Health spas, stone fireplaces, and five-star restaurant chefs are amenities typically associated with luxury hotel brands such as The Ritz-Carlton and Four Seasons. They are increasingly found in U.S. hospitals eager to improve their patient-experience scores that now affect Medicare reimbursements. While investing in such material assets is easily done and provides immediate gratification, findings from our research using six years of data from nearly 3,000 acute-care hospitals suggest that it is the communication between caregivers and patients that has the largest impact on reducing readmissions. In fact, the results indicate that a hospital would, on average, reduce its readmission rate by 5% if it were to prioritize communication with the patients in addition to complying with evidence-based standards of care.
What Has the Biggest Impact on Hospital Readmission Rates
It’s communication with patients.
September 23, 2015
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Learn how to keep your customers—and their most important needs—front and center.