News Releases

HQN Heart Failure Readmission Rates in Northeast Ohio Better than State and National Averages

Thirty-day hospital readmission rates for heart failure patients are better in Northeast Ohio than they are in the U.S. and Ohio among the ten hospitals, all members of Better Health Greater Cleveland, participating in the Hospital Quality Network (HQN), a nationwide project that falls under the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Aligning Forces for Quality Initiative to measurably improve healthcare in local markets. Final results of the initiative, which ended this May, reveal that Northeast Ohio hospitals beat national and state average rates for 30-day heart failure readmissions, outperformed 67 hospitals on ideal measures of heart failure care and standardized collection of race, ethnicity, and preferred language to ensure equitable care for all patients. The hospitals were among 100 nationwide that participated in a virtual network to develop, share and implement quality improvement tools, strategies and best practices.

The Northeast Ohio hospitals that participated in the 18-month program are MetroHealth Medical Center, St. Vincent Charity Medical Center and eight Cleveland Clinic Hospitals — Euclid, Fairview, Hillcrest, Lakewood, Lutheran, Marymount, Medina and South Pointe.

Over the past few years, The Center for Health Affairs has participated in Better Health Greater Cleveland through coordination of the Transitions of Care Collaborative, an initiative under the Better Health umbrella aimed at helping hospitals reduce readmissions  Better Health Greater Cleveland and the Transitions of Care Collaborative have explored ways to continue the momentum of HQN by improving care transitions and reducing re-hospitalizations and building a community based program for care across settings.  Participants of Better Health Greater Cleveland expressed an interest in continuing their work to reduce re-hospitalizations following several events that brought national leaders to Cleveland to present community-based models that had demonstrated measurable gains in improved care transitions.

The Transitions of Care Committee’s plan is to work with high-performing hospitals and other community agencies to gather and share innovations, strategies and challenges with other area hospitals to help reduce readmissions and help hospitals prepare for the readmissions-related payment reductions by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that will begin in federal fiscal year 2013.

For more information, please contact Lisa Anderson at 216.255.3660 or lisa.anderson@chanet.org or Linda Neiding at 216.255.3666 or linda.neiding@chanet.org.