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Michigan Chosen for National Pilot Project to Reduce Avoidable Rehospitalizations

From: Michigan Health & Hospital's Monday Report

June 11, 2009 - The MHA Keystone Center for Patient Safety & Quality and MPRO, Michigan's quality improvement organization, officially announced the State Action on Avoidable Rehospitalizations (STAAR) initiative, which will seek to reduce 30-day rehospitalization rates by 30 percent and increase patient and family satisfaction with transitions and coordination of care.

Fifteen Michigan hospitals will initially be selected to participate in the initiative and improve patient care transitions through interventions that include enhanced patient communication and timely follow-up after hospital discharge. This effort will target unplanned, related rehospitalizations - which are rehospitalizations that are not expected/scheduled, but whose reason is clinically related to the initial admission.

To ensure success across the health care continuum, a voluntary steering committee has been convened, including Aging Services of Michigan, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, the Health Care Association of Michigan, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Medicaid Program Operations and Quality Assurance, the Michigan Association of Health Plans, the Michigan Critical Access Hospital Quality Network, the Michigan Department of Community Health, the Michigan Home Health Association, the Michigan Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, the Michigan Osteopathic Association, the Michigan State Medical Society and the University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor.

MHA-member hospitals are invited to apply for participation and are encouraged to do so by the June 19 deadline.

Massachusetts and Washington join Michigan as the states selected for the pilot program. To foster peer-to-peer learning, the STAAR initiative also will exchange best-practice information with Care Transitions, a pilot project in 14 regions across the nation (including Lansing) to reduce preventable hospital readmissions through improved care coordination. Ultimately, the goal is to apply what is learned from these two pilot programs to statewide and regional efforts.

Members with questions should contact Sam Watson (swatson@mha.org) or Morgan Martin (mmartin@mha.org) at the MHA.

For more information from the MHA, click here.