Best Practices, Strategies & Tools to Avoid Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Rehospitalizations

According to a 2022 JAMA Network study, 1 in 5 Medicare beneficiaries discharged from the hospital receive post-acute care in a skilled nursing facility (SNF) at a cost of more than $28 billion annually. Nearly one-quarter of those admitted to SNFs are readmitted to the hospital within 30 days. With CMS seeking to improve patient outcomes through the SNF Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) program which provides financial incentives or penalties based on the 30-day hospital readmission rates, it is crucial for post-acute providers to have low baseline rehospitalization rates and/or improvements over time.

The impact of rehospitalization is not only costly, but negatively impacts our resident’s quality of life.  In addition to transfer trauma, resident mortality rates double for those readmitted to acute care within 30 days and are four times more likely within 100 days of readmission.

During this presentation, we will discuss the impact of hospital readmissions on patient quality of care, quality measures, and reimbursement. We will highlight key strategies SNFs can implement to avoid sending patients back to the hospital and demonstrate how the use of live data analytics can support these efforts without adding extra administrative burden to care teams. Participants will learn best practices on how to utilize live data found within their EHR to risk stratify and clinically prioritize patients, as well as take a proactive approach to care through clinical alerts and interventions.

Learning Objectives

• Understand the impact of hospital readmissions on post-acute care
• Recognize best practices and strategies to reduce hospital readmissions
• Describe how live post-acute analytics can identify quality improvement activities and be incorporated into daily clinical operations to reduce hospital readmissions

Speaker

• Angela Huffman, RN, WCC, CHC, Clinical Program Specialist, Real Time Medical Systems

This session will be presented at the PADONA 36th Annual Conference.