3 Keys to Success for all Readmissions Programs

When was the last time you ever heard of a doctor who was avoidably readmitted to the hospital?

That’s right – a doctor:

who himself was a patient in a hospital (doctors get sick too, you know),
who was discharged from the hospital,
and then who developed a problem that lingered unsolved and that led to him to being avoidably and unnecessarily readmitted back to the hospital within 30 days?

C’mon…name one doctor who fits this description, just one! About 2 million Medicare patients are readmitted to the hospital each year, so surely at least one doctor must be among them, right?

As I reflect back on my 25 years of medical practice, both as a hospital-based and a community-based doctor in multiple regions of the United States, having admitted and discharged literally thousands of patients over my career, I honestly cannot think of one single doctor who fits this description.

Although I can recall many many many other patients who fit, I do not recall one…single…doctor…

Why is this? Why do readmissions happen to ‘other people’ but not to doctors?

As a doctor myself, I can tell you why. And I can tell you with 99.9999% certainty. It’s really not that complicated.

The reason why doctors are never (well, probably almost never) readmitted to the hospital is because they automatically employ 3 fundamental principles that make readmissions almost unheard of. Those principles are:

3 Keys to Success

Doctors are closely connected with their own doctor.
- The connection between doctors and their colleagues in times of sickness are close and unshakable and most importantly – immediate.
Doctors have direct and efficient communication with their colleagues.
- The guidance a doctor requires to successfully navigate through his recovery is provided by timely and skillful communication with his healthcare colleagues. This ensures timely access to the support services he needs.
Doctors and their caregivers are vigilant to any changes in health condition.
- Problems are identified early and solved BEFORE they ever have the chance to wreak havoc. And so readmissions for doctors rarely happen.

If you don’t believe that these are the keys to success, if you believe that it must surely be more complicated than these rather simple and intuitive steps, then I’ll ask you again: “When was the last time you ever heard of a doctor who was avoidably readmitted to the hospital?”

And these principles extend to patients who are not doctors just as well. To further illustrate, I can’t tell you how many hospital admissions and readmissions were avoided in my medical practice because a patient or his spouse or another family member or a friend, called me and told me about a change of condition. I either addressed the problem directly by phone, or I asked the patient to come to my office. But problems were identified early, treatment was initiated early, and the issue was ‘nipped in the bud.’ No admission and therefore no readmission.

I’ve now taken these Keys to Success and adapted them to a new readmissions program specifically for assisted living. The name of the program is STRAIGHT LINE, and the 3 Keys are named as follows:

Connect
Communicate
Confine the Decline

The Keys, adapted specifically for assisted living, are described in 3 concise online videos with downloadable text. They instruct how to establish a straight, direct connection and communication between residents and their doctors as well as proactive and early identification of changes in condition.

The goal is to achieve the same readmission rate for assisted living residents that doctors experience for themselves – almost ZERO.

Visit STRAIGHT LINE to learn how to reduce readmissions in your community.

Dr. Steven Fuller

Dr. Steven Fuller is a triple board certified physician/entrepreneur who develops programs in support of an Integrated Care model of senior housing. This model includes 3 equal, interactive, and mutually supportive team members: real estate, hospitality, and healthcare. To reach Dr. Fuller, e-mail:

st**********@st*****************.com

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