RT Book, Section A1 Ballard, David J. A1 da Graca, Briget A1 Nicewander, David A2 Greenberg, Raymond S. SR Print(0) ID 1108591056 T1 Variations in Care T2 Medical Epidemiology: Population Health and Effective Health Care, 5e YR 2014 FD 2014 PB McGraw-Hill Education PP New York, NY SN 978-0-07-182272-5 LK accessbiomedicalscience.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1108591056 RD 2024/03/28 AB Hospital A from the Health Scenario described in Chapter 15 is pleased with the progress it has made in improving performance on the publicly reported Heart Failure Core Measures but is concerned that the improved delivery of these processes of care does not seem to be reducing the 30-day readmission rate for heart failure patients. Hospital A is concerned about the high readmission rate because it suggests there is substantial room for further improvement in the care provided to heart failure patients and because currently the hospital is paying a penalty under the Medicare Readmissions Reduction Program. To learn more about heart failure readmissions and identify effective strategies to reduce them, Hospital A’s clinical and quality leaders turn to the published research literature. They learn that there is substantial variation in risk-adjusted heart failure readmission rates among hospitals across the United States, which suggests that the hospitals with higher rates can likely achieve performances closer to those demonstrated by the hospitals with lower rates if they can identify the ways in which their practices, communities, and patient populations differ, enabling revision of the former and appropriate risk adjustment for the latter.