News Releases

$1.3 Million RWJF Grant to Support Northeast Ohio Work to Reduce Readmissions

On May 1, Better Health Greater Cleveland was selected by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for a third round of funding to support Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q), a national initiative that has engaged 17 communities, including Cleveland, to improve the quality and value of healthcare. Under the new grant, The Center for Health Affairs will continue its work with Better Health related to hospital readmissions.

In this third phase of AF4Q, Better Health Greater Cleveland will utilize the $1.3 million grant to continue its current work and lead new efforts that focus on patient-centered care. In addition, Better Health will work collaboratively and leverage the involvement of all 11 Northeast Ohio hospital partners in AF4Q's Hospital Quality Network, which focuses on rehospitalization for heart failure, to improve hospital-to-home transitions and establish care coordination as patients move from the hospital back to the community. The goal is to reduce heart failure readmissions by 20 percent and diabetes and hypertension readmissions by 10 percent by 2013.

The Center for Health Affairs has participated in Better Health Greater Cleveland through oversight and coordination of the Transitions of Care Collaborative, an initiative under the Better Health umbrella aimed at reducing hospital readmissions. Through this next phase of the grant, The Center will receive $107,000 to work with participating Hospital Quality Network hospitals seeking to reduce readmissions for heart failure and, later, diabetes and hypertension.

According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), payment reductions of 1 percent begin in fiscal year (FY) 2013 and increase gradually until FY2017 when they reach 2 percent, for hospitals that have the highest rates of 30-day readmissions for certain conditions, like congestive heart failure.

For additional information on the initiatives above, please contact us.