(September, 2024) Brattleboro Memorial Hospital (BMH) received an IPRO Quality Award at a presentation on the hospital’s campus that took place Tuesday, September 24th.
The award was presented by Laura Vanderhill, LSW, MHA, senior quality improvement specialist with Healthcentric Advisors in recognition of BMH’s ongoing efforts to reduce avoidable hospital readmissions of patients with heart failure (HF) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD).
IPRO is a not-for-profit healthcare quality improvement organization under contract with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Healthcentric Advisors is part of IPRO. IPRO works with state departments of health and the federal government to measure, monitor, and help improve the quality of care provided to Medicaid and Medicare enrollees across the various settings in which they access care.
BMH implemented a variety of approaches to achieve their goals. These included enhanced patient education, medication optimization, and the creation of resources to help patients overcome barriers to post-discharge follow-up care. BMH also collaborated with IPRO to develop a best-practice care transition resource guide.
These efforts resulted in a 23.3 percent reduction in hospital readmissions for patients with HF and a 30.1 percent reduction in hospital readmissions for patients with COPD.
“These wonderful results could not have been achieved without our strong partnership with IPRO and a commitment to interdisciplinary work that puts BMH’s inpatient providers, outpatient providers, nurses, pharmacy, nutrition staff, and hospital specialists on the same page,” said Michelle Wright, Quality Project Manager at BMH. “We will continue to learn from these experiences and expand these lessons to help patients living with other types of health conditions.”