Caregiver Involvement Leads to Fewer Readmissions

May 10th, 2017

Many elderly patients have someone who will take them home and care for them after a hospital stay, and a Pitt study—led by Juleen Rodakowski, OTD, MS, assistant professor of occupational therapy, Pitt School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences—has found that when those caregivers are involved in the discharge planning process, the rate at which the patients are readmitted to the hospital goes down. The discharge planning process can include interventions like connecting patients and caregivers to community resources, providing written care plans and medication information, and making sure caregivers fully understand the information and instructions they have been given. 

“While integrating informal caregivers into the patient discharge process may require additional efforts to identify and educate a patient’s family member, it is likely to pay dividends through improved patient outcomes and helping providers avoid economic penalties for patient readmissions,” said A. Everette James, JD, MBA, M. Allen Pond Professor of Health Policy and Management, professor of health policy and management, Pitt Public Health; director, Health Policy Institute at Pitt; and associate vice chancellor for health policy and planning, Pitt’s Schools of the Health Sciences.

Read more about other research studies being conducted by Dr. Rodakowski here.