Reducing Readmissions Through Follow-Up Appointment-Josee Gill

Josee Gill - Reducing Readmissions Slide Deck

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This presentation, “Reducing Readmissions Through Follow-up Appointments” by Josee Gill (Bellin Health), explains why preventing hospital readmissions is a major quality and financial priority and highlights a practical improvement approach to address it. Readmissions affect an estimated 3.3 million adults, are associated with about a 10% increase in mortality, and cost the U.S. healthcare system roughly $41.3 billion. They also negatively impact CMS Star Ratings and can lead to revenue loss through penalties and reduced reimbursements.

A central message is that ensuring patients have a primary care provider (PCP) follow-up appointment scheduled <em>before discharge</em> is strongly protective against 30-day readmissions. The speaker cites studies indicating that patients who leave the hospital with a follow-up appointment already arranged experience lower 30-day readmission rates.

The session’s learning objectives focus on applying Rapid Process Improvement (RPI) and Lean Six Sigma-style tools to implement and sustain this change. Participants are guided to: create a Rapid Process Improvement Charter; use a standardized method to identify barriers through a Cause-and-Effect Matrix; validate improvements using standardized test measures; share data transparently across teams and units; and recognize successes (“celebrate the wins”). Process mapping is supported with SIPOC (Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, Customers) documentation, and prioritization is reinforced with Pareto charting to target the highest-impact causes.

The presentation concludes with an emphasis on sustaining gains through a control plan and a call to action encouraging healthcare quality professionals to use structured improvement tools to reliably embed discharge follow-up scheduling into routine practice.

Keywords

hospital readmissions

30-day readmission reduction

follow-up appointment scheduling

discharge planning process

primary care provider (PCP) follow-up

Rapid Process Improvement (RPI)

Lean Six Sigma healthcare

CMS Star Ratings impact

SIPOC process mapping

Pareto analysis and cause-and-effect matrix