A state-wide effort among South Carolina hospitals has reduced readmissions in that state.

With most of the state’s hospitals participating, the Preventing Avoidable Readmissions Together program (PART) used multi-disciplinary rounds, post-discharge phone calls, teach-back, better discharge summaries, and timely follow-up appointments to reduce readmissions rates more than ten percent among patients with acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, and chronic pulmonary disease.

Private safety-net hospitals have found the financial penalties posed by Medicare’s hospital readmissions reduction program to be especially challenging.

How did they do it? A recent article in the journal Population Health Management explains. Find it here.