Minnesota
What is the value of a good night’s sleep in your own bed? Hospital readmissions are costly for the health care system and stressful for patients and their families. Currently, nearly one in five Medicare patients discharged from hospitals in Minnesota wind up being readmitted within 30 days. The worst part? Many readmissions are avoidable. A coalition in Minnesota is aiming to help patients spend more nights out of the hospital and avoid potentially preventable readmissions.
The RARE (Reducing Avoidable Readmissions Effectively) Campaign was launched in 2011 to address the...
In Jan 2013 there was a report in the NEJM about aspirin prophylaxis in ischemic vascular disease to prevent heart attacks and strokes.(1) The data came from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey and National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey of the CDC. Patients seeing cardiologists were prescribed aspirin 46.9% of the time. Patients seeing primary care were prescribed aspirin 34.8% of the time.
Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement (ICSI), a Minnesota nonprofit organization comprised of 61 medical practices, strives to embed the patient’s voice and perspective across the continuum of quality improvement in Minnesota. A patient engagement program focuses on palliative care to help patients with life-limiting diseases receive the care they want. ICSI identified a gap in communication between providers and consumers about palliative care and has developed a framework to encourage these vital, but often uncomfortable, conversations among providers, patients, and...
MN Community Measurement leads the AF4Q initiative in Minnesota, guided by a broad stakeholder group forming the AF4Q Leadership Team. Organizations represented on the Leadership Team include: the American Cancer Society, Buyers Health Care Action Group, Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement, Minnesota AARP, Minnesota Department of Human Services, Minnesota Hospital Association, Minnesota Medical Association, Stratis Health, plus health plans, consumers, and physician and nursing leadership.
