An early look at a four-state initiative to reduce avoidable hospital readmissions

Launched in 2009, the State Action on Avoidable Rehospitalizations initiative, known as STAAR, aims to reduce rates of avoidable rehospitalization in Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, and Washington by mobilizing state-level leadership to improve care transitions. With the program two years into its four-year cycle, 148 hospitals are working in partnership with more than 500 cross-continuum team partners. Although there are no publicly available data on whether the project is achieving its primary goal of reducing avoidable rehospitalizations, the effort has so far been successful in aligning numerous complementary initiatives within a state, developing statewide rehospitalization data reports, and mobilizing a sizable number of hospitals to work on reducing rehospitalizations. More than 90 percent of participating hospitals have formed teams to routinely review rehospitalizations with their community-based colleagues.