Quality & Patient Safety

Washington DC-area hospital targets CHF patients as starting point for preventing readmissions

Patient Safety Monitor Alert, July 1, 2009

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Inova Mount Vernon Hospital in Alexandria, VA, has launched a program titled HeartLink to empower patients with congestive heart failure to better care for themselves once they have been discharged, reports The Washington Post. This program is one of many creative ways that hospitals around the country are trying to prevent rehospitalizations. What has now become a mission of major healthcare groups, such as the American Medical Association, American Hospital Association, and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, preventing hospital readmissions also would save the healthcare system a significant amount of money—Medicare pays out $12 to $15 billion each year for readmitted patients.

To read more about the issue, as well as Inova Mount Vernon Hospital's HeartLink program, click here.



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