The Impact of Community-Based Palliative Care on Hospital Readmissions

Balaban, R. B., Galbraith, A. A., Burns, M. E., Vialle-Valentin, C. E., Larochelle, M. R., & Ross-Degnan, D. (2015). A patient navigator intervention to reduce hospital readmissions among high-risk safety-net patients: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of general internal medicine, 30(7), 907-915.

In this article, the authors effectively explore how community-based health care minimize the rate of hospital admissions. The purpose of the article is to determine whether an intervention by hospital-based community health workers reduce readmissions among the high danger, low socioeconomic status patients. The study is done in different centers including ten community health centers. The article related closely with other works about the manner through which readmissions have been eliminated through improved community-based care. The authors’ standpoint is that older and younger patient receiving community-based healthcare experience minimal rates of readmission. The audience to this article is the publicly insured populations. The article concludes that interventions using community-based health workers reduce hindrances to post-discharge care among patients.

Desai, N. R., Ross, J. S., Kwon, J. Y., Herrin, J., Dharmarajan, K., Bernheim, S. M., ... & Horwitz, L. I. (2016). Association between hospital penalty status under the hospital readmission reduction program and readmission rates for target and nontarget conditions. Jama, 316(24), 2647-2656.

The study by Desai et al., (2016) qualifies in answering the PICOT question. The core purpose of the article is that readmission rates reduced after the establishment of the hospital readmission reduction program (HRRP), where hospitals begin the provision of community-based health care. The article’s content relates with other works concerning the strategies implemented in the effort to reduce readmission rates. The author’s stance is that the provision of community-based health care at those hospitals that are subject to penalties under the HRRP aid in the reduction of admission rates. Hospitals are the target audience in this article. It is clear that hospitals offering community-based healthcare realize a low rate of patient readmissions. The authors conclude that reductions in readmission rates can be experienced once the medical fee-for-service patients are offered community-based care.

Donnelly, J. P., Hohmann, S. F., & Wang, H. E. (2015). Unplanned readmissions after hospitalization for severe sepsis at academic medical center-affiliated hospitals. Critical care medicine, 43(9), 1916.

In their article, Donnelly, Hohmann, and Wang, (2015) qualify in exploring the issue of how community-based hospitals experience minimal readmissions. The article’s purpose is to implement strategies that would reduce the readmission of sepsis patients. The study differs from the prior studies given that it focuses on examining highly diverse patient populations, many large hospitals and patients from many health insurance coverage kinds. However, the author’s position is that sepsis patients treated from community-based hospitals were rarely readmitted. The audience to this article is physicians and hospitals taking care of sepsis patients. To prevent readmissions of sepsis patients, it is necessary to offer them community-based care. The authors conclude that those patients hospitalized with severe sepsis were readmitted with a month because of the performance of institutions, but this would not be the case to patients offered care in community-based hospitals.

Seow, H., Brazil, K., Sussman, J., Pereira, J., Marshall, D., Austin, P. C., ... & Barbera, L. (2014). Impact of community-based, specialist palliative care teams on hospitalisations and emergency department visits late in life and hospital deaths: a pooled analysis. BMJ, 348, g3496.

The authors of the article effectively identify that community-based specialist palliative care help in reducing readmission of patients. The article aims at determining the impact of exposure to a specialist palliative care team member offering services to patients from their homes. The study relates with other works in that it identifies the effect of palliative care to home-based patients and how it reduces their admission. The authors’ viewpoint is that through the care offered by palliative care physicians, it reduces patient admissions in hospitals. The article addresses patients and community-based specialist palliative care teams. Patients receiving homecare services are at low risk of dying in hospitals. The authors conclude that community-based palliative care teams are effective in eliminating admission.

Vest, J. R., Kern, L. M., Silver, M. D., Kaushal, R., & HITEC investigators. (2014). The potential for community-based health information exchange systems to reduce hospital readmissions. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 22(2), 435-442.

The authors identify that it is possible for community-based health information exchange systems to minimize hospital readmissions. The article purposes at determining the relationship between health information exchange (HIE) system use and hospital readmission of patients. The findings relate with other works given that community-based care systems aid in reducing readmission of patients. The authors’ position is that community-based HIE system should be implemented to reduce readmission to hospitals. The article’s audience is health care organizations in Western New York State. The authors conclude that use of the HIE system in community-based care helps in reducing readmission in hospitals.