recommends further research with the concepts of this