Tackling 30-Day, All-Cause Readmissions with a Patient-Centered Transitional Care Bundle

In 2008, Kaiser Permanente Northwest identified the transition from hospital to home as a pivotal quality improvement opportunity and used multiple patient-centered data collection methods to identify unmet needs contributing to preventable readmissions. A transitional care bundle that crosses care settings and organizational functions was developed to meet needs expressed by patients. It comprises 5 elements: risk stratification, a specialized phone number for discharged patients, timely postdischarge follow-up, standardized patient discharge instructions and same-day discharge summaries, and pharmacist-supported medication reconciliation. The transitional care bundle has been in place for 6 years. Readmission rates decreased from 12.1% to 10.6%, Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems scores for the discharge instruction composite moved from below the 50(th) to above the 90(th) national percentile, average time to the first postdischarge appointment decreased from 9.7 days to 5.3 days, and error rates on the discharge medication list decreased from 57% to 21% (P<.0001 for all). The program, which continues to evolve to address sustainability challenges and organizational initiatives, suggests the potential of a multicomponent, patient-centered care bundle to address the complex, interrelated drivers of preventable readmissions.