Hospitals have a large financial incentive to ensure care plans are followed, as readmissionpenalties can cost millions of dollars. These large institutions often deploy multiple teamsjust to make outbound calls to discharged patients to ensure that their care plans areunderstood.
Rehabilitation centers and home health agencies face a similar challenge to hospitals. Whileno penalties are currently assessed, centers and agencies have a two-fold incentive toensure care plans are followed:
- Discharged patients who remain healthy are more likely to have a positive opinion about the care they received while in rehabilitation and thus more likely to recommend your services to others.
- Rehabilitation service providers who are able to show a lower readmission rate to hospitals are more likely to gain additional referrals from the hospitals. Follow up calls and visits – while important – can be costly.
Given the reimbursementpressure rehab centers and home health agencies are experiencing, these additional costsmay be difficult to absorb in the short term.There is an alternative that many innovative healthcare providers are choosing.
Automatedtelephone, text and email reminders that encourage their discharged patients to follow theircare plans are gaining traction in the marketplace as a low-cost alternative to complementcalls and visits by nurses. These automated communications increase patient engagementand provide timely information.
At VoiceFriend, we endorse this approach and can help develop program specific orindividual communications for discharged patients. Additionally, VoiceFriend offers effective,low-cost solutions, such as:
- An On Demand Service which enables patients to call in at any time to hear their care plans.
- The VoiceFriend Companion device which can be placed at the home of a discharged patient and speaks care plan reminders at the push of a button.
Reducing hospital readmissions is a critically important opportunity for rehabilitationproviders to increase their importance to their hospital partners and improve patientreferrals. Automated care plan reminders are a powerful tool to reduce readmissions andimprove patient satisfaction.
