Health Affairs Explores the Quality Chasm

A new edition of Health Affairs was published yesterday, entitled "Still Crossing the Quality Chasm."  This edition explores the question of quality as raised in the 2001 Institute of Medicine report, Crossing the Quality Chasm, and explores how far we have come since its publication... while also anticipating the road ahead.

For the next week, we will highlight pieces from this edition on our blog.  Please share your comments with us as related to the Quality Chasm.

First up: "The Importance of Transitional Care in Achieving Health Reform," authored by INQRI program director Mary Naylor and her colleagues Linda Aiken, Ellen Kurtzman, Danielle Olds and Karen Hirschman. 

Currently, one in five elderly patients discharged from a hospital is readmitted within a month. Seeking to address the human and substantial financial burden of revolving door hospital readmissions, the Affordable Care Act proposes a number of initiatives to improve care and health outcomes and reduce costs for the growing population of chronically ill people in the U.S. While transitional care is a central theme in these provisions, there is little information available to guide those responsible for implementing these important opportunities.

To bridge the gap, Naylor and her team reviewed existing programs in order to determine what works, for whom and for how long. They discovered “a robust body of evidence” that transitional care can improve health outcomes and reduce hospital readmissions. This paper highlights a range of solutions to reduce avoidable hospitalizations and health care costs.

Click here to read more.