The Effect of Teach-Back on Readmission Rates in Rehabilitation Patients

Thirty-day readmissions often occur in rehabilitation patients and can happen for many reasons. One of those reasons is when patients do not fully understand how to effectively manage their health after discharge. The purpose of this evidence-based quality improvement project was to determine if implementing the teach-back intervention from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ) Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit would impact 30-day readmission rates among adult rehabilitation patients.

Data were collected from the electronic health record of rehabilitation patients. The comparative group included all rehabilitation admissions for 8 weeks prior to the intervention. The implementation group was composed of the rehabilitation admissions for 8 weeks post-implementation. All patients were then followed for 30 days postdischarge to capture readmissions.

The total sample size was 79 ( n = 43 in the comparative group, n = 36 in the implementation group). There was a 45% decrease in the mean percentage of the 30-day readmission rate in the implementation group as compared with the comparative group.

Based on the results, using the teach-back intervention from AHRQ's Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit may impact 30-day readmission rates.