In this article, we ask several important questions about care transitions and how they can lead to unnecessary hospital readmissions. They include (1) What makes care transition points so difficult and (2) Why are the “hand-offs” prone to issues? Several points of vulnerability and solutions are addressed.

If organizations need compelling reasons to invest in their nurses, they need look no further than the extensive research showing that developing nurses as leaders leads to improvements in employee satisfaction and increases the quality of care.

Hospitals with readmission rates that exceed the national average are penalized by a reduction in payments across all of their Medicare admissions—not just those which resulted in readmissions. CMS began imposing penalties in FY2013 when the maximum penalty was 1% of the hospital’s base inpatient claims.

A CIA requires significant attention, data collection, legal defense, negotiation, new systems, new policies, oversight, and enforcement, possibly for many years. Healthcare facilities of all types, including hospitals, pharmaceutical manufacturers, long-term care, physician groups, and more have all seen increases in CIAs. Yet, these organizations often struggle with what to do if a recipient of one.

On August 31st Health Economist Austin Frakt published an article in in the New York Times “TheUpshot” column suggesting “A New Way to Think About Conflicts of Interest in Medicine”.

The best chart is usually not the newest, most elaborate, or most colorful. In fact, it's often the opposite. You don’t order a medical test for a patient just because you can--don’t just use the sexiest chart available either. So, how do you determine which chart is right for your audience?