Reducing Hospital Readmissions: Lessons from Top-Performing Hospitals

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S. Silow-Carroll, J. N. Edwards, and A. Lashbrook, Reducing Hospital Readmissions: Lessons from Top-Performing Hospitals, The Commonwealth Fund, April 2011.

Significant variability in 30-day readmission rates across U.S. hospitals suggests that some are more successful than others at providing safe, high-quality inpatient care and promoting smooth transitions to follow-up care. 

This report offers a synthesis of findings from four case studies of hospitals with exceptionally low readmission rates—McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden, Utah; Memorial Hermann Memorial City Medical Center in Houston, Texas; Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; and St. John's Regional Health Center in Springfield, Missouri. 

Hospitals' environments contribute to their capacity to reduce readmissions. The four hospitals studied are influenced by the policy environment, their local health care markets, their membership in integrated systems that offer a continuum of care, and the priorities set by their leaders.