Editors note: This article is co-authored by Rebecca Murray, Director of Quality & Risk Management at Spectrum Medical Group, Maine's largest multi-specialty, physician owned and directed professional organization.

Today, there is a tremendous emphasis on improving post discharge patient management to:

        1.  Prevent costs and risks associated with 
             unnecessary re-admissions. 
        2.  Ease hospital to home transitions. 
        3.  Improve the patient experience.

However, to ensure success, initiatives emerging from HCAHPS and readmission programs should include all stages of the patient care cycle, starting with the pre-admission process.

In an effort to reduce unnecessary hospital readmissions, and improve patient satisfaction rates, many hospitals have implemented post discharge calling programs to help identify patients who may be “at risk” both from a clinical and an experience perspective. 

These phone calls also serve as an immediate and critical source of feedback for hospitals regarding the patient’s experience with the hospital. Hospitals have an opportunity to react to negative patient feedback in a timely fashion, with the goal of “recovering” from the patient’s view of their hospital experience. 

However, it is important to remember that while the intent of post discharge calls is to find the gaps, it is not just about the “bad news”. Post discharge calls can also be a gold mine for positive patient feedback that can be used to help move your hospital culture forward. 

On March 27, 2012, while the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, John G. Roberts, was struggling with the difference between broccoli and health insurance at 1st street in Northwest Washington, D.C., four individuals who have made concrete improvements to the health of patients from all walks of life were being recognized by NCQA on G Street at the National Building Museum. 

SironaHealth was honored to attend the NCQA awards and participate in recognizing key leaders in our industry.

But the irony is obvious, absurd, and disturbing.

If you're in charge of building awareness and motivating patients to use relevant healthcare services, you're probably pretty focused on Internet and mobile tactics.

Or at the very least, you're thinking about how to use them to keep patients compliant with their care plans.

And you should be. Websites, blogs, landing pages, emails, social media, and mobile apps are an essential part of your communication toolkit. 

But should they completely replace your direct mail programs? The short answer is no.

Post-visit patient phone calls are key to successfully managing a patient's care after they leave the hospital. 

But what happens if a patient has a concern before the follow up call is made, or after?

The truth is, follow up calls are only a piece of the transitional care puzzle. What's also needed is a way for your patients to connect with a clinician if they have questions about their care plan or if they develop new symptoms.

In short, you need to incorporate your Nurse Advice Line into the post discharge care process.

Thanks to the Affordable Care Act and recent CMS pilot programs, healthcare is changing.

Quite a bit, actually.

Incentives have been placed on hospitals to move away from current fee-for-service and volume-based measures and adopt new care models that pay for quality care, not quantity.

To address this new reality, hospitals are realizing that the path to financial security lies in serving patients across the entire care continuum.

In short, hospitals are now coordinating patient care as they transition between healthcare practitioners and settings. To do this, many hospitals are looking to have registered nurses or other healthcare professionals connect with patients promptly after discharge via the telephone.

But before you start making calls, there are a few things to think through first.

The recent article, “The Savings Illusion — Why Clinical Quality Improvement Fails to Deliver Bottom-Line Results,” published December 14, 2011 in the New England Journal of Medicine, is a narrative at odds with itself, and in many ways, reality.

There are more cell phones in the world than toothbrushes. Do you believe that? Looking around my office I do, considering the fact that several of my colleagues have both personal and business phones on their desks at all times.

In the United States alone, over 250 million Americans have cell phones – 38% of which are used to access the Internet. 

As health organizations look to connect and communicate with their on-the-move, technologically integrated health populations, it has become apparent that with the popularity of mobile devices, the next step in your health outreach plan should revolve around some sort of health app.

At the current growth rate, high deductible insurance plans offered through employers will predominate within four years. This has broad implications, which are only beginning to be felt.

The first impact will be a significant reduction in employee health plan loss ratios. Initially, corporate health plan margins will improve significantly. However, federal caps on how the profits can be used will create a crisis for many commercial plans, which are not wired to make investments in member health.

Here's a quick roundup of recent articles that I thought were interesting, relevant to mHealth, and wanted to share! You're welcome in advance for providing you with a one-stop shop of three useful mHealth stories.